CSC's pre-season camp is over and the team is ready for 2009 (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Former Team CSC, Saxo Bank-IT Factory, has successfully finished its pre-season military-style training camp in Denmark. While the team's get-together is still ongoing, the survival test in Danish forests and salty waters conducted by former paratrooper B. S. Christiansen is completed.
The demanding assignments - both mentally and physically - included training every team member as an undercover agent with special skills and knowledge, in order to free the main sponsors, who had been taken hostage by an unknown enemy. This enemy attacked the camp, and chased the team through unknown territory for a total of 24 hours.
After reaching the coastline, everyone jumped into freezing cold water to be rescued by small speedboats and brought to safety onboard three larger boats. The next assignment was to set sails, navigate through the Danish sea during night time, cook and get everyone safely to the destination. The final day everyone competed against each other in a match race under difficult conditions.
The team sees these extreme challenges as tools to find out each member's qualities and work together more efficiently. This also applies to racing. "A prerequisite for everyone working together to reach the predetermined goals is knowing exactly what each individual team member is made of and capable of," explained Christiansen. "Next you determine a strategy and tactics and when everyone contributes their absolute best there's a big chance of success."
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