This week the Alinghi sailing team is heading to the Swiss mountains, Lenzerheide physical training camp south east of Zurich, where they will undergo an intensive training program from 4 to 11 of March.

Alinghi sports director Jochen Schuemann describes the sporting plans: “The idea of the winter camp is to do intensive winter training combined with a team event away from our home base.” He adds: “We spend all year in Valencia, so this will give us a nice break to practice hard in a different location. The contrast couldn’t be greater going from the sun to the snow of Alinghi’s home country!”

Lenzerheide is a well-known Swiss winter sports venue having hosted the International Ski Federation World Cup in 2005. They have laid on all the facilities necessary to make this a challenging fortnight of cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snow-boarding and general endurance training, plus daily gym-sessions. The sailing team and members of the design team, shore crew and marketing department, will train for six hours everyday followed by evening sporting events. “We want to use this time to work on our strength and endurance, so it is a skiing camp which is not only downhill fun but also cross country and all kinds of winter activities. We want to see how people behave physically in a different environment, how far they will push themselves.” said Schuemann.