If nobody brakes your bob…

One of the most asked questions, since when I started practicing bob is: “.. and what does it happen if nobody brakes your bob after the finish line? Are you gonna stop somewhere? Would it be very dangerous?”

Ehi, today I have an answer…. at least for what concerns the Winterberg track.
No, in Winterberg it is NOT SO DANGEROUS, because you have enough track, after the finish line to be able to stop just going uphill, but please beleive me, it would be much better to brake at least when you are still because it would not be funny to go backward at 100 km/h…

Just to recap in a few words, today we had the second training session before the 4 men bob Europe Cup.
In the first run, pushing the bob, three (yes, all the three brakemen) newbies (me included, in a sense) and the youngest one at the brakes, I was the 3rd, just in front of him.
Before starting, we asked him if everything was ok with the brakes and it seemed to be (really) OK… but it wasn’t. Just a couple of meters after the finish line I got up a little bit outside the bob, just to make his life easier while braking; unfortunately he couldn’t find the handles, went through the parking area, and shouted: “Where are the handles?”… too late.

The worst thing would have been to go back downhill, pass again the finish line in the opposite direction and go up 3 or 4 corners backward .
Finally, when we were still,  I was able to turn by myself and pull the brake, so we stopped up there, waiting for some men of the track who helped us sliding back to the parking area.

Uhfff… it would have been more dangerous in some other tracks; for the next time I’ll remember to really check if everything is ok and eventually to pull that handle a little bit in advance!