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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.
Sea Otter Classic
Stage 4 - April 12: Road Race, Laguna Seca
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Today's race turned out to be a lesson called, "How to lose second place GC within 95 miles... and worse." What a disappointment.
The day dawned grey and windy with threatening skies. The threat turned to reality by the time we started our 95 mile race at 10:45am. It was very chilly and we were all soaking wet as the rain pelted down. As we rode our two mile neutral, I could see Genevieve's little legs covered in goose bumps and she was visibly shivering. I wasn't feeling much warmer myself and was trying to ride behind the lead motorcycle so I could get some heat from the muffler!
The neutral flag dropped as we turned onto Laurel Grade road, the start of a steep 2.5 mile climb ending with a 3.5 mile descent. The only real climbs of the day were this one and a 2km climb back on Fort Ord that ended only about 2km from the finish. So if someone were to go on this first climb, it was going to be a long day for them. We started up the climb at a good tempo, but soon Karen Bockel of Rona attacked and set a good pace for herself to break away from the rest of the field. Soon after Karen went, Magali LeFloch from Rona attacked and bridged up to Karen. Ina and my teammate Kristin Armstrong went with her, but other than those two, no one was really interested in chasing and let them go. Meanwhile, I kept thinking to myself, why would they do that? After a few minutes, it came to me what their plan was and as soon as I figured it out, it was unveiled in front of my eyes. Genevieve attacked solo to try and bridge to her two teammates, hoping they would carry her over the climb solo and away for the rest of the day. Unfortunately for her, that didn't quite work. Lyne and Manon stayed with Genevieve and behind them, Dede, Amber, and I rotated to bring ourselves up to the group by the time we hit the descent. All was together by the bottom of the descent.
Rona seemed determined to get something away and not just sit all day, so they continued to send girls off in attacks. Finally a group with Meshy Holt, Rona, Ina from Saturn, and our own Dotsie Cowden, got a good gap and was off. In no time at all, they had a minute gap and growing as we swept through the tree-canopy covered roads of the Salinas Valley. Apparently, the Rona director became a bit nervous about this break all of a sudden, even though Ina and Dotsie were absolutely no threat to Genevieve's overall lead. They were several minutes back from her and we still had over 85 miles to go. Nonetheless, Andre, the Rona director, called Meshy out of the break, had her fall back to the field, and Rona went to the front to start chasing. This took up the next 50 miles. The Rona girls chased and held the two-woman break at about a minute the whole time.
With about 40 miles left in the race, our director was getting impatient and wanted us to try and get another girl up the road. We were coming into some cross wind sections and he wanted us to put it in the gutter in the cross wind and attempt to drop the GC leaders. That was a miserable failure. Lyne and Genevieve were sitting comfortably protected behind my teammates while I was stuck back behind girls in the mayhem of the feed zone. Whatever we tried on this day didn't work. Genevieve and Lyne were on every threatening attack. And with every attack, we were tiring ourselves out for the final climb where I needed to stay with Lyne and not lose eight precious seconds to her.
About a mile before we entered the Ford Ord military base and the final 12 miles of our race, Dede attacked with Amy Moore (Saturn) on her wheel and drove it to a good gap on the field. Rona became anxious about this one. They knew Dede could hold it to the end and take the stage win. Even though the Rona girls were so tired from chasing all day, they all amassed at the front again and tried as best they could to bring Dede and Amy back. Finally, with about 6km to go, the last Rona girl fell off the pace and Genevieve took over. It was perfect timing for her. We were at the base of the final climb back into Laguna Seca Raceway. She drove and I prayed I'd be able to stay with her. But it just wasn't my day. My legs were not cooperating with what my brain was telling them to do.
Genevieve, Lyne, Manon, and Amber slowly edged away from me. I could see Dede up the climb as the girls passed her and tried to catch onto her before she hit the descent into the raceway. But the wind and rain were not helping me make up ground. I rode the final 3km alone but I knew I was nowhere close to bringing myself back within eight seconds of Lyne by the finish.
To top off the already bad news for T-Mobile, Manon won the sprint out of the four girls, to take the stage win and enough bonus seconds to leapfrog her ahead of Amber on GC. So now GC looked exactly like Redlands: Rona first, Saturn second and third, T-Mobile fourth and fifth. And the rain came down all through the podium ceremony. It rather matched my mood.
Talk to you soon,
Kimberly
