2. Training, tests and the future for Team Enduro...

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9.00 a.m. on Monday 21st January saw the team lining up on the 500cc's for day one of our direct access training. Up to now, training had been fun and we had looked forward to every minute of it. From here on in, the mood had shifted slightly. The reality of our noviceship was setting in as we peeled out onto the roads of Amesbury, Wiltshire, in a bid to progress enough over the next two days to pass our full unrestricted tests on Wednesday 23rd January. Wobbles, over-revved engines and stumbling U-turns were soon smoothed out until we began to look like we belonged on the roads weilding our trusty 500's. Day 1 of the training over, the four of us felt confident and nervous, buzzing and exhausted all at the same time. We were half way through the DAS course and, by default, were one day's training away from being what our instructors, Tony and Leigh of Phoenix Training School, safe and controlled riders. Day 2 and things took a turn for the serious! The joking was minimal (and embarrassingly un-funny!) and the mistakes were more costly. Every bad U-turn dented our confidence ten-fold compared to day 1. However, ex-Army officer, Tony Smykowski, was on form as ever. Stopping just short of hitting us, Tony dragged us kicking and screaming through day 2 until by midday, four novices resembled four bikers (or 'motorcyclists' apparently the difference between the two is huge, and we're are not hairy enough to earn the title of 'biker'. This is something I will be working on over the coming weeks...!). Day 2 was complete and we all felt confident in our abilities thanks to the expert and relentlessly patient training of Phoenix. Just one small thing stood in the way of us and the open roads of Europe...the dreaded test. Test Day... Now I'm sure that 99% of people reading this article are bikers (or motorcyclists - you can decide your own category...or let me know if I'm missing some more vitally important categories. Is there a chav moped group that I've neglected...?) Anyhoo, back to test day - as I was saying, I expect that you all remember your test no matter how long ago it was. Sufficed to say, it was probably one of the most stomach wrenching unpleasant days of your life. 40 minutes of pain (well - mentally it was painful) and dodgy bowel movements (sorry - I'm trying to paint a picture here!) stand between every wannabe rider and their perfect bike and road. And it had now arrived for us. 6.15 a.m. and we were trying to force some breakfast down us. I think I had Frosties for those that find this part more interesting than the rest of the article. Out of the door at 7.00 a.m. (ish) and we were on the road past Stonehenge and into Amesbury. By now, the jokes were awful! Maybe I'll add one to the end of the article for you... We got ourselves into our kit and did the usual radio checks and bike warm ups (warming up the engines, we weren't doing star jumps..!). Tony gave us a briefing for the morning's practice and off we rode to Salisbury. For some unknown reason, I'd agreed to be tested first. Now I don't know how or when this happened, but there we go. So at 9.37 a.m. I met the examiner, Gary, and began my test. I won't go into details because it wasn't very eventful. Aside from over-revving out of the car park ( the engine sounded as though I was doing it physical harm) and a car cutting me up (at least that's the story I'm sticking to as it led to my one minor error!) it went as planned, and I actually found riding without constant corrections being fed down a radio quite enjoyable. One test passed, 3 to go... Mikey went next at 10.40 a.m. Gary the examiner had obviously pulled a short straw somewhere and was testing all 4 of us. He led Mikey out to the machines, asked him the standard 2 questions and off they went. And so began one of 3 of the longest and most nerve racking 40 minutes of my life! Every 5 minutes we'd turn to Tony and ask "hasn't that been 40 minutes yet?! Where are they?!" Eventually they rode back in and pulled onto the motorbike hard standing in the corner of the test centre car park. They disappeared for another agonising 5 minutes before Mikey emerged to announce that he had failed. We were gutted. We had no idea what to say or how to feel. We are doing this challenge together as a team and we all had a gut feeling that at least one of us would have the misfortune to fail. What we felt, we felt as a team. Mikey had ridden brilliantly, receiving just 2 minors on his ride, but had misread the one daunting roundabout in Salisbury. We know that this will not set him or the team back and that he will nail it in two weeks time - so GOOD LUCK MIKEY!! After a lunch with 2 very nervous girls (Flick and Sarah from our team, not 2 random girls!), we headed out onto the roads again for their final practice. The nerves and huge build up were getting to them and they really just wanted to get on with things. Sarah was the 1st test of the afternoon and, I'm sure the team won't hold a grudge for this(?), was the most difficut time of the day for me seeing as she's my fiancee. She walked to the bike looking relaxed and chatting with the examiner and we were sure she was confident. She answered her questions and set off from the car park with a huge rev, similar to mine, and disappeared around the corner onto the roads of Salisbury. I think it must have been about 4 hours later that we saw her turn once more into the road and up onto the car park, which by now was strewn with failing car drivers attempting to reverse into parking bays. Avoiding these skillfully, Sarah rolled back into her slot and followed Gary into the test centre. 2 minutes later, a huge grin and thumbs up from Leigh told us that Tony's surveillance operation, involving a glass to the door of the interview room, had discovered another pass. We were suitably ecstatic, with just the right amount of calm so as to try not to pile on any extra pressure for Flick, who was to be tested last. Our first day or conversion onto 500's was met with concern as to Flick's height and size. The pocket dynamo of the team, Tony worried that she may struggle to cope with the sheer weight or the bikes, not to mention the issues that come with not being able to reach the floor easily! Flick, however, had other ideas and by the time day 1 of the DAS training arrived, she was slow manouvering better than any of us. Understandably nervous after a day of hanging around and thinking about the the 'what if?s', she rode more smoothly than any of us from the centre and disappeared for our final agonising wait of the day. Having discovered a local shop, the rest of us spent the time trying to ignore the butterflies in our stomachs by eating! If only it was that simple. By the time Flick returned, we were all feeling sick - it turns out food feeds nerves and results in nausea! Once again, Tony's intuition (and spying skills) were correct. Flick had passed in style and had proved us all right in thinking that her ability wouldn't be affected by nerves. All in all it had been a fantastic day. We all know that Mikey can and will pass with flying colours and wish him good luck and happy roundabouts for his next test. Now comes the even more challenging part... with people's help we need to obtain 4 motorbikes for our trip! We are offering the chance to WIN one of the bikes that we will be using for the trip by visiting www.EnduroEurope.co.uk and clicking on the 'Motorbike Giveaway' link on the left. All money raised from this will go towards helping us to raise money for the trip which is being undertaken in aid of UNICEF, the RNLI and Help the Aged. Please donate to the charities and enter the online competitions for chances to win a range of exciting prizes. Also, we are calling on companies to help us achieve our targets by sponsoring a bike in return for advertising space on our bikes, kit and website. Thanks for reading, more to follow soon...!