Larry Perera Cycling Diary
Fiordifrutta Cycling Team

Ok so anyway….we woke up around 7:30 (the first stage started from the hotel at 11:00 am.) I stoked the hot-pot and brewed the first french press of the day. Its amazing how quickly “friends” can come out of the wood work when you have a steaming pot of starbucks in your hands. I actually have this theory that you can read a lot into someone’s personality in how they react to me and my trusty coffee press. Caffeine brings the both the best and the worst out of people, the latter especially when they really want my dwindling supply of coffee.

So we breakfasted….brewed another press and made up bottles in preparation for the days 165 km stage. Our race plan was to pretty much light it up, and make sure that there was one of us in every move and go from there. I was one of the first sportbook.com riders ready and went down to check out the bikes, apply the necessary cremes to my legs……and get to know the team staff a bit better. The weather was looking good for the time being so I opted for just a jersey and shorts, my brand new nalini gloves and shoe covers.

We had a long neutral roll out of about 15 km through the streets of Dublin. By the end of the roll out the temperature had shed about 10 degrees, the wind was blowing and it was raining buckets. (on a side note I brought my new and improved powertap hub to collect some great race data – so I was not stoked about the rain …. In my mind it was only a matter of time b4 the power meter was screwed.) The racing went pretty much as soon as the flag dropped. We all pretty much threw down….it was actually pretty impressive. Although looking back on it we would have greatly benefited from just following wheels and doing as little as possible.

The first climb of the day was a joke. It was super narrow and the guys at the front set up the “wall” so we rode like 10 km/h up it. I was chomping at the bit to go for the KOM, or help svatek….but the only way to move up would have been to get a piggy back ride on one the sheep along the road.

With 35 km to go, adam myerson had collected enough time bonuses in the hot spot sprints to put him in the yellow jersey. I heard this over our radios while I was dangling off the front of the field burning up matches which were quickly running out. As I came back to the field, I noticed that I was putting out 1800 watts…hmmm….so I sat amidst the field trying to zero out the powermeter – drifting backward fast – for those of you who don’t know you have to stop pedaling to do this. Anyway with the power tap re-calibrated and me at the rear of the peleton it was time to get back to the front and chase with 2 other teammates to bring back the newly formed breakaway that was threatening adam’s shot at the leaders jersey.

I have to admit that we tried pretty hard but we couldn’t bring them back. 3 of us who had ridden like bandits for 130 km were outmatched by 4 euros who probably laughed at us “yanks” for animating the race before it had “really” started.

We gave up chase with 12 km to and the Bianchi team took over. Adam did well to fend for himself and get a top 10 while the rest of us rolled in with the remnants of the field which was about half its original size about 40 seconds behind the break.

I cant say that the weather was that much of a factor in the days results…..but I think it gave us a feel for what could be in store for the rest of the race