When you get a phone call from out of the blue asking if you want a free trip to a tropical island to ride bikes for a week, you don’t take your time to shout
YES down the phone. After my first visit to Madeira was back in 2014 and I've since been back a few times for obvious reasons. Thankfully I did a good enough job covering this very event in 2015 that they wanted me back in 2016, and this time they asked me to recommend and invite two UK riders of my choosing.
I gave my long time mate and DH pinner, Rich Thomas, from the Wideopenmag/Nukeproof team and Rowan Sorrell, from Bikepark Wales/Orange Bikes, a call and flights were hastily booked. An interesting fact for you here - Rowan was on the cards for the 2015 trip, but regrettably broke his leg just two days before we booked the flights, so getting here in 2016 was a fairly big thing for him. Rowan's been through the ringer with injuries of late, so this was rad on a number of levels.
The race organizers had invited a good number of well-known international race teams and riders for this event and considering this is a race with less than 100 competitors, it had a fairly good elite field. Taking advantage of the fact people want to come to Madeira anyway (especially at this time of year) and with help from the tourism board, we had the likes of Steve Peat, Joe Barnes, Ludo May, Greg Callaghan, Josh Lewis, Innes Thoma, Katy Winton, to name but a few.
After enduring the best (or worst) part of a bleak British winter, we hopped on the plane with sunny weather and hero dirt on our minds. Upon landing in Madeira, we were shocked to see the weather forecast telling us quite the opposite. The island sees snow once every in five years or so, so it was pure bad luck that the week we were there, the snow arrived and did its best to disrupt things. The snow was so bad that the top 400 meters of the island was shut off by police. Temperatures were close to freezing above 1200 meters and the locals were going crazy, driving up the mountains to see the snow. So, it was time to get our coats on and get stuck in.
For riders' safety and thanks to the weather, a hard call was made to cut the race short and move the racing to Sunday, with training only on the Saturday on trails below 1400 meters - a massive bummer for the organisers and racers, but safety must come first and rightly so. Not what most wanted, but as they would find out in the end, it may have been a huge blessing in disguise.
Stages one, two and three where all high up on the mountain in the woods, with plenty of good flow, lots of mud, big ruts, and natural tech, with lots of short, sharp sprints. Stage one's winning time came in at 8:32 with EWS podium regular, Greg Callaghan. Only four other riders - the four who funnily enough, race the EWS regularly, all getting in times under 9-minutes mark.
There where a few guys who had come over as part of the 'foreign crew' and doing their first ever enduros. Rich Thomas, and 'Mad Max' where two of those guys. The crazy thing was that they both came away with results they where happy with. A big shout has to go to Max, who did 45km with no dropper post, in skinny jeans, a hoody, canvas Vans shoes and came away with second place in the Open Mens category. Talk about keeping it real!
There was then a 20km liaison, which wasn’t so hard. The race started at the highest point of the event, and the stages worked their way down the hill for the most part. While the liaisons may have been long, they were thankfully quite flat and cruisey for the most part.
Stage four was up next, representing another long and physical stage with steep, slick and tight top sections that skirted along the edge of huge sea cliffs before entering a faster bottom section that claimed a few punctures.
Another 45-minute liaison down to the coast and into the final stage of the day, with plenty of open, rocky and fast trails that took riders right down to sea level.
After the racing was done, it was a short shuttle back into town for beers and food on the beach, while everyone waited for the results guys to tally up who had won.
Getting to the end of the day with nobody having a clue how they had got on was quite exciting. With only four of the men’s elite field used to actually racing enduro, and the rest being a mix-match of part timers or DH'ers, there was a lot of tired legs and thanking the fact it was only a one day race and not two, like originally planned.
In the end, it was as I had predicted two days previous. EWS regulars, used to the longer trails came out on top, with Irishman, Greg Callaghan, taking the win by some margin. He was closely followed by Scottish shredder Joe Barnes and local hero Pombo, in third. His fitness may have let him down, but as he showed on the last stage, Pombo has some blistering pace and some mental lines - he's also Madeira born and bred.
I hope I get invited back next year (as do most of the riders I'm sure). With a top group of guys, amazing food, even better scenery and some fun riding with their mates and getting in some useful pre-season time on the bikes, what's not to like? As most of us know though, once the clock starts ticking, it's hard not to push 100-percent, pre-season or race season!
Big thanks to
Visit Madeira,
Freeride Madeira,
Hotel Paul do Mar,
Hotel Duas Torres, and Everyone for taking part and see you at the races in a month or so!
MENTIONS: @aspectmediauk
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