Motorcycling Victoria ran a successful three-day Elite Rider Training Camp at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on 24-26 November.

Victorian elite riders including Dylan Long, Matthew Barton, Mitcham Harper, Daniel Sanders, Tom Mason, Jessica Watkins, Kris McLaren, Peter Toohey, Ina Halls, and Joel Milesevic were all physically and mentally tested at the world-renowned testing facilities of MSAC in Melbourne.

The tests took place under the watchful eyes of camp coach Lee Hogan, top fitness trainer Nick Conway, and MV’s development officer Trent Zimbachs.

The camp, which was fully-funded by MV, was a mixture of intense training sessions along with in-depth education lectures to teach them the knowledge needed to succeed as a professional athlete.

Lee Hogan, director of Honda BCP Coaching Systems was the camp’s head coach and was immensely impressed with the riders’ attitude and commitment during the camp.

“This was the best group to work with,” Hogan reflected after a demanding three days. “We definitely seem to have some serious talent. Victoria has always been recognised for having a massive gene pool of talent as far as motorcycling goes.

“Quite often when you get such a talented group you tend to get clashes of personalities or egos going up against each other, but we didn’t have that at all. It was amazing to see them working together.”

The three day course, catering for elite, hand selected riders from Road Racing, Off-Road, Motocross/Supercross and Trials covered much needed areas of ‘off bike’ training such as Sports Psychology, Nutrition, Anatomy/Physiology Bio-mechanics, Resistance Training (weight lifting), Drugs in Sport, Media Skills, Sponsorship and Leadership.

MV’s development officer Trent Zimbachs organised MV’s first-ever Elite Rider Training Camp and hopes to see more of them in the future.

“MV is committed to improve and develop the skills of our riders. The Elite Rider Training Camp is just a small part of what we do to achieve that,” Zimbachs said.

“Going on the massive success of this camp, we hope to see another Elite Rider Training Camp and a Junior Training Camp sometime next year.

“Everybody involved are to be praised for their phenomenal efforts. Hopefully, by applying the knowledge that they learnt at the camp, it will give our riders that extra edge to succeed on the bike.”

MV thanked MSAC, Lee Hogan, and Nick Conway along with guest speakers Mick Sinclair (Fox Racing) and road race gun Wayne Maxwell (Team Honda Racing) as well as all the riders who participated to make it such a successful camp.