For the second consecutive year, Honda's road racing stars John McGuinness and Conor Cummins joined their Honda Racing Endurance World Championship counterparts Freddy Foray and Julien da Costa and some of Honda's other elite riders and kicked off the season with an Assessment Day at the English Institute of Sport - the organisation behind much of Team GB's outstanding success at the London 2012 Olympics.
The riders were put through their paces in a series of physio and isometric tests, strength and conditioning assessments and fitness analyses. The data collected from each rider will be collated, compared to previous year's results and used to form the basis of their training and fitness programmes for the 2015 racing season.
The two-day event was organised by Honda Motor Europe, in conjunction with the EIS, as part of its ongoing commitment to maximising rider performance across all disciplines. Pata Honda World Superbike Championship stars Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark, 2014 European Junior Cup winner Augusto Fernandez, 2014 Honda 150 Champion Albie Wilkie and former World Enduro Champion Alex Salvini were also in attendance.
Conor Cummins was positive about the experience:
"I really enjoy coming to the EIS and this year has been even better as we're able to see any improvement and changes compared to last year. I have my own trainer and usually train with him alone, so it's nice to get together with the other riders and compare notes. I'll definitely be taking all the data back to my coach so we can use it to figure out my fitness programme for the year ahead."