Exciting update from Team GB Bobsleigh

Post shared by John Stanbridge, Team GB Bobsleigh Pilot

John Stanbridge, Team GB Bobsleigh pilot has shared the team's progress and how vital sponsorship from tlmNexus has helped:

"Sponsorship from TLM Nexus has been vital to the team's efforts to compete and train. Without your support the results and amazing progress this season would not of been possible. 

We travelled 8500 miles to 4 different Bobsleigh tracks, completed 9 weeks of vital training and development, competing in 4 European cup races against some of the best teams and athletes in the world. What is our debut GB season as a team we managed to steadily improve and secure 2 top 20 finishes. Due issues with COVID-19 travel we were forced to run a skeleton crew before Christmas, with myself and Alex-Cortes Tankard trying to maintain form and keep ourselves fresh for the upcoming races Double European Cup race in Winterberg. Leading up to the our first race we had made some steady progress in training at Konigssee and challenged ourselves further at the hardest track in Europe Altenberg coming out on top most of the time. Getting back into a sled at the start of the season is like learning to ice skate, it takes a few goes to find you feet again and build in that muscle memory. We were confident heading into Winterberg that we could put down a decent start time and finish well. A false positive COVID-19 test and a bit of equipment TLC caused the team to miss out on 3 days of training before the race. Ultimately we were not as prepared as we should have been and a mishap in dreaded turn 9 caused us to slip back from 24th – 30th and 32nd place. Not the best start for our first races but we knew that we were capable of more against a tough field of Olympic and World Cup Pilots. 

We picked ourselves up and carried out some further training Konigssee to get us back on task before heading into the Christmas break. A decision was made to concentrate on the Igls Austria European Cup race instead of committing to Altenberg. Igls is slightly less challenging starters track and we knew we had a strong chance of securing a Top 20 result with the athleticism in our team. We brought in GB Olympic Bronze Medallist Bruce Tasker to help coach the team and push us to bring down our start times. A familiar track to myself and the team was boosted with the appearance of Brakeman Jason Joseph during our training runs. With no interruptions and a progressive build up to training, we constantly improved our down time and pushes. This proved to be the right formula for us as we went on to finish 16th and only 0.01s away from a Top 15. Taking the place as the highest military sled and 2nd highest GB sled on this day. 

Our final race led us to Konigssee Germany, a technical track known to catch even the best pilots out. This sport is such that you are constantly seeking those fastest shortest lines and the risk in every run is a high speed crash. We were very confident at Konigssee, having spent several training weeks here in the past and the track being the location for the Inter-Service Ice Championships for the past 2 years. We adopted the same approach that served us well in Igls and steadily ramped up our push and down times. We recruited in RAF Inter-Service Brakeman Jack Heslop to help support the team as our other athletes had issues with childcare and work. The ice leading up to the race was particularly fast with temperatures down to -10, during this sliding we got down times that would usually appear on the World Cup circuit. We adapted well to the speed increase. A few days rest in the beautiful location of Konigssee gave us a bit of time to relax before attacking the race. With the World Championships finished in Altenberg a week before the race field had increased and featured a prominent World cup field including the German Bronze medallist. We certainly had our work cut out, Myself and Alex Cortes-Tankard pushed a very competitive Top 15 start and I drove us down to 17th place after the first run and finishing 19th after the 2nd. We are incredibly pleased with the results overall and the progress we have made this season. 

Securing 2 Top 20 results with equipment over a decade behind the other GB development Pilots and also the other international teams we showed great resilience and spirit to pick ourselves up when we fell down in Winterberg and came back fighting stronger to get the results we rightfully deserve. We will continue to build for next season, with our aims to secure investment for a new sled and runners to help bridge the gap between us and the next level. So we can show what we are fully capable off.

Training and results below. 

Event Dates Venue Result

Pre Season Training Camp 14th – 16th Nov 2020 Konigssee, Germany 

Training Camp 16th – 22nd Nov 2020 Altenberg, Germany 

Training Camp 22nd – 30th Nov 2020 Winterberg,, Germany 

Double European Cup race 30th Nov – 6th Dec 2020 Winterberg, Germany 32nd Place and 30th out of 33 sleds

Training Camp 7th – 13th Dec 2020 Konigssee, Germany 

Training Camp 4th – 10th Jan 2021 Innsbruck, Austria 

European Cup race 11th – 17th Jan 2021 Innsbruck, Austria 16th Place out of 28 sleds

Training Camp 8th – 14th Feb 2021 Konigssee, Germany 

European Cup race 15th – 21st Feb 2021 Konigssee, Germany 19th out of 32 sleds"

by John Stanbridge, Team GB Bobsleigh  

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