Photo: © Courtesy of T-Mobile

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.

• Index to all entries

Int. Thüringen-Rundfahrt der Frauen

Chasing an MTB star in the rain

Stage 1 - July 20: Rund um Zeulenroda, 17.2km

After an extremely disappointing Nationals/ Olympic trials and a fun and successful campaign at the Cascade Classic, I am back in Europe with my T-Mobile team. We are settled in the town of Zeulenroda, in old East Germany, for the 17th International Thuringen-Rundfahrt der Frauen, a six-day stage race. And the field is STACKED. I think every woman that is competing in the Olympics is here. The racing will be relentless.

Everyone on our team, except for Dede, who lives in Spain, flew over from the States and arrived on Sunday. Needless to say, it's taken a few days to get the kinks out of our legs. Our sleeping schedule has been a bit off too. Lara woke up this morning at 4:30am and couldn't fall back asleep, so she took a sleeping pill. She was still affected by the pill at breakfast and could have fallen asleep at the table. I, myself, slept straight through breakfast and was dismayed when I woke up at 9:30am, realizing breakfast had closed at 9am. Luckily Amber and Kristin knew that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and brought me up some eggs, meusli and yogurt. Christine even pulled out her french press and made me some amazing Peet's coffee. I have the best teammates!

Christine Thornburn, the U.S. National TT champion and team member of the U.S. Olympic team is here racing with us. She's on loan from her California-based Webcor team. We're really happy to have her here too. With her positive attitude and excitement for the upcoming Olympics, she's a great addition to our six-woman squad. All three girls that are representing the U.S. are here with Christine, Dede Barry, and Kristin Armstrong. Dede has already been selected to compete in the Olympic time trial as well. But the second spot has yet to be chosen between Kristin and Christine. Today's stage, a 17km time trial, will prove to be a big factor in the final decision. So it's a bit nerve-racking for two of my teammates!

The time trial starts at 5:30pm this evening after team presentation. Twenty-two teams are competing here, and like I said, the field is stacked. This is a superbly run race as well. All the teams are staying at the Seehotel in Zuelenroda and any transfers we have during the race are short and sweet. The stages are tough and relentless with the constantly rolling courses. We'll come out of this race with great fitness for sure.

We were glued to Eurosport when it was time to leave for the presentation and race. There was just 5km left in the Tour de France stage with Armstrong, Basso, Leipheimer, Ullrich, and Kloeden battling it out for the stage.

Once we saw the final sprint, we could leave for the race. And then the skies grew dark. It was deja vu. Last year for the first stage, the team time trial, it absolutely poured while we were warming up. It had stopped raining by the time we started but the roads were wet and slick. This year, it was STILL pouring when most of us started. Luckily it was warm. But the beginning of the course had a lot of downhill twists and turns. If they just counted my time on the straight aways, I think I would have been fine! But its the corners that got me.

I had a superstar starting just before me too... Gunn Rita Dahle. I'm no mountain bike expert, but I think she's won almost every mountain bike world cup this year so far. She's also the 2003 mountain bike World Champion. So she's quite the stud. I also knew she trained for about three weeks in Boulder this winter and had gotten massage from my friend Jon Coln while she was there. Jon's always telling me how incredibly nice she is and keeps pushing me to introduce myself to her when I see her. Dahle's done quite a few road races this year in Europe, but this was my first opportunity to say hi. So while the rain was pouring down on us just before our start, I mustered up the courage to say hi. I found she is one of the nicest women I've ever met. She asked me to please not pass her in the TT, but what could I do? I had the sweet aero TT set up and she was on her road bike, so I think it was inevitable. But I know she could still easily kick my ass on any mountain bike course.

In the end, it was Swiss champion Karin Thurig coming out with the win. She's an incredible time trialist. She's also a great Ironman triathlete. I don't know if she still competes in triathlon. But I remember at Worlds in 2002, she took third in the time trial, and then competed at IM Hawaii the next week! Zoulfia Zabirova was second, and T-Mobile's Kristin Armstrong was third. Kristin's great at just flying around corners no matter what the conditions. I need to take pointers from her; I'm such a pansy when it comes to that! It was quite ironic to see the final results for the rest of us too... Christine, Amber, myself, and Dede finished 10th-14th.

Just as the race finished, so did the rain. Since the race was in the markt platz in the center of Zeulenroda, it was easy to ride straight back to the hotel, get cleaned up, and go right to dinner. I think by the end of the week, I will be over the pickled vegetables and potatoes, but for now, it'll do.

Until tomorrow then!
Kimberly

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