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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.
A week in the East - part one: Visions of glory
Montreal World Cup, May 31, 2003
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I've always sorted of dreaded this World Cup course. It's such tough one. I believe the circuit is a little less than 9km around, but has a 1.8km climb up Mont Royal each lap. The start/ finish is at the top of the climb. If you're is having a bad day, it's not really the kind of course on which you can fake it. Maybe for the first couple of laps... but after that, forget it.
The dorms at McGill University in downtown Montreal play host to all us girls. Each year I've done this race, we've stayed in different dorms, some better than others. And we receive this little breakfast ticket for the cafeteria each morning. It cracks me up because the kitchen staff ladies are total Nazis. They eagle-eye everything we take and make sure it's only ONE fruit, ONE hotplate, and just ONE toast. If you want more, you better have another ticket to give them. And while the riding in downtown Montreal leaves something to be desired, unless you're a bike messenger, the city itself is beautiful and really fun to walk around. Great shopping, movies, restaurants - I could almost forget that I'm here to race!
So anyway, back to the race. Twelve laps, twelve times up the hill, and a world-class field to contend with. The current World Cup leader going into the race is wunderkind Nicole Cooke from the Acca-Duo team. She was here with a full support squad, as well as Susanne Lungskold, the current World Road Race Champion. Nurnberger's Judith Arndt was fresh off her awesome win at Tour de l'Aude and ready to go. And of course, the super strong French-Canadian contingent of Genevieve Jeanson, Manon Jutras, and Lyne Bessette brought out the throngs of French-Canadian cycling fans to pack the climb and cheer us on.
Our T-Mobile squad was rather strong in our own right. I had the good fortune to be rooming with last year's Montreal World Cup champion, Dede Demet-Barry. Dede's a really great leader. She has so much racing experience and just great life experience. I've had so much fun staying up at night just chatting with her. Along with Dede we have Kim Andersen, third at NORBA Nationals in Big Bear two weekends ago, Amber Neben, the new U.S. National Champion in the road race, Kristin Armstrong, Stacey Peters, and myself. Unfortunately for Amber, T-Mobile didn't have a national jersey ready for her yet. As we were lining up for the start, one of the UCI officials came over to Amber and shook his head at her. "Two thousand dollar fine for no National Champion jersey," he said to her. And he sounded dead serious. These UCI guys follow their little rule books to a T. Amber may get home and find a bill for $2000 in her mailbox.
I thought I was being slick by starting the race with only one water bottle. I didn't want to be dragging two water bottles up the climb every time, when I knew we could start feeding anyway on lap #5. However, the roads around Mont Royal are not the best. A lot of cracks and potholes plague the course due to the harsh Canadian winters. So about 30 seconds into the race, my slick plan became not-so-slick when I hit a large hole and my one precious water bottle bounced right out of my cage. Now I had almost half the race ahead of me with no drink. That kind of stunk. Luckily, it wasn't a super hot day.
From the gun, RONA set the pace for their superstar, Genevieve. The first three times up the climb weren't too bad; a good tempo to see where the legs were going to be for the day. Unfortunately for Dede, she got a rear flat just as we went into the climb for the second time. The pace wasn't going too hard, but the adrenaline still starts rushing once you see the field riding away from you. Stacey Peters went back to give Dede her wheel, but without thinking, she shifted into her 53/ 27 before hopping off. Because of the gear she was in, she couldn't even get her wheel out. And she was panicking because she knew Dede was getting impatient. Finally the Mavic support vehicle pulled up behind them to help. Unfortunately, the Mavic guy in the big yellow motorcycle helmet ran to Stacey first instead of Dede. Stacey was trying to tell him to help Dede first but he was so intent on what he was doing, he didn't hear her. In desperation, she took his big yellow helmet between her hands and just started shaking his head. When he finally looked up, a bit dizzy, she pointed frantically at Dede. Dede got a quick wheel change from him and they were off. Kim Andersen was waiting for them at the top of the climb, and once they were on her wheel, she drove it down the descent and quickly brought them back to the field. Totally oblivious to the chaos that had just happened behind me, I soon saw Stacey back at the front of the field.
Each lap quickened in pace up the climb, and finally with, I think, five laps to go, there was some major hustling up the climb and the field really broke apart. First over the top came a group with Genevieve, Nicole Cooke, Susanne Lungskold, Judith Arndt, Barbara Heeb (Swiss National Team), Sue Palmer-Komar (Genesis-Scuba), Tina Leibig (German National), Lyne and Manon, and Amber and myself, and a few others. Typically, the group always slows at the top of the climb, so before others could catch back on, Amber and I tried a double-attack, Dede-style. Dede-style meaning Dede and Anna Millward's sly way of attacking in the race last year with one lap to go and putting a huge gap in the field as we had crested the climb. It was a classic move and they ended up finishing 1-2.
Amber and I weren't quite so stylish though. We got a small gap but since it was on the downhill, the others were quickly on our wheels. As we descended, more girls caught back on, and Kristin and Kim rejoined us. First Kristin attacked and then Kim. At first the girls just sat up when Kim went and it looked good for us. But when Genevieve's teammate, Magali LeFloch caught back on to the group, she went straight to the front and chased Kim down.
Next time up the climb, the pace quickened even more, legs put under even more duress. Amber and I tried again to attack over the crest of the climb but nothing stuck. It was our best bet though, because I knew if we just waited for it to come down to the final climb, we were not going to finish top five. So we needed to be a little more creative as a team. Our strength came in numbers; we still had four in the final regrouping by the base of the climb. And by this time, no one but Saturn had more than one girl in the group. So the girls tended to sit up and look at each other for someone else to do the chasing. With two laps to go, Amber attacked on the back side of the circuit and it was a clean break. No one moved. I kept repeating in the radio, "Go Amber! No one's doing anything back here. Just GO."
Quickly, Amber had a 30 second gap and was out of sight. I tried my best to stay with the top group up the climb the next-to-last time and when we got to the top, the front girls were just making contact with Amber again. Damn, I thought she'd have it. As I caught on to the group, I tried attacking but unsuccessfully. On the back side the final time, another girl attacked. I can't remember who - my mind was getting fuzzy by this point. I followed the girls who chased her down and attacked off of them. I looked back and saw that no one was coming. I had a chance! Putting it in time-trial mode, I pedaled as hard as I could, visions of a possible World Cup win in my mind. But I knew I still had to make it up 1.8 kilometers of climbing.
Apparently, I went into the climb with about a 10-15 second lead. I passed the 1km to go mark and still no one had come by me. But a kilometer is still a long way. Soon after I passed the sign, Genevieve came motoring by me like I was standing still. Oh well... the visions were fun to have any way. I was too scared to look back and just kept trying as hard as I could. I couldn't believe the gap Genevieve had put into the field already! Finally, Judith Arndt, Nicole Cooke, Katie Mactier, and Susanne Lungskold came by me, fighting for the finish. Okay, I thought, maybe sixth place then. But just before I crossed the line, Sara Carrigan (Power-Plate-Bik), and Lyne Bessette came by me and I finished eighth. But like I said, the visions were fun while I had them.
Judith beat out Nicole in the sprint for second, with Susanne fourth and Katie fifth. With her third place finish, Nicole solidified her lead in the women's World Cup series, with just three races remaining. Sara Carrigan is in second, about 40 points behind.
With the World Cup behind us, we now have Sunday to enjoy all the shopping and entertainment Montreal has to offer. Then Monday, the three-day, four-stage Tour of Montreal begins. I'll be back with you in a few days then.
Cheers!
Kim
