From the 28th to the 29th of December the first team meeting of the new
season took place in the skiing area of Engelberg, Switzerland. The
objective of the meeting was defined clearly; it went therefore of
integrating the new team members well into the team and of
strengthening the team spirit.
First a meeting was held at the Mountain Hotel Trübsee-Hof, with the
Univega manager Thomas Campana, the complete team, except Pascale
Schnider, at the moment in L.A., Emma Rickards and Joanne Kiesanowski,
could greet. Nicole Cooke, the new leader, visited even for the first
time Switzerland and was enthusiastically from the white splendour of
the nice mountain landscape.
After the racing program 2006 was agreed, the team management announced
the goals for the new season: One would like to belong at the end of
the next season to the best three UCI Pro Teams, support Nicole to win
the overall World Cup 2006 and win one of the three Grand Tours! The
fact that of these pinned up purposes are, Thomas Campana also knows of
course: "If you have the current TT World Champion Karin Thürig, the
vice World Champion road 2005 Nicole Cooke as well as a number of good
and experienced riders in the team, the expectations of course are very
high for next year.
After the meeting they walked up to the igloo village. There a tasty
Swiss cheese fondue was served. Riders and staff spent the night with
"comfortable" 2°C in the polar sleeping-bags in the sleeping igloo. All
team members agreed: To have passed a great challenge with a lot of
fun! The prejoy on the next meeting, to the training camp in Melbourne,
Australia, starting first week of January, was already very high.
Erika Vilunaite
Silvia Parietti
