Rowing: The recharging of the Light Blue brigade

Cambridge escape to a Catalonian lake to step up their Boat Race preparations. Ronald Atkin reports from Banyoles

The snow line was down to the lower levels of the Pyrenees just behind Lake Banyoles, whose chill green waters discouraged the remotest thought of immersion. Winter had arrived in the northern part of Catalonia, hard on the heels of Cambridge University's Boat Race squad indulging in their annual "warm-weather'' training week in preparation for the 149th rowing of the event on 6 April.

Colder than expected it may have been for Cambridge, but it was indisputably more acceptable than anything Britain was offering last week. The Light Blues have been coming to Banyoles, site of the 1992 Olympic rowing, for a dozen years now, long enough for the local Club Nautico to have built them their own boat-storage facilities. For the Cambridge coach, Robin Williams, this will be his ninth Boat Race and he goes into it with a fine record of six won, two lost, though one of those defeats, last year's, still rankles. "It was,'' he maintains, "definitely our race and we lost it.''

After supervising morning training from an observation catamaran while clad as if for the latest stages of an assault of Everest, Williams joined his squad of 18 rowers and three coxes for lunch at a lakeside restaurant named after the carp which are prized inhabitants of Banyoles.

His team are, he says, halfway through their build-up in time but probably three-quarters ready in terms of preparation. "From October to December we are getting the squad to know each other and develop common goals, aims and technique. Now the focus has to come to the harder-nosed bit of selection and getting people in seats, more of a stressful and emotional time.

"Here in Spain and for the next two or three weeks when we get back we will finish off the rankings of individuals and pick the crews for Blue Boat and Goldie [the reserve craft].''

Williams says he "could make an educated guess now'' about his Boat Race crew, since he and his assistant coaches have had three months to assess people. "I'm about 90 per cent sure right now, but that final 10 per cent of the decision is the important bit, because that could be the difference between winning and losing. By the end of January we will have the crew sorted out and the announcement comes about three weeks after that.''

Being a decent man as well as an excellent coach, Williams readily concedes that breaking the news to rowers who haven't made it is the worse part of his job. "In the months the squad spend together, all the guidance you give them is about supporting each other and how everyone has equal input and value. Then you turn round and say, well actually, eight of you are better than the rest.

"It's a horrible thing, telling them. It happens back in Cambridge and, because they go everywhere as a group, it's pretty rare to catch people individually because my office is in the building where we train. So you find yourself lurking round the corner of the stairs and saying 'Can I have a word? Come up to the office.' They know what's coming and I don't like it anymore than they do. But those are the rules, it's a sport for eights. And when the decisions are made you feel so much better afterwards because you can get on with the job of the race.''

That race is scheduled, for the first time ever, on a Sunday this year because the television people at the BBC have a rare embarrassment of sporting riches on the Saturday with the Grand National and the Six Nations' rugby tournament. Because the Boat Race's timing is determined by Thames tides, there would have been a clash with Aintree. "I wasn't entirely happy about the change,'' admitted Williams. "Traditionally, it is a Saturday event and the change makes it quite a late race, 4.30. That's probably good for TV but we will be sitting round for a large part of the day, not good for the nervous ones.''

This year's event, sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management, could be an historic one. Only once before, in 1900, have brothers rode against each other. Now James Livingston and Ben Smith are in the Cambridge squad, while David Livingston and Matt Smith are among the Dark Blues trialists. Indeed, Matt Smith is president of Oxford and has rowed in the last three races.

The Cambridge president, Tim Wooge, hopes to be going for a third time, having rowed in the victories of 1999 and 2001 and missed the defeats of 2000 and last year because of Olympic trials for Germany and the priorities of a PhD respectively. "I don't know if rowing and winning in the odd-numbered years is a good or bad omen,'' he smiled. Whatever, Wooge will not be among the nervous ones.

"As president I am pretty much responsible for the outcome but I tend not to get too worried about things and I have rowed for so many years and had so many races that I take confidence from that, which makes it a bit easier. Also having done the Boat Race twice is a pretty good advantage because it is a unique event.''

It is that unique quality which sharpens the rivalry. "The crews can normally keep a smile on their faces when they happen to meet each other,'' said Williams, "but behind the scenes the professionals running the squads work harder every year to try to get the result, so the needle is more in the background and the whole thing is tightening up the whole time.

"In the launches before the start there are 20 or 30 feet of water between you and you shoot glances across at each other. There are a few jibes but at the end of it everybody has their fingernails dug into the wood of the launch. Last year watching the race unfold was the most excruciating experience of all for me. Everybody else said how good it was last year, how good for the Race. Except for us. But then you always look forward to the next one. These days you get good races all the time because the crews are of such a high standard.''

Which is why places like Lake Banyoles, even in the cold, are so useful.