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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.
Int. Thüringen-Rundfahrt der Frauen
A slight detour
Stage 4 - July 23: Schleiz - Gera
We started today's stage where we ended yesterday…and so far, the rain has held off. We've been really lucky with that. Although now that I've said that, I'm sure it'll pour on us today. This is the third time that I've done this race and although I wouldn't be able to place these towns if someone asked me, once I arrive at the race start, it all comes back to me. It's great starting in the main market square of all these towns. There's so much character to these old East German towns.
As we were leaving the hotel to drive to the start, which was about 20km away, we noticed that quite a few teams were riding to the race. Boy, did that make us feel lazy! I asked if we could ride home after the race to make up for it, but when I found out it was a 50km transfer back to the hotel, we decided against it.
Today's stage had just one sprint line and one mountain sprint, but that didn't mean the rest of the course was flat at all. Some of the toughest climbs weren't even up for mountain points. It was a three hour motor pacing session with speeds kept high all day long. Unfortunately, shortly into the start of the race, there was a small pile up and Olivia Gollan (AIS) smacked her elbow…I'm not sure if it was on a car or on the ground. She was bleeding the rest of the race and it looked pretty bad. But when we asked our in-resident doctor, Christine Thornburn, about it, she said it was probably good the wound was allowed to bleed because that would clean it out best. Olivia went to the hospital after the race and had stitches put in her elbow, but other than that, she's fine.
It was a super active race today with attacks going all day long. But with the pace kept so high, no breaks were allowed to get much time. Near the top of one particularly longer climb, Rasa Polikeviute attacked, and Christine, Nicole Brandli, Fabiana Luperini, and myself jumped on her. When I looked behind, we had a good gap, but Brandli and Luperini were not interested in working the break at all, so it was quickly brought back. It's been interesting tactics here as there are so many great GC riders at this race, but few seem truly motivated to actually race for GC. One rider that is motivated is Petra Rossner. She was active with attacks yesterday and although none of them stuck, she has proven she's a rider in top form.
One pile up occurred yesterday when the pace slowed a little bit. I'm not sure what happened but all of a sudden, girls starting laying it down right in front of me. One of the race motorcycles had just tried to pass on the left side of the road and was really close to me. At first I thought I was going to be flung into the motorcycle, but luckily I got flung into the ditch instead. Lara came running up cyclo-cross style to make sure I was okay, which I was. But once we got back on the road, we both noticed our legs and arms were itching from the grass we had just landed in! I had a weird rash going for a few hours after that. At the same time, Amber had been on the right side of the road and got flung down as well. Luckily she wasn't hurt either and we were all on our way again.
With 10km to go, we came through the finish line and headed up and out of town again. It was a crazy finish with railroad crossings at a corner, construction, and an uphill cobblestone sprint. Just after crossing the finish line for our last 10km, the road headed uphill and wow, did that burn. Jim had told us it was going to be a flat loop so mentally we weren't prepared for it. It was all I could do just to hang on. Amber really gutted it out and attacked just near the top of the climb. Olivia Gollan and Karin Thurig went with her so at first it seemed promising. But too many sprinters' teams were there to bring it back.
With about 5km to go, we were flying downhill on a highway back into Gera and the highway split. We were supposed to go right, but a group of us went left instead. I knew we were supposed to go right off the highway soon and now we were stuck on the wrong side of the road with oncoming traffic lined up ahead of us. Luckily there was a small break in the barrier and we could sneak back into the strung out peloton. Unfortunately, it was now at the very back though. At the front, Miriam Melchers (Farm Frites) was giving her teammate, Angela Brodka, a great leadout. But Petra Rossner came from behind to take the win just at the line, her second win in as many days. Brodka was second and Melchers was third. There was a split between the small front group and the rest of the field of 5 or 8 seconds, which moves Olivia into second overall, just 7 seconds back. Zabirova is also just 7 seconds back and Oenone Wood (AIS) is 8 seconds back. That makes for a very interesting race these next two days.
After we arrived back at the hotel, were showered, and downstairs eating dinner, a huge storm blew through the area. I had put my stinky cycling shoes and helmet out on our ledge to dry out. When I realized how hard it was raining and how incredible the wind was, I ran upstairs to shut out windows, which were wide open. My shoes were soaked and my helmet was missing. Lara and I wandered all over looking for my helmet after the storm had passed, but to no avail. It seemed it had blown away. Hopefully someone finds it and returns it before the start of the next stage! If you don't see me in the results tomorrow, it's because I never found my helmet!
