Cisco Euro Challenge
A Blistering Start
Rob Howard - SleepMonsters.com / 10.09.2004
Teams took the gondola up to Kreuzeck Alp at 1651m and when the first of them arrived at 8.00am it was already sunny and hot. Under the clear blue skies the views down to Garmisch Partenkirchen and up to the nearby peaks of Alpspitze and Zugspitze were breathtaking, and so was running on the steep gradients at this high altitude.
Nikki Sitwell of the ladies Lloyds TSB team said, “It’s fantastic, we’ve already decided to come back for a ski trip together in the winter. I never imagined this kind of scenery in Germany.�
Her team are one of 3 ladies teams and they’d been looking at the opposition. “The Cisco team look like they know what they are doing,� said Susanne Hughes, “they have good Salomon shoes and they are well worn, not new! We don’t know much about Syscap, but think they have only 4 women, so it will be hard for them.�
Most teams have 5 members, and choose 4 for each stage, and just before this first start the ‘substitutes’ were called to one side as they can’t help the teams in any way once the stage is underway. For each start one runner has to race to a ‘washing line’, hung with numbered team envelopes to collect their maps, and they raced up a really steep hillside, so much so some stopped to walk half way, though it was only 100m.
The there was a hubbub of conversation as all the teams huddled down to decide their tactics, now they could see the location of the Information Points and Agent Points. The IP’s were fairly close, two in one direction and two in another, but the agent points were further away and required steep climbs to reach or return from. It might be hard to get the 5 needed to avoid any time penalties.
Airbus UK scanned the map, instantly split into two pairs and headed for the IP’s, agreeing to meet back at the start. In less than a minute they’d gone, followed by Scania and Fujitsu. In some ways their choice is simpler as they aim to get all the points and bonuses, while less fit teams have harder choices to make.
The Cisco ladies team had trouble orienting the map and deciding what to do. Initially they picked 5 AP’s above the Alp but without studying the gradient, then realised they were some of the hardest to get and replanned. They didn’t seem worried about getting to the IP’s and set off together. Even a good score on the sale of their ‘players’ might only earn them a 30 minute bonus, but they’d lose that much if they didn’t get 5 AP’s, so that’s what they set off to do.
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