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Baldwin, Bruckner bring home time trial titles
It’s a story we’ve seen in the U.S. all season long: the complete and total domination of the podium by a single team uniform. But no, this time it wasn’t the yellow-and-red of the Saturn men sweeping the top spots. On Wednesday, the all-American T-Mobile squad took the top five places at the elite time trial national championships, with two-time defending champion Kimberly Bruckner leading the charge. The Saturn men, meanwhile, were denied the top spot at the awards ceremony, as Navigators’ Chris Baldwin had a breakthrough victory, beating Saturn phenom Tom Danielson by 42 seconds.
On a cool overcast morning at the start in Laurel Hill State Park in southwest Pennsylvania, the name on most lips were those of Danielson and Saturn’s Chris Horner, who along with Australian teammate Nathan O’Neill had thoroughly dominated the spring domestic scene. Even Baldwin would later admit, "Honestly, you get so used to Horner and those guys winning, you begin to think that’s the way it’s always going to be."
And for a while, it looked like that was exactly how things were going to play out. The 34km course seemed well suited to the Saturn boys, with two hard hills in the opening miles through the park, and then a steady succession of rollers on the out-and-back course. 7UP-Maxxis’s John Lieswyn and Jason McCartney were the first to break the 48-minute barrier, posting times of 47:44 and 47:42, respectively. But soon after, Danielson crossed the line in 47:38 to take over the lead, and when Jonathan Vaughters could only muster a 48:36, the only suspense seemed to be how much Horner would beat Danielson’s time by.
Before Horner, arrived, though, Baldwin blasted through the line with the best time of the day 46:56, and only Horner left to finish. Baldwin’s stellar ride came despite mechanical problems before the race, when Navigators’ mechanic Mike Spilker worked furiously to repair Baldwin’s front derailleur on his time trial bike, which wasn’t shifting down to the small chainring. In the end, Spilker replaced a frayed cable with the rear derailleur cable from Baldwin’s road bike, but the problem wasn’t quite resolved.
"There’s nothing you can do to control that sort of thing. It just happens. It’s part of the game, and I think it actually took pressure off of me," said Baldwin. "Plus, the problem was the front derailleur wouldn’t shift to the little ring, so after the first hill I tried to shift to the little ring and it didn’t work, so I said screw it, and left it in the big ring. I just kept rolling the 55 and it went okay."
Horner would end up with a time of 47:47, in sixth place, less than a second behind Prime Alliance’s Danny Pate in fifth. Horner would later say that his legs were "flat" and that he could never work his way out of his funk.
Baldwin, for a time, was in disbelief. "I don’t know what it feels like to win," he said immediately after the result was known. "I’m like, ‘Where’s Horner? Horner must have won."
But it was Baldwin who pulled on the stars-and-stripes jersey at the end of the day. "It’s like a dream come true."
Adding to that dream was the three-peat of Baldwin’s fiancée, Bruckner, who led the strongest performance yet for the T-Mobile team on home soil. Following Bruckner were Dede Demet Barry, Amber Neben, Kristin Armstrong and Katrina Grove, with Tina Mayolo-Pic (Diet Rite) the first non-T-Mobile rider in the mix, in sixth place.
A T-Mobile win was never much in doubt, as Armstrong set an early fast time of 54:37 that was never challenged until Neben, Barry and Bruckner – all among the last seven riders to start – surpassed it.
"I knew my toughest competition was going to be my own teammates, so whoever came out on top, I was fine with," said Bruckner, although she admitted that repeating as national champion was a big goal for her season.
Throwing her body aggressively up the hills and then riding steadily on the course’s few flats, Bruckner had Mayolo-Pic in her sights by the time they hit the turnaround loop. "I didn’t know how I was doing out there. I could see Tina Mayolo ahead of me as I got to the turnaround, so I just focused on her to try and catch her. That didn’t mean I was having a great race, I didn’t know what it meant."
Bruckner caught Mayolo-Pic shortly after the turnaround, and just kept the gas on from there. In the end, her time of 53:20 was 25 seconds faster than Demet Barry, and 34 seconds better than Neben, and the podium was the exclusive territory of the pink-and-black flames motif of the T-Mobile squad.
With the time trial behind her, Bruckner will focus on helping to put a T-Mobile rider across the line first in Thursday’s road race. She finds herself in a much different position that when she rode for Saturn, and the team typically had only two or three Americans to contest nationals. "We’ve got 12 girls to work with tomorrow, so that will be a bit different than two. It’ll be fun."
Elite men:
1. Chris Baldwin, Navigators, 34km in 46:56.380
2. Tom Danielson, Saturn, 47:38.370
3. Jason McCartney, 7UP-Maxxis, 47:42.710
4. John Lieswyn, 7UP-Maxxis, 47:44.880
5. Danny Pate, Prime Alliance, 47:47.060
6. Chris Horner, Saturn, 47:47.940
7. Jonathan Vaughters, Prime Alliance, 48:36.100
8. Doug Ziewacz, 7UP-Maxxis, 48:37.650
9. Adham Sbeih, Sierra Nevada-Clif Bar, 48:50.710
10. Zachary Walker, Olympic Club, 49:41.550
Elite women:
1. Kimberly Bruckner, T-Mobile, 53:20.820
2. Dede Demet Barry, T-Mobile, 53:45.320
3. Amber Neben, T-Mobile, 53:54.440
4. Kristin Armstrong, T-Mobile, 54:37.580
5. Katrina Grove, T-Mobile, 55:26.980
6. Tina Mayolo-Pic, Diet Rite, 56:09.380
7. Mari Holden, T-Mobile, 56:57.850
8. Kori Kelly, Diet Rite, 57:23.120
9. Grace Fleury, Genesis Scuba-FFCC, 57:23.910
10. Brooke Ourada, Goldy’s, 57:54.500
Espoir women:
1. Magen Long, The Bicycle Store, 59:36.640
2. Megan Elliot, Saturn, 1:00:08.310
3. Lauren Franges, Victory Brewing-Amorosos, 1:00:42.590
4. Allie Warfel, Integrity Rides, 1:04:11.830
5. Sarah Hammer, T-Mobile, 1:04:51.520
6. Lauren Gaffney, Basis, 1:05:44.370Military:
1. George Ganoung, 51:50.200
2. Steve Mlujeak, 52:41.550
3. Peter Penzell, 52:42.280
4. Trent Hornus, 54:10.180
5. Garrett Wonders, 54:45.910Tandem women:
1. Margaret Thompson, Michelle Costello, MVBC-CNYCTandem mixed:
1. Jane Vanni-Noone, ABD Bicycle Club
Kevin Noone, NUVO-Billie Alton ProjectTandem men:
1. Jason Zimmerman, George Yoder, Freddie Fu Cycling Team.
