The planned debut of Larry Warbasse for the Aqua Blue Sport was dealt an unfriendly card when stones blocking his salivary glands forced him to rush off to the hospital where they were removed.
He quickly recovered from the surgery in time to join up for the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. However, since he made his Australian campaign debut, he has been on the back foot.
Warbasse still remains in recovery mode and placed on antibiotics as well. This has not prevented him from joining his team in his second race with them so far at the Herald Sun Tour.
The 26-year old and his team are already plotting a final day all-out assault on the Kinglake roads having animated every break of the race so far.
Speaking to CyclingNews, Warbasse said:
“I was really hoping to be good for these races and put a lot of time and effort into the preparation and everything. Unfortunately with that whole thing, I haven’t been at 100 per cent so that is too bad but that is life I guess”
He notes that on the new team, everyone has been riding really well and doing amazingly fine as well. He hopes to get some results for the team as soon as possible.
The former BMC and IAM Cycling rider, who sits at 25th overall, will need about two minutes so as to be able to move up the standings on the final stage around Kinglake.
The stage will surely be an aggressive one especially as the top 12 overall are separated by less than 90 seconds and with Warbasse equally aiming to become one of the animators.
Once done with his Australian campaign, he would visit his home in Nice briefly before heading out to the Persian Gulf in readiness for the Tour of Oman.