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A year ago, Jesse Lumsden had never heard of Koenigssee, Cesana, or Winterberg.
Now he's raced them.
"Do you know you can see Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest' from the top of the bobsled run in Koenigssee?"
The Edmonton Eskimos running back is back from Europe, partially bummed out but mostly filled with excitement, passion and, yes, even a little wonder as a big-time World Cup bobsledder.
The bummed-out part is a result of becoming violently ill with the 'flu before he was to compete in his first World Cup two-man bobsled race with Pierre Lueders in Winterberg, Germany last weekend.
"I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I was pretty disappointed, man," he said.
"The flu started with the Brits. Pierre got it first and then it spread to four or five people on our team, including our coach. I pushed the training runs and they went real well. But then I got it. On race day I was just too weak."
While Lumsden recovered in time to take a seat in the four-man runs, Lueders suffered a groin injury and wasn't able to push, resulting in a 13th overall finish.
Lueders saw doctors in Calgary yesterday.
"They're putting me back together," said the legendary Edmonton driver who won gold in Nagano '98 and silver in Torino four years ago.
"I pulled a muscle in my groin. It happened to me two seasons ago in my same leg and just before Torino, too.
"I guess if there's a good time to get hurt, this is it. I didn't plan on rehabbing just before the Olympics, but I'll just adapt and change the training."
He said it happened halfway through the push in the first run of the two man in Winterberg last weekend when Edmonton's Neville Wright took over for the flu stricken Lumsden just as Lumsden had subbed for Edmonton's David Bissett in the four-man when the former U of A Golden Bear got sick the previous weekend in Italy.
They finished 19th and the four-man team 13th the next day with Lueders unable to push, simply running beside the sled and jumping in early.
"Considering we only had three pushers and one of them was Jesse getting over the flu, those guys pushed great in the second run," he said of Justin Kripps and Wright who were also in the sled.
"And those two runs were the best I've driven this year."
Lueders is pumped about the possibilities with Lumsden even if he hasn't had the reps you'd like in an Olympic year with only three races to go.
The pilot, who has won eight world championship medals, 88 World Cup medals -- including 34 World Cup wins, six overall World Cup titles in the two man and another in the four-man -- and four combined overall World Cup titles in his career, said you had to be there in view of the Eagle's Nest. To have seen Lumsden in the two-man sled as he and Lueders won a Europa Cup race to start the trip, was something to behold.
"He certainly raised a lot of eyebrows that day," Lueders said.
"I would even go so far as to say he even created some long faces on some of the other teams. There were a lot of World Cup teams in the race. The Germans were there watching. All of a sudden they see this brand new guy that no one has seen or heard of before and he's waxing everybody," he said of the apprentice brakeman.
"He is very, very talented. What he did that day was quite astonishing."
Back to Koenigssee for the World Cup race on the first weekend of January and the famed St. Moritz event to follow, Lumsden is likely to get both races in the two-man sled and probably one of them in the four.
"It was really good to get World Cup races under my belt. I was glad to have at least done that before the second half. It's been an amazing education. I'd never been in Europe before," Lumsden said.
"It's been fascinating being around Pierre. He has so much respect with the other drivers. They all look up to him. And he has his own fan club over there. They all showed up for the race at Winterberg.
"It was amazing to see all those German bobsled fans cheering for a Canadian. When he ran they had old military air horns cracked up.
"I found out a lot about the life of a bobsledder. It's a grind. It's not too glamorous. You're polishing runners and moving sleds. When the four man is over, unless you're on the podium, you're loading everything into trucks and driving for 10 hours.
"And I loved every part of it.
"I'm hooked. Considering what happened with my shoulder, I feel so fortunate to have this in my life," he said of getting injured in the first quarter of his first game as an Eskimo.
"It's huge to be passionate and motivated about something right now and I just know it's going to carry over to the 2010 football season."
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA