By Will Golder and Kevan Crowell Jersey bobsleigh team |
  Golder and brakeman Crowell share their thoughts from St Moritz |
DAY 3 - Second day of training Will's version This morning started with the usual 0530 wake up and 0600 breakfast. Last night we spent three hours polishing our training runners for the extra speed today. Unfortunately we had a foot of snow overnight, with the snow still falling all day creating over two feet of snow in under 24 hours. This meant that at the track, as fast as the track workers were clearing the snow it was falling again, therefore training was cancelled for the day. For myself this is not ideal as it means I will only have two training days on a brand new track before the race. The gradual progression to polished runners and then on to race runners will now not happen. We will go straight to race runners tomorrow for the final days training. This will be a massive increase in speed on the track but I am aware of this and have no other choice, at the end of the day it is all part of the sport.  | The idea of racing on a new track, that I have only driven twice, on race runners and a fast track is not something I look forward to |
It may mean a slightly tricky drive but as long as I can make it as smooth as possible we should be OK. This first race will most definitely be used as an experience race now as no one can be expected to have two days training on a brand new track and then race competitively. For the rest of today Kevan and I will be training in the gym with the rest of the team, and also preparing the sled for race day. The preparation of the sled involves us taking it apart and checking that every nut and bolt is tight and ready for a race. I will have to align the steering with the race runners on so that I can check that they are not snow ploughing and therefore slowing us down. This is done down to 0.1 of a millimetre so can take a long time. Hopefully the snow will stop falling so we can train tomorrow. The idea of racing on a new track, that I have only driven twice, on race runners and a fast track is not something I look forward to, as experience is the key in this sport.
Kev's Version Having spent some three hours polishing runners the previous evening and dragging ourselves out of bed at 0530 GMT we weren't best pleased to learn training was cancelled - I was gutted! Not that I would advocate riding in heavy snow as I'd prefer the driver could see where he was heading but we need ice time and I need continuous days riding, it keeps me alert and focused and nerves don't have anytime to build. The early start and runner work aside this is far from ideal. To lose one full day of training when only granted three means the steep progression through training runs will only get steeper. In normal circumstances we would feed progressions into training; polished runners, race runners, jog/sprint start but with only one day of training remaining all advancements will be made on one day which leads to more speed, more pressure and harder knocks but that is bobsleighing!
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