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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.
Suffering in Salamanca
Castilla y Leon World Cup, Spain, March 28, 2004
Just before Stacey and I went to bed last night, Dede came in to remind us that tonight was daylight saving time. So all of a sudden, 10pm became 11pm. When we woke, it was still pitch dark outside. And when the sun finally did rise, we could see the sky full of snow flurries. Snow flurries! I don't think I've raced a race this cold since the Fleche Wallonne World Cup three years ago when I was racing to help Anna Millward win the World Cup.
That race we had hail, rain, and snow. I wore the biggest raincoat that day and it became a sail. (I seem to have a pattern with wearing clothes that then become sails.) I remember Anna coming by me midway in the race, demanding I take my jacket off. When Anna tells you something, you listen. But of course it took me about 5k struggling to get the damn thing off and by the time I did, I was being dropped by the peloton. I managed to work my way back up into the race, but wow, I will never forget that weather. It wasn't quite that bad today. But before the race, I was putting the warming oil for our legs all over my arms and neck. I wanted anything that would help!
We rode from our hotel over to the course and "warmed up" on the city streets. As we rode past Cathy Marsal of the Nobil team, she waved at us and yelled, "Merry Christmas!" Heck, I was much warmer Christmas day thinking back to Chris, Chuck, and I riding the empty Phoenix and Scottsdale streets, with temperatures in the 70s. Even girls that usually never wear anything on their legs in the coldest temperatures had leg or knee warmers on today. And I think due to everyone's wish to warm up, the race started fast and furious from the gun. The course was a 10k circuit through the streets of Salamanca that we'd race 12 times. It had lots of corners, ups and downs, and strong winds along the river... a little bit of everything.
One point of the circuit had a U-turn, and already by lap two, as we circled around the U-turn, I saw a huge group of girls off the back. The T-Mobile girls tried attacking, but we soon found out that the race was very controlled. Several teams were interested in it coming down to a sprint. It was kind of frustrating. The Dutch teams, especially Farm Frites, did a superior job today of controlling the peloton and chasing everything down. Good for them, bad for us. Within our own ranks, we unfortunately lost Dotsie Cowden pretty early. She's had a horrible hacking cough the last couple of days. She was tough to even start, but with the cold weather, it just didn't make sense to push too hard. Luckily, Dede has recovered well from getting hit by a car at the start of Stage 1 in the tour a few days ago. Her legs felt much stronger today than they have since her accident and that was a big relief to us all. Unfortunately, between her, Amber, Stacey, and myself, we weren't strong enough to catch anyone unaware and get away up the road.
In the final kilometers of the last lap, the Australian and Dutch teams were at the front pushing the pace. I tried to move closer to the front to try and help Stacey position herself. But when I looked down at my SRM and saw we were moving at about 50kph, I knew I wasn't going to go anywhere quickly. Olivia Gollan (AIS) pushed the pace up the final hill, about 2km from the finish and her effort made a split of six riders... Angela Brodka (German National Team), Miriam Melchers (Farm Frites), Oenone Wood (AIS), Giorgia Bronzini (Safi-Pasta Zara Manhattan), Susanne Ljungskog and Rochelle Gilmore (SATS). Those were the six that went into the final kilometer battling it out for the podium. Angela Brodka took the win over Oenone Wood and Miriam Melchers. I think the sun even came out to shine down on us for a bit for the finish.
Michelle, our soigneur, had hot tea for us at the finish and wow, did that taste good. Someone told us that where we're headed in Belgium is actually warmer right now. I heard a possible 17 degrees. That'd be a most welcome sight!
See you then,
Kimberly
