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The Kimberly Bruckner Journal 2004
Like many top riders, 2001 US road champion Kimberly Bruckner has the Athens Olympics in her sights as she returns to racing after surgery for a soft-tissue tumour in her ankle cut short her 2003 season. With her T-Mobile squad in its second year, her diary this year will document the highs and lows of the US' top women's team.
The maid is on holidays part 2
Tour de L'Aude Feminin, France, May 14-23, 2004
The maid is on holidays part 1
Stage 4 - May 17: Lezignan Corbières - Lezignan Corbières, 126km
Stage 4 was a 126km course that started and ended in the town of Lezignan-Corbieres. After yesterday, we were relieved to not have to defend the yellow jersey - We were happy to pass that job on to someone else! Nurnberger did a great job of protecting their lead today too. Jessica, Madelaine, and Tina were at the front so much of the day while Judith and Petra really watched over Trixi, making sure she stayed protected and out of the wind. From the start, the French team "les Pruneaux des Argen" were super active. Les Pruneaux literally means prunes; their jerseys have little prunes all over them, so they're pretty easy to pick out in the peloton. The day Dede and Kristin were on the podium, their awards were each a big selection of prunes: prunes stuffed with pureed prunes, chocolate covered prunes, chocolates with a pureed prune filling…anything you could possibly dream up. We enjoyed eating them the first couple of days. But now I think most of us are pretty pruned out. Anyway, the prune team tried to force a breakaway but were not successful.
The challenge of the day came at 71km with a cat 1 climb; but Nurnberger controlled that one well too, Judith went straight to the front and set a good tempo all the way up the climb. Olivia Gollan (AIS) and Theresa Senff (German National team) sprinted with each other for the mountain top prime, but other than that, everyone regrouped quite quickly. For the next 50km, it was Nurnberger setting tempo at the front bringing it on in. Shortly before the finish, however, two girls snuck off the front, and since they were no real threat to the overall GC, Nurnberger was content to let it go. Although the day wasn't exactly "easy", it was much more of a rest day for us than the previous stage. We're looking forward to the upcoming time trial on Wednesday. And any energy we can conserve in our legs will be greatly needed on that day.
Stage 5 - May 18: Castelnaudary - Castelnaudary, 120km
Stage 5 was a classic stage. The course went up and down all day, mostly on really small French roads. The scenery was beautiful too; I really am enjoying this region. I would love for Chris and I to come back here and just ride… stopping for wine along the way of course.
It was easy for Nurnberger to control the peloton on the small roads too, just put four girls across at the front of the field, and no one is able to get by. So up, down, and around we went until the first Cat 2 climb at 65km. When we were about 10km out from the climb, Jim radioed to us to look up ahead. The church steeple we could see in the far distance was the top of the climb, I'm not sure if I wanted to know that or not. The group definitely split up in the rush to the top but not enough to shake things up significantly. In the 15km between the top of the climb and the top of the next Cat 2 climb, Lyne Bessette, (Canadian National team) and Edwige Pitel (French National team) attacked and took off. By the time Nurnberger had regrouped at the front of the peloton, the girls had a little over minute. But it was still a long way to go.
I've raced with 3 of the girls on Nurnberger in the past, and I knew they would time it perfectly to bring the girls back. The German National team came to the front as well to help pull them in, and with the two teams rolling at the front; we were flying along the roads! I was worried about the possibility of a strong crosswind section coming up, because at the speeds they were going, it would be tough to hang on in a crosswind! Luckily, the roads stayed small and protected. Just as predicted, Lyne and the French girl were swallowed up with only 2k to go. It was a mad rush for the line, and since I wanted no part in that, I just followed wheels and told my teammates to stay safe. Ghita Beltman, a strong Dutch rider, won the stage over Anita Valen and Olivia Gollan. Man, Olivia can do it all. She sprints, she climbs, and she time-trials like a champion. Nice going Olivia.
Now the team is staying in the village of Limeux. We're at a cute hotel along with the Aussies and the Canadians. There's no restaurant at the hotel, so one of the restaurants in town provides our dinner each night. We're here for the rest of the tour, so it's nice to just settle in and get comfortable.
Stage 6 - May 19: Castelnaudary - Castelnaudary ITT, 31.5km
Holy cow.... T-Mobile girls sweep the podium! That's unheard of. The stage today was a 31.5km time trial starting and finishing in the town of Castelnaudary. The team had pre-ridden the course the day after we arrived here and now I'm so glad we did. Apparently it was the same TT course they used last year, but since none of us had competed last year, it was new to us. This was the stage that we were waiting for... the day that the GC would be shaken up to see who was to come out on top; I'm happy to report that T-Mobile did. Dede took top honors. I came in with a time just 4 seconds behind her, and Kristin finished 31 seconds behind me. I think all the race officials were amazed.... or just really impressed. The GC leader going into the stage finished a few minutes behind us and now Dede is back in yellow. This must be a director sportif's dream. Now we're 1-2-4 in GC but we've got 4 long, arduous days ahead of us; I don't even want to think about it yet. We need friends, but for the moment, we're taking it all in and just enjoying it.
I believe this race was an important Olympic selection race for many teams as well. I'm sure nerves and tension were running high. I know it was an important race for the Aussies and maybe even the French as well. Our American Olympic selection will be based on our Nationals to be held in June. But this race was the perfect tune-up for what's to come.
I'd better get to recovering; I've got a lot of work cut out for me the next few days.
See you soon!
Kimberly
