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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.
These are a few of my favourite things
February 29, 2004: Geelong Women's World Cup
Some of my favorite things about Australia are the occasional sightings of kangaroos, the Ausssie accent, and this country's licorice. In my opinion, it is by far the best licorice in the world. My Aussie friend Kristy Scrymgeour first introduced me to Darrell Lee licorice when I visited her in Sydney a few years back. Now each time I come here, I have to stock up on Darrell Lee. Meanwhile, last week my husband raced the Classic Haribo in France, home of the Haribo candy factory. Chris told me that his team was given 20 huge boxes filled with all sorts of Haribo candy and he's bringing home one of the boxes. Between his and my stocked suitcases, we can open a regular candy shop when we get home. We'll have to be careful not to eat so much and give ourselves diabetes!
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The day following the Geelong Tour, our T-Mobile team did a school visit at the Grovesdale Elementary school. The kids were so unbelievably cute. I want one. They asked really intelligent questions too. They weren't just the run-of-the-mill questions we usually get like, "What's your worst crash?" and, "How fast can you go?" These kids seemed truly interested in what we did, how we came to do it, and where we hoped to go from here. They even asked us if we were scared to fly over here after 9/11. I should have told them that in my opinion, Australia's just about one of the most peaceful, out-of-the way countries and no one would ever bother to hurt them. Who doesn't like Australia?
Last night, as we were trying to sleep before the World Cup, the weather took a turn for the worst. The rain was coming down so hard and the wind was absolutely whipping everything around. Kristin said she barely slept... she was positive they were going to cancel the race. But after hearing that Het Volk was cancelled over the weekend in Europe, I knew we'd have to have six inches of snow on the ground before they'd put off our World Cup. Sure enough, by the time the race started, it was sunny and clear... a beautiful day for the first women's World Cup of 2004.
The course consisted of a 16km circuit that we were to race eight times. Anna Millward, a good friend to many of us and a past team-mate, the best Aussie rider ever to pick up a bike, was the commentator for the event. It was so great hearing Anna's voice again as we zoomed through the start/finish line each time. Even though my tongue was most likely hanging out like a dog... since it was always single file through there.
Stacey, Kristin, and I did our job of covering the front, watching for attacks, and pretty much patrolling in the hopes of helping our two stars for the day, Amber and Dede. It was a crazy race, in that not many teams were on the offense, taking chances, and trying to get a break up the road. It seemed most people were looking for a field sprint. I think the weather played a factor in that as well. The climb that came about midway through the circuit always broke things up, but it wasn't long enough to really make a separation. And at the top of the climb, there was a long tailwind section, making it easier for people to chase back on. As we were doing our work in the field, I began to wonder if it was going to be worth it in the end.
The only significant break all day came at the top of the climb on lap 2. Stacey Peters covered an attack by another rider, and the two of them got a gap of up to 30 seconds at one point. But the winds were working against them and the field was too strong, so they were back amidst us within half a lap. The sixth time up the climb, Katie Mactier put in a great attack and separated herself with about 20 other girls. Both Dede and Amber were in the move, but said that no-one wanted to roll through and keep the break moving. So that too was eventually reabsorbed.
Surprisingly, the last time up the climb, which was when I thought all hell would break loose, the field came back together faster than the previous three laps. Both Amber and Dede took turns attacking up the climb, but could not get a good enough gap from the rest. Which was bad news for us... because at this point, it was clear it was coming down to a field sprint. In theory, I would have said, "Girls, just keep attacking all the way to the line." Right. The speed was so fast, I couldn't even get to the front. There were some very determined team lead-outs going on. It was all I could do to just hang onto the wheel ahead of me. Once again, AIS and Nurnberger did an amazing job of delivering their sprinters to the line. This time, Oenone Wood of AIS won over Petra Rossner of Nurnberger. Miho Oki of Japan finished off this impressive podium in third.
And so our lovely time in Australia has come to an end. We all fly home tomorrow to our respective homes in the States, and in Dede's case, Spain. The poor girl has to first fly to L.A. and then to London, and THEN to Spain. It makes my 17 hour trip seem rather short! On our ride back to Point Lonsdale after the race, we saw kangaroos in the field. Kind of like cows in a pasture in Wisconsin, but better. It made our trip complete... now we can go home. See you in Europe in a few weeks!
Kimberly
