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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 Part II: All over in Orlova
Czech Republic, May 1-4, 2003
Stage 4 - May 3: Lichnov - Lichnov, 131.2 km
The day actually dawned bright and clear...it fully misled us. By the time we piled into the cars for our hour drive to the 1pm start, a steady rain was falling. It was raining even harder in the little Czech town where we were starting. Warm-up was non-existent. We just sat in the cars trying to decide how many layers to wear for the upcoming 131 kilometers, spitting on our sunglass lenses hoping they wouldn't fog up. It was wet and cold. I hate wet and cold races. My body just shuts down. But I was determined to make the best of it.
Today's course included a lot of climbing, the longest being an 8km rather steep climb, and another 1km uphill finish. So I was hoping for a good day, I just wasn't sure if I'd have one as I stood shivering at the start line waiting for the gun to go off.
I swear the first 50km, I was just kind of in a fog...literally and figuratively. My glasses fogged up almost immediately, rain and mud splattered all of us as it came flying up from the wheels in front, and the rain continued to come down. These are the things that make us tough! Or just really sick.
The first sprint points came about 10km into the race, in the same town we started in, so we just weaved in, out, and around the town. But even after the sprint, I felt like we were still weaving in and out of the town and really not moving far from the center of the village. Our director confirmed this afterwards that we did indeed ride around that village more than once. But finally around 20km, we were heading out of town, and onto an entrance ramp that took us right onto the highway! Cars were pulled over and we took up a whole lane of the road. Finally they directed us to an exit ramp and we were back on the small, twisty, hilly Czech roads.
As we were chugging up one long climb, the Russian Itera woman who finished 4th in the Stage 2 time trial attacked and since we had such a long way to go and she was not an immediate threat, the field let her go. Later on, an Italian National team girl attacked and went up the road solo. Maybe she figured if she got away quickly, we'd lose sight of her in the rain.
With Nicole Brändli's lead pretty secure though, the Swiss National team girls were content to just set tempo at the front until the base of the 8km climb. Finally around 83km, the race pace picked up and I knew we were coming into the major climb of the day. T-Mobile girls did a great job of all getting to the front as the road narrowed and climbed up. It was actually a really cool climb. It was quite a narrow road that weaved up through the woods and just kept going up.
Quickly a group formed off the front with Brändli, Judith Arndt and Trixi Worrack, Nürnberger, Olivia Gollan and another girl from Road Runner, a Stuttgart Shimano girl, Lada Kozlikova, who had finished 3rd in the time trial, and Amber and I. Eventually, as the climb went on, Brändli and Arndt pulled away from everyone, and Gollan, Stuttgart girl, and myself lost contact with the other girls. Damn.
Once I reached the summit, I had the Stuttgart girl on my wheel but Olivia had fallen back to the group behind. The two of us summited maybe about 20 seconds behind Amber's group, but it was a fast descent and those girls were GONE. Then I had to deal with my own inadequacies with descending on wet roads. I proceeded to lose the Stuttgart girl on the descent. I was so disappointed in myself! But I just couldn't make myself take the wet corners any faster. And she was a little bigger than me too. So I ended up descending alone.
Thoughts of a Tour stage came back to me at that point...the day I was alone most of the day! But that didn't happen. We still had 40km of racing after reaching the summit so there was plenty of time for the group behind me to catch me on the flats. Kim, Kristin, and Mari were all in that group, so I was with friends. Since we still had Amber up the road, we didn't help the small organized chase that was going on with about four of the girls in the group. But we did hear over the radio that Brändli and Arndt were continuing to put time into Amber's chase group; first it was 50 seconds, then 1:15. By the finish, the two of them put a little over 3 minutes into Amber's group! They were working well together.
The finish was just outside the town where we first started, but went up this little goat trail for a tough uphill finish. Judith outsprinted Brändli for the win. It was important for Amber to beat the Kozlikova in order to hang onto third. But Kozlikova outsprinted her at the finish to gain the third place bonus seconds and put her 7 seconds in front of Amber.
Our bunch came in about 2 minutes behind Amber's group. And there were still a lot of girls yet to finish. Once I turned around though to head back down the hill, I finally had a chance to really look around me. Even though the mountain tops were covered in clouds and it was still raining, our surroundings were absolutely beautiful! If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought I was in Switzerland. It really was a fun course for the day...good climbing, small roads, and such a beautiful area. Plus, I always feel so much better once I complete a cold, rainy course, because now I can go warm up.
Stage 5 - May 4: Orlová - Orlová, 100.2 km
Thank goodness our final stage was held with the sun shining. We really didn't want to have to deal with the dirt and mud again. The final race was a 100km circuit race...6 x 16km circuits that went around the surrounding area of Orlova, the town we've been staying in. It was quite a fun circuit...and it went fast too. The course went from wide open roads to narrow little side roads with little kicker climbs. And T-Mobile had nothing to lose.
The course wasn't difficult enough for Amber to try and earn back her third place, so we were free to attack at will. We sent off some attacks lap 1 and 2 but quickly learned that sprinter teams were keen to keep it together, so we decided to wait until later in the race and conserve energy. Then, I believe it was just after the start of lap 4, Mari attacked on a downhill portion. Once the chase caught her, Kim Anderson countered and no one was immediately worried about chasing. Kim motored away and quickly gained 45 seconds on the field. She had a really heroic effort for the next 3 laps.
Once Kim had about a minute, other girls started becoming more interested in getting off as well. A few different chase groups formed with several teams represented, but eventually were always brought back. And still, Kim was out there solo hammering away.
When we crossed the start/finish line the 5th time for the start of our final lap, we noticed the whole Nürnberger team go to the front. But it was noticeably Judith Arndt that was mostly at the front, chasing hard and first pulling back the small group of about six girls that were off the front behind Kim, and then, ultimately, bringing back Kim as well.
We were only about 4km from the finish when we came around a slight uphill corner and I saw Kim just ahead. I felt so badly for her! All her effort and she was caught with just 4km to go. But it was inevitable once Nürnberger got on their mission. True to form, Nürnberger did a great job bringing their star sprinter, Petra Rossner, right to the finish line to take first. Congratulations to Petra!
Soon after the T-Mobile girls crossed the finish line, I heard over the radio, "Girls! We're going to Prague!" That's what we were waiting to hear...another successful stage race finished and an incredibly beautiful city in store for us tonight. And then homeward bound...what could be better?
