certified, too. i’ll tell my insurance company, and demand a discount. 😉
boys need their toys and their adventures, and the most recent adventure was the enrolement in fabio fasola’s enduro school, together with andy, and johan, my dutch (belgian !) enduro pal.
fabio is multiple enduro & rally champion, so the guy knows what he is talking about. in addition the location of the training, in tuscany, guaranteed a spectacular scenery and difficult trails.
in addition, fabrizio meoni would be ‘guest coach’. for those of you who don’t quite remember the name: fabrizio is rally world champion and multiple dakar winner.
day 0.
and then there is the distance. 1500 km. no fun, even with johan’s brand new mondeo.
and even though the different landscapes on the way keep your eyes busy. the netherlands to start with, then the belgian ardennes, france, the valleys & lakes of switzerland, and finally italy.
the pictures below are from tuscany, italy, sorry for the quality, it’s not easy to take pictures from the car.
we slept a little south of milano, with some 300 km left for the next day.
day 1.
we arrived just in time for lunch, and for a rather impressive thunderstorm that turned the road in front of il ciocco, our resort, into what could have easily passed for a small river.
il ciocco is situated on a mountain side, about 30 km north east of lucca. i have to say that we were quite impressed with the accomodation, an excellent choice.
the rooms were not too big, but comfortable, nicely furnished, and clean.
not that we stayed there too much, we were either busy riding, or eating. 😉
the daily routine started with a little warm-up (exercise !), then breakfast, some maintenance & refuelling, on the bike & off for the morning around 9.30. we returned to have lunch at around 13.00, and then left again around 15.00.
at around 19.00 we would be back, maintenance again, a well-deserved (and necessary) shower, and then dinner at 20.30.
5 courses! i guess i must have put on some weight. 😉
the fasola school facilities are located within the compound. they have a rather good workshop, and if you don’t have (or don’t want to travel with) your own bike, they have latest model ktm excs for rent.
i brought mine along, i did not want to do the training on a bike with unfamiliar setup.
we were divided in 3 groups, with 2 coaches each. johan was assigned to fabrizio’s group, andy & myself were in fabio’s group.
we spent the first afternoon doing some basic (yet important) exercise, and then took a trip around the mountains. the guides really know their business (and their way around), there was some challenging enduro style riding, climbing up and down rocky ravines, or zipping along gravel tracks. part of the paths we followed surely must be quite high on the list of the local hiking club, luckily we did not meet anyone.
we expected the groups to be re-distributed after the first afternoon, based on the individual skills. however, this was unfortunately not done. while there was a separate group for the beginners (using less difficult tracks), the two ‘advanced’ groups still covered some guys who managed every difficulty without problems, and some riders for whom a steeper or longer rocky stretch was a real challenge. as a result the group was waiting for these ‘back markers’ quite often, and some guys almost had to be carried up some parts of the track.
see the two guys (in orange) struggeling up?
i think splitting the groups further in ‘advanced’ and ‘expert’, would have helped riders of both levels to even better improve their skills, by adjusting the level of difficulty and speed to the precise needs of each group.
the way it was it might have been a little frustrating for both, the former, because they were up against obstacles they could not overcome by themselves (and would learn more form a slower approach), the latter because of the constant waiting.
after a very refreshing shower we had a huge dinner, and display of a video tape that had been recorded during the training sessions.
i left that one out, i was too sleepy. 😉
to be continued.