Perols could have waited for the support crew to turn up to put her back on the straight and narrow or just flagged a ride and called it quits.
She didn't. She simply reached for her repair kit, climbed back into the saddle and chased the other legs furiously pumping away into the horizon.
"I wasn't sure I was going to be able to function as well as I did after such a risky surgery."
Surgeons had warned her of the risks of losing certain mobility skills.
Cognitively she was in a comfort zone.
"It worked out fine. I was extremely happy to wake up to find everything was moving properly and I was fine to cycle again."
A sports dietician who now specialises in educating diabetics at the Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings, Perols competed in the nationals last year, albeit undercooked.
The Ramblers Cycling Club member, whose partner Carl Paton is also competing, clinched a silver medal in the veteran 4 (50-65 age group) women's time-trial to emulate her feat the previous year.
Suffice it to say, her outlook on life had changed considerably. For starters, she thought through her priorities as a skittery existence gave way to quality of life.
"I'm trying to spend more time with other people who have become more important," says the woman who doesn't have children and lives with her mother, Kerstin Perols.
Cycling has been an integral part of the life of Perols who was born in Bollnas, 400km north of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
In 1989, at 28, she emigrated to New Zealand, settling in New Plymouth for six years before moving across to Hamilton where she lived for 13 years.
She gravitated to the Bay three years ago when Paton got a lecturing stint at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Taradale.
In her country of birth, Perols was sold on orienteering from her school days and it was something she persevered with until her hip started playing up recently.
She is scheduled to have a hip replacement in July.
A car had hit her while she was cycling in New Plymouth in 1994, pushing her hip out of alignment.
"It's not too bad cycling but it's a bit hard to sit bent over to be aerodynamic because it interferes with my hip flexibility."
Her inability to run prompted her to find traction with multisport where she relished cycling, kayaking and short-distance runs.
After the time trials today she will compete in the road races from tomorrow through to Sunday.
She wants to do well, nurturing a competitive edge since joining the Ramblers.
"I'm trying not to put pressure on myself. I just want to take things as they come," she says, when asked if she harbours a burning desire to add a golden glow to her silver lining.
It seems belonging to a club of motivated and inspirational fellow cyclists is a sense of accomplishment in itself.
"Ramblers are a great club. They are welcoming and support people regardless of their age."