Larry Perera Cycling Diary
Fiordifrutta Cycling Team

Stage 2 on paper didnt look all that bad. there were no categorized climbs, and since it was the longest stage of the day i thought we might ride around piano for a while. basically i was dead wrong. not only did this turn out to be the hardest stage (for me at least) the race started from km zero with Ciaran Power lighting it up. I fealt awesome in the beginning and went with a bunch of moves....in fact i fealt so good that i went with almost every move. the roads were pretty narrow, and there were some strong crosswinds for sure. although it rained at the very beginning i actually remember some blue sky somewhere along the way. at about the 75 km mark the hammer went down and it was in the gutter for the better part of an hour. the craziest thing was that the wind was coming from the left and we were all the way to the right weaving in and out of stopped traffic. no room for error....especially when everones totally pegged

So the race was on and more people were cracking than i could beleive. the field/front group would totally shred to like 25 riders and then we would all sit up. fortunately i didnt dare attack cause i knew there was still like 60 miles to race. I went back to the car several times to get bottles, and say hello to bill making sure that he was having fun in the team car. svatek flatted when it was all strung out and when i realized i put on the brakes and waited...the only problem with waiting for svatek when he flats is that when he gets going hes flying but i made sure that he got back on.

With about 55 km to go a group of around 20 riders went clear with svatek and adam. i looked at it....but realized that i should try and get a free ride across. i found an eager british rider, and got towed for about 5 km, till we were joined by an aussie, a kasakh, and 2 irish guys. we eventually got across....when i found my teammates (matt and adam) they were having some kind of heated debate...its always amusing seeing your own team bickering on the road. A few minutes later josh beck came across and things were looking pretty good, we had 4 riders in the front group. Josh and matt got up the road and managed to put in an epic ride through some of the most tenacious headwinds/hail/rain/sleet/crosswinds i have seen. in the second group adam and i tried to make the most of our situation....whatever that was. i cracked hard.....bonked and rode about 15 of the last 17 km alone.....falling asleep....peeing in my shorts(thinking it might warm me up) ..... wondering what i had managed to do to myself. i actually blame this horrible 15 km death march on adam for sprinting by my frozen cracked body when i opened up a gap......(adam i wont forget that you bugger!) but he was cracked too so i guess it was everone for themselves. i got caught by a group of at least 50 riders with 4 km to....they kindly offered my a free ride to the finish....if it had been another km longer they probably would have dropped me.

Matt and Josh were in the top 6 GC by the end of the day....mad props to those 2 for that!!!!!! Josh supposedly put in a last ditch attack with 2km to go and almost pulled off the win.....!