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All American Gal: The Kimberly Baldwin Diary 2006
With both the men's and women's teams as one in 2006, Kimberly Baldwin now finds herself part of the all-powerful German-based T-Mobile squad. Everything is "pretty much kick-ass" is how Kim describes things. And once racing begins, kicking ass is something she's intent on doing!
Tour du Grand Montreal, Canada, May 29-June 1
Montreal mayhem Part 2
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We waited around all day Wednesday for the stage 3 criterium in Little Italy. The Nurnberger team joined us for a bike path ride in the morning, and the rest of the day was spent lounging in our dorm rooms or wandering down to the local Starbucks for more coffee. Kim and I entertained ourselves by throwing rotten bananas out of my seventh floor dorm window and seeing how badly we could smash them. I think we’ve been around each other a LOT the last couple of months. We absolutely cracked ourselves up with our antics, although I’m sure no one else really found it that funny.
Around 4pm a storm started rolling in, and by 5pm it was full on downpour with lightning and thunder. Luckily it cleared up just in time for us to roll down to Little Italy for our race and avoid riding in the car. The traffic was ridiculous and it took Andrzej and Jeremiah three times as long to get to the start by car as it did us on our bikes. The staff made it just in time for the staff criterium too! The staff race consisted of four laps and everyone was supposed to wear just running shoes, no cycling shoes. But of course many staff members cheated. Our soignuer, Jeremiah, suited up for the race complete with tt helmet and time trial bike. I think his sole goal was to beat our director, Andrzej, and vice versa! It was a really funny race to watch and added a lot of enjoyment to the evening.
Our race consisted of 50 1km laps. When we got there, the local fire station was spraying down the streets trying to clean them off. Considering it has just rained, I wasn’t sure this was really helping any. As we lined up, we looked to the skies and the clouds were coming back. Oh no! Sure enough, about half way through the race, it started raining again, but not too hard. From the gun, the attacks began. Ina, Trixi Worrack, and Kori Seehafer got in an early break and looked promising for a bit, except not everyone was working, so it got shut down.
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After several attempts, Kim went with an attack by Chrissy Ruiter of Victory Brewing. Kate Bates and Elodie Touffet bridged up to them, and with four strong teams represented, the remaining team members in the field helped shut the field down. I was so excited for Kim and nervous too. Kim definitely has a decent sprint on her but she was going to need to be crafty in order to beat Kate Bates, the Australian national champion. Ina kept talking to Kim on the radio, telling her how to play out the final laps. She gave it a really good shot, but Kate came around her to take the win. Kim still finished second though, which was a great result for her. After our race, we celebrated at one of the many restaurants in the cool little neighbourhood even though we had dirt everywhere.
The final stage didn’t start until 4:15pm on Thursday and with a banquet to rival Tour de l’Aude’s final party, it was a schindig of a night. With the top 10 in GC only separated by a total of 30 seconds, and four time bonus sprints in the midst of the race, it was a hot night for racing. The course was five 24km laps with a climb at the end of each lap. They put the sprint line basically at the base of the climb, which made things interesting as well. Judith was only seconds out of first place, so we were going to try as hard as we could to get her into the overall. Of course, she had to try a lot harder than we did as she was going for all the sprints! Ina did a great job leading her out, and she won both the first and second time bonuses, I believe.
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After the second time bonus, the GC riders who had sprinted were separated off the front from the rest of the field. But since no one in that group was willing to work, our little group behind them came rushing up, and I think it was either Annette Beutler or Kristin Armstrong that attacked up the climb. I went with them and a break formed with about eight women. It was great for us; with Kristin and I in the break, this would force Webcor to chase. With the exception of Erinne Willock from Webcor and Tina Liebig from Nurnberger, everybody in the break worked well and we brought the gap up to a minute. But then the gap was holding at a minute and not coming back down, so I started to get a bit nervous. Judith needed to be back at the front by the time we got to the final time bonus sprint two laps later, or all her work in the beginning would be for nothing. As we approached the climb for the fourth time, I heard Andrzej in the radio telling me to attack on the climb. Attack a group of climbers on a climb? I don’t think so! I wasn’t sure what that was going to accomplish and I knew my legs were strong enough to drop anyone, so I didn’t attack.
All I could think was the phrase my German teammate Christina had taught us - Alte Schalte - which means, “My legs are burning!” After the climb, our lead had increased to over a minute, so I started sitting on. Once I stopped pulling, then others stopped pulling, and the gap started decreasing quite quickly. About 5km before the final time bonus sprint and then the uphill finish, the field caught our break and Ina started setting up Judith for the sprint. I don’t know how she sprinted and then went firing up the climb, but she did and ended up winning the stage. Judith was trying to get a time gap at the finish to get those final seconds that she needed, but the officials only gave her a one second gap. It wasn’t quite enough to take the overall win from Thorburn, but with her sprinting and finish, she did move into third. All her work also earned her the sprinter's jersey and the points jersey. I was impressed!
After the banquet, we were driving back to our dorms at the university and we passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken store. It was the same store front, same sign, but instead of KFC, the sign said PFK. Would that be Poulet Frites Kentucky? I’m not exactly sure what the French Canadians are going for here, but it was interesting to say the least.
Now some of the girls are headed to Philadelphia to race the first two races of the Triple Crown. Amy and I are heading home and will rejoin the team next weekend for the Liberty Classic. So until then, happy riding!
Till next time,
Kimberly
