After a well earned break Team Minichiello was back on the road, destination Koningssee. The vehicles were not so cramped this time as Nic and Jo took the car, Pete and Jackie the van and Kat and Gill got some superstar treatment and got to fly out. Gomer had the toughest journey, after a 5 hour flight from Calgary, the train journey to Salzburg was even longer. 

For the first day’s training Kat and Gill were missing as it was an unofficial training day and their flight was not due in until that afternoon. Despite being unofficial training, nearly all the World Cup teams had turned up so it was a long but successful session. Nic had not previously mastered this track and was keen that this was the week she would learn to love Konigssee.

Konigssee is one of the shortest tracks in the world and it is usually one of the closest run races of the year. The start is of the utmost importance as it is what sets the most competent drivers apart. Jackie and Gill had a push off on the second day of training as every hundredth gained at the top of the track would make such a difference in this race. Gill performed very well and beat Jackie by 0.1sec and so was selected to race. The runs improved each day and by race day Nic was feeling very confident with the track.

The video footage is a huge help when analysing the runs. Special thanks must go to Kat this week for conquering her fear of heights. She had dramatically explained to us where Pete and Gomer had sent her to video and how she had had to climb a huge barrier and traverse across the wall. After us all being very sympathetic we asked the coaches if they could put her somewhere not so frightening. They both laughed and showed us the ‘huge’ barrier that was approximately 3ft off the floor!! Pete also explained that it was in fact him that feared for his life when they entered the track to cross it as Kat took so long walking the one metre across the track that he thought a bob might come!

The hotel for this week was only 10mins from the track and we were joined there by the Polish and the Japanese bobsleigh teams. We were also joined by our development team consisting of Paula, Julia and Kelly who had moved up to World Cup in order to get extra time on the Konigssee track before the following week’s World Junior Championships. Whilst they were a bit out of their comfort zone, having been one of the top Europa Cup teams, Paula had the benefit of Pete and Gomer’s expertise for the week and hopefully this will give her an advantage come the World Juniors, where she is expected to do very well. 

Training continued to improve from day to day and by the end of the week Nic was  loving the track ! We were pretty confident that another top 6 placing was on the cards. We have a well practiced routine for race day and it starts from the minute we wake up. It was rudely interrupted when, after loading the sled into the van, we found ourselves blocked in by a horse and cart!! We patiently waited whilst the horses were removed, expecting the driver to then move the cart. However it seemed he was in no hurry to do so and we really didn’t want to miss the race so Nic and Gill started to push the cart out of the way. The driver came running out we thought he was going to tell us off but he just wanted to tell us where he would like the cart moved to! Having put the cart safely away in the stable we set off for the track only a few minutes behind schedule. Luckily we leave extra time in our calculations to allow for delays. I’m not sure we ever expected the delay to come from such an unlikely source but it did give us a chuckle on the way to the track!

Having made it to the track safely, the usual routine fell into place and everything ran like clockwork. Jackie and Pete did the majority of the sled preparation giving Nic and Gill some welcome time to prepare themselves for the race.

After the first heat the team was placed an excellent 2nd, nine hundredths behind the leaders USA 1 and 0.11 ahead of USA 2. The start on the first heat was the 2nd fastest of the run, only one hundredth from the best start. On the second run our start improved by one hundredth from the first run and we were the fastest starters for the first time this season. This, combined with another good drive, meant that we finished 2nd, tied with Germany 1 and only 0.14 seconds behind the winners USA 1.

It was a fantastic race and is a real team effort.  It is the highest world cup placing that Nic has ever achieved and so is our current World Cup ranking of 5th. The team is going from strength to strength and we have now proved what we are capable of.  We would like to thank our sponsors and supporters and hope it is just the beginning of what is to come.