After our usual Krypton Factor van load which, incidentally, we now have down to only 20 minutes, we met up with the American girls for a trip to the famous Colditz prisoner of war camp. We don’t know about escaping from it but it was certainly hard enough to get in! After circling the town for a good 15 minutes due to a closed road, we arrived just in time to look around the escape museum. It is a fascinating place and we were amazed by the variety and ingenuity of escapes, both successful and unsuccessful! 

The living arrangements were very cosy this week as all 5 girls were sharing one room in a small apartment. Those staying up later had some difficulty finding their beds due to the virtual black out demanded by the early to bedders. Nic, Jo and Gill are officially the boring members of the team, tucked up in bed by 10.30 at the latest, leaving Jackie and Kat to navigate by torch or mobile phone to avoid climbing into the wrong bed, missing it completely or walking into something!  

After a good night’s sleep there was a daily race to the shower in the morning as if you didn’t get there before Kat you faced at least a 30 minute wait, and that was her having a ‘quick’ shower!! There was a stampede to the bathroom when Kat announced that she fancied a LONG shower, everyone making sure that they wouldn’t need to go back in for at least an hour, just in case! Living in such close proximity to each other was a good test of tolerating each other’s ‘quirks’. Gill had a mountain of clothes growing on her bed which annoyed the order-loving duo of Jo and Jackie and everyone got annoyed with Jackie who constantly moves things (she calls it tidying up!) 

Getting to dinner was also a challenge due to the ice on the path from the apartment to the hotel. Jo and Kat especially struggled and usually travelled under close supervision from Nic and Gill to ensure everybody stayed upright! 

We had a day off on Monday as official training didn’t’t start until Tuesday and Nic was happy with the training runs we had had on the track the week before. Altenberg is quite demanding on the body for the brakeman in the back so Jackie and Gill were pleased with a day off too. Most brakemen fondly refer to Altenberg as Altensmash and there are usually several cases of Altenberg-itis, a condition in which brakemen develop sudden unexplained injuries that prevent them from getting in the back of the sled. They are normally cured by a move to another track!  

The first day’s training went very well and we posted some good training times. Training is not a controlled environment and you never know how hard other teams are pushing off or how highly runners are polished etc, so making comparisons based purely on training times can be difficult. You can still however get a general idea of how the other teams are doing. The following two days training saw some more good driving from Nic and Jackie and Gill hitting their start time targets every day. After a well deserved day off on the Friday we were ready for the race. 

Altenberg was Gill’s first experience of competing in a World Cup race and she did a fantastic job. The girls were drawn 1st  which is the most sought after starting position. Pete and Gomer are always at the top of track on race day as they both put the sled in the block and Pete cleans the spikes .His daughter thinks he is a shoe cleaner!!!  Jo and Jackie were at the bottom of the track to help girls when they finished. It is quite nerve racking for all watching as we have no control over the result. The girls were in  joint 6th position tied with Helen Upperton of Canada, 0.56 seconds from the leading sled; Germany 2 after the first run and had the 5th fastest start with a time of 5.86. Germany 2, driven by Cathleen Martini, had quite a lead but this was to be expected as Altenberg is Martini’s home track. In the second run the girls posted another good start, again the 5th fastest start of the run, but were very disappointed to drop into 7th place. It was however a great improvement from 9th place in Winterberg and we hope to keep moving up the ladder! 

Jackie had a close call when, as we were loading the van ready to leave and she was putting a box in through the back doors, the van suddenly rolled backwards towards her. After a brief, futile attempt to halt the van’s progress she leapt out the way and displayed some quick thinking by jumping into the driver’s seat and, discovering that the handbrake was in fact still on, hastily put the van into gear, stopping it only inches from a tree. A lucky escape for both Jackie and the van! Thankfully the rest of the packing was uneventful and we were once again on the move – destination Igls, Austria.