Photo: © Casey Gibson

Time for a change: The Kimberly Bruckner Journal 2003

Last year the 2001 US Road Champion Kimberly Bruckner left the number one ranked women's team in the US after two years with Saturn and joined the growing force that is Team T-Mobile. With her sights firmly set on the Worlds in Hamilton and the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, Kimberly's diary is sure to provide compelling reading.

• Index to all entries

Sea Otter Classic

Stage 1 - April 9: Circuit Race, Redwood City

Today's stage actually turned out to be a lot more fun that I had originally anticipated. Our T-Mobile team had heard that the 10-mile race circuit was tougher than the Sunset Loop, the final stage of Redlands. I was afraid that Genevieve Jeanson (Rona) would attack up the first climb, split the field behind her, and solo to another win. She still won, but she did it in a very different way.

There was a bit of unrest at the start of the Redwood City stage among the riders due to safety concerns. The circuit was on busy residential roads with numerous un-patrolled driveways, and with a steep curvy climb and descent, the women were a little worried. But at the start of the race, the announcer promised that they had plenty of police and volunteers out on the course in order to keep it safe for everyone. So off we went on our four-lap race.

The Rona team did a great job of controlling the race and keeping the pace of the pack high to the base of the three mile climb. It's always a little nerve-wracking when you know how important it is to be at the front of the peloton as you hit the climb...and the climb starts only about two miles into the race. It's a race in itself just to the base of the climb! Especially with everyone anticipating Genevieve's leg-busting moves. But it was Ina Teutenberg from Saturn that set a great, yet reasonable, tempo all the way up the climb. The climb was steep and very twisty, the roads narrow, the houses all tucked away in the trees. The descent was the same way, fast and twisting and Rona once again went to the front to control the pace and make sure everything stayed safe. After the descent, we had a couple of kilometers of undulating city streets and then headed back towards the climb all over again. Since the descent was so long, a lot of women were able to catch back on and our field was still pretty large by the start of the second lap.

True to her nature, Genevieve went hard up the climb the second time, but Amber Neben (T-Mobile) and Lyne Bessette (Saturn) stayed with her without problem. Once Genevieve saw that she hadn't gone solo, she slowed down a bit and the rest of us scrambling to catch back on were able to. We arrived at the top of the climb with a solid group, including five T-Mobile girls. This was a good sign. I was starting to feel a bit more confident that our team could play a serious role in the outcome of this race. And the bigger our team numbers, the greater our chances.

I'll skip to the exciting parts... Third time up the climb, Lyne attacked up the steepest part but it played out the same way with Amber and Genevieve right on her and Sue Palmer-Komar (Genesis) and myself right on their heels. As soon as the pace slowed, Kristin Armstrong (T-Mobile) was coming up fast trying to catch back on and saw her opportunity to attack. She and Manon went flying by us and had a great gap. But soon Genevieve closed the gap, and so Kristin started leading us down the descent. With all the twisting and winding roads, her superior descending skills soon separated her from the rest of the field. And before we knew it, Kristin was out of sight.

Interestingly enough, Rona and Saturn didn't seem interested in giving chase... that worked in our favor! But then, for some unknown reason, a girl from the Red 5 Racing team went to the front and started chasing Kristin down the rest of the descent. I'm not sure why she felt it was her responsibility, but chase she did. Once we hit the bottom of the descent, Rona started sending off attacks trying to get one of their girls up the road as well. But between T-Mobile and Saturn, we weren't letting anybody else get away. The attacks did speed up the pace of the field, however, and midway up the climb the final time, we caught a tiring Kristin.

Once Genevieve saw her, she punched it again and we got to the top of the climb with a group of about 15 girls, still including five T-Mobile girls! But then, on the descent, there was a moment of indecision on whether we should go left or right at an intersection. I could hear Amber yelling behind me, "Go Right!" But no, I went left instead. And down we both went, our bikes entangled in each other. What a cluster that was. Amber's bars were stuck in my rear wheel and before I could blink, our mechanic, Duke, was out of our team follow car, pulling our bikes apart and pushing us on our way.

As we sped down the rest of the descent, I knew my rear wheel was completely out of true, but we only had about 10km left in the race, and the race for the finish was on! Our team of Kim, Dede, Kristin, Amber, and myself put in a great effort of launching attack after attack as best we could but we just couldn't slip away. Manon went to the front and pulled so strong into the finish, it was too difficult to even attack off her. A couple of turns into the finish and Genevieve shown golden again by winning the sprint over Dede Barry and Lyne. It certainly seems this girl can do it all; she proves it over and over again.

I wanted to add a little note and thank all of the volunteers and police escorts that were out on our circuit today. I think you all did an amazing job of keeping us safe and allowing us to have a tough and fun race. We could not have done it without you. My parents flew in from Colorado last night and were here watching the race today. My dad, being the social guy that he is, was talking with a number of the volunteers out on the course and was so impressed with their enthusiasm and knowledge of cycling. These are our fans. And some of them spent nine hours out there today keeping us safe. So again, I say thank you. We couldn't do it without you.

Talk to you soon,
Kimberly

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