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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.
Gracia Orlova tour: Czech adventure
Czech Republic, May 1-4, 2003
The last time I was in the Czech Republic was in 1991...I spent the semester studying in Germany. It was still considered Czechoslovakia then. A lot has happened in that time, both to this country and to me. If someone had told me in 1991 that I'd be back here in 2003 as a professional bike racer, I probably would have laughed in their face, not seeing how that would be possible. I really feel so lucky to be doing this.
The Gracia Tour for women has been going on since 1987. I was looking at past results and saw that my teammate from last year, Petra Rossner, was 2nd in this Tour that first year! I had just gotten my driver's license then!
Up until last year, most teams were housed in a dormitory at the town's nuclear power plant. I've heard conditions there are rather sparse. The one hotel in town, the Sport Hotel, is the most desired place to stay. Compared to our surroundings, it's total luxury. And yet, for our whole team to stay here one night costs less than $100. Four teams were lucky enough to be staying at the Sport Hotel; T-Mobile, Nürnberger, the British National team, and the Swiss National team. We eat in the hotel restaurant for all our meals and I've got to admit, the food is pretty good. And extremely cheap! A full dinner costs us the equivalent of about $3. So the American dollar, although suffering against the Euro right now, still goes a long way in the Czech Republic.
Stage 1 - May 1: Orlova - Rydultowy, 66.9 km
The first day of the Tour was a double stage day...and a very interesting one at that. The morning's stage consisted of a 67km road race. About 20km into the race, we sped right through border patrol and into Poland. I can't imagine the logistics that went on organizing an entire peloton and a caravan to race straight through border patrol without checking passports or trunks or truck cargo. It was REALLY important to remember to pack our passports though to get back into the Czech Republic afterwards!
Even though we were racing, I was trying to take a look around at the scenery. I'd never been this far east on this continent before in my life and I was rather intrigued with the idea of riding my bike in Poland. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Because it was a short stage and we had a 20km time trial in the afternoon, we figured most teams would be content to just ride it in and contest the sprint. We were hoping to mess things up a little bit and be more aggressive then the other women might expect. Later stages involve a lot of climbing and any seconds one of us could get on the field would be beneficial for later in the week.
We tried attacks straight from the gun within our field of 130 women, but we soon came to realize that a few teams were definitely in the hunt for the sprinter's jersey. Sprinter points were up for grabs at 48km so Road Runner and the Russian national team chased everything. Realizing our attacks were fruitless, we stopped and spent the rest of the race trying to just sit in and spin our legs for the upcoming time trial. Alison Wright, Road Runner, did in fact win the sprint points at 48km so her team's efforts were worth it. Judith Arndt led out Petra Rossner in the final 2 kilometers to take the win and Alison Wright came in second.
Our team cars were parked just near the finish, next to a little snack and pizza shop. Sonje, our soigneur, let us know that if we wanted to buy anything inside, the woman gladly took American dollars. We hadn't thought to bring over any money though. The next leg of the day had us driving an hour to the start of the time trial, which was still in Poland. Poland's a really beautiful country..rolling hills and very green. Housing conditions look at little more bleak than the Czech Republic, but my perspective is definitely limited.
Stage 2 - May 1: Kuznia Raciborska ITT, 18 km
The first stage only took us 1:43 and started at 9:30am. The time trial didn't start until 4pm. To make matters worse, and the day longer, everyone was starting in minute intervals. So I wasn't racing until 5:40pm! We arrived at the start of the TT by 12:30pm so we had a LONG time to wait. The race promoters had provided lunch somewhere, but since we had our truck with us, which has a small kitchen and refrigerator, we decided to just make our own lunch.
The TT start was in a very small town where conditions definitely looked bleak. Since it was May 1st, it was a national holiday so all the kids were outside playing. As soon as team trucks started pulling up, the kids just gathered around us to watch. So there we sat, for 4 hours, watching them as they watched us. We were closely watching our belongings too, to make sure nothing suddenly disappeared.
It's tough to stay motivated all day like that for a second stage. But somehow we did it. Our first girl off for the day was Stacey Peters, around 5:12pm. So about 4pm, we slowly started our engines again, got on trainers, and started bringing the heart rates back up. I kept telling myself that it was just 18km until the day was done and kept reminding myself that yes, I DO like time trials.
The course was flat for the most part, couple of corners through a village, big round-about on a road full of pot-holes, and back again to the start in a slight headwind. It's not my favorite kind of course...I don't always excel on the flatter courses. But today was a slight exception. T-Mobile had a great day. The best news was that Amber won overall! She beat second place Nicole Brändli, last year's silver medalist in the World Championships, by 10 seconds! Now Amber is proudly wearing the yellow jersey AND number one, since she was last year's overall winner as well.
I surprised myself by finishing 5th at 25 seconds back, and Kristin Armstrong finished 7th at 43 seconds back. Not bad for our team today! The three of us and our director remained behind for the podium ceremony while the rest of the team and our truck took off for the hotel. Somehow though, even though we left the small Polish town long after everyone else, we took a different route back to our hotel, went through a different border patrol, and arrived back about 30 minutes before everyone else. The other teams had all followed each other and got backed up at border patrol while we snuck through at a different border. So we were the first ones to shower and eat dinner. Not a bad ending to a great day!
Stage 3 - May 2: Detmarovice - Stramberk, 102.6 km
Today's stage began at the local nuclear power plant. So I got to see the dormitory where a lot of the women's teams are staying. Wow, am I glad we're in the Sport Hotel! We had 104 kilometers ahead of us with Amber in a VERY yellow jersey that we wanted to defend. So we were a bit nervous. We all had our specific duties layed out for us in our team meeting that morning, so each of us knew what to do. Now it was just a matter of actually being able to do it!
The course had a climber's bonus at 25km and sprinter points were up for grabs at 92km. The final kilometer of the race was a steep cobblestone climb up to some cute little village. As it happened, the race played out a bit differently than I expected. I thought there would be a lot of attacks in the beginning, but there really wasn't. The Russian Itera team and the Italian Road Runner team were so intent on getting Alison Wright to the line for sprinter points, they kept a strong tempo going for a big percentage of the day. The sprint lines in this race are really not very clearly marked, so honestly, I can't even tell you who the top three were to cross the line each time. I wasn't even sure where the line was!
All hell broke loose with about 30-40km to go. Team Nürnberger started attacking in full force, just one after another. Our job was to be IN the breaks, not just chase, so it took all Kim, Kristin, Mari, and I had to cover their attacks. In the midst of the chaos, it occurred to me that I actually could not remember seeing Petra Rossner attack, while she and I were teammates the last two years. I'm probably exaggerating a bit, but honestly, Petra doesn't usually ever need to attack. If it comes down to a field sprint, she's a sure winner. So it was kind of fun to see her come flying by me at Mach-9...until I had to try to bring her back. Her attacks are a bit ruthless.
Whenever it was that we passed the hidden 92km sprint line, a break of three swung off the front and got a great gap on the field. In the break was Brigitte Sollner from Nürnberger, a British National team girl, and a Road Runner girl. With only 10km to go, we weren't sure if we should try and bring the break back or not. Our best bet was to leave to break out there since none of the girls were an immediate threat to the yellow jersey, and if they did finish ahead of the field, they would scoop up all the time bonus seconds at the end.
But with all the twisting roads the final 10km, we mistakenly thought the break was further up the road than we anticipated. The race radio told us the gap was 45 seconds...too much to let it go. So Kim and Mari went to the front to chase and bring the gap back down closer to 20 seconds. Unfortunately, race radio was wrong, and as we came around the corner with the final kilometer climb to go, there was the break..straight ahead of us.
Once the climbers saw the break, the pace increased and the break was swallowed in the last 500 meters as girls sprinted the uphill finish. A group of about six got a gap on Amber. I was swerving around girls trying to get back up to Amber and pull her up to the front group, but we ran out of cobbles. Judith Arndt won the stage with a hard-fought effort. Nicole Brändli, Swiss National team, was second, gaining a 6 second time bonus as well. Olivia Gollan, riding for Road Runner, finished 3rd. Amber finished 8th overall, 10 seconds back from Nicole, I believe, who was in 2nd going into today. So Brändli is now in the jersey with the toughest stage coming tomorrow; 134 km with a LOT of climbing. And just 3 more days until we go home...
That makes me very happy :)
