Team InFocus: Arson – Video
In 2016 Portugal was in grip of one of the worst droughts in its recent history. With high winds and average temperatures above 30 degrees ( 86 Fahrenheit) the country, unfortunately, provides the perfect target for heavy wildfires.
Until August last year nearly 116,000 hectares (286,600 acres) of forest, an area the size of 100,000 soccer fields, got burned.
Also the Algarve region, that is a famous tourist destination and provides some of Europe's best mountain bike trails, was hit by massive wildfires last year with almost 500 brave firefighters trying to secure the area.
What's worse about theses fires though is the fact that most of them are set on purpose by arsonists.
Ride Portugal, a company that builds some of the most stunning trails around, was another victim of these wildfires in September 2016. While three big fires were burning the landscape to the ground around the trails the police caught an arsonist that was just setting the fourth one!
Brian and his crew had to rework a lot of their trails to make them ridable again. The people of the Algarve area are more or less used to wildfires and face it with a positive attitude. After fire comes new life and the trials around Lagos now turned into an area of burned forest with fresh and lush flowers and greens spreading on the ground to claim back their habitat.
Team InFocus and Moment Pictures took a trip down to the Algarve to see and experience these trails first hand and all we can say is we were anything but disappointed. Thanks to Brian and crew for digging hard and creating such incredible trails for us to enjoy.
Dead but alive! Burned but beautiful! Andi Tillmann and Felix Heine on their way through the recovering trials of Lagos.
But back to the start now. When we arrived in Portugal we right away were caught by the incredible coastline! So many incredible spots to chill on the beach it was hard to concentrate on riding!
The beautiful weather and the prospect of hitting incredible trails made us mount our bikes in record speed though.
While Andi and Felix assembled their bikes the crew from Moment Pictures started to rig their filming gear.
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 After another check of the forecast, the whole team was stoked to hit the bed so that the next day will arrive faster! |
After a little warm up Andi and Felix right away switched to battle mode and tried to set the trails on fire in a different way!
Full moto by Andi Tillmann.
Full race mode by Felix Heine.
Andi telling Felix that his roosts are pretty damn big.
Proof.
Some of the most fun trails we ever rode.
Dropping in in 3..2..1...
Michi and Toni Tillmann were just as happy as the riders.
Couldn't stop riding.
This trail was the perfect mix of fast and loose cornes, tech rockgardens and flowy jumps.
Another one.
Roost.
There always needs to be time for lunch break! Andi obviously is looking forward for this treat.
Some lunchbreak fun.
Someone was looking pretty impatient to continue riding right here.
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After we finished up this trail we couldn't wait to go back to Lagos' incredible coastline to try and get some sunset epicness!
And guess what we again didn't get disappointed!
The boys up to.
Felix Heine.
Andi Tillmann.
DoP Toni Tillmann giving some last instructions to get some golden hour gold.
Power mannys!
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Not so bad at all.
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The Tillmann brothers. Founders of Team InFocus and Moment Pictures. Suckers of riding bikes and creating movies.
What people often don't see is the amount of work that goes into creating such a short clip. You wake up before sunset and shoot till sundown. When riding is done footage has to get checked, ingested, cameragear needs to get checked and the next day needs to get prepared!
What makes a great day even better! Great food.
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Before we went out to shoot the next trails we needed to get some of that Portugal flair.
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When it's hot like that you need to stay hydrated.
The landscape of Portugal is something else! If you haven't been there you should put it on your bucket list.
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Enough of this though! We came to ride.
Simon was our car drive and general manager of good times.
So was the magician behind these awesome photos Julian Mittelstadt.
But it never hurts to have a good time anyways.
Back to action! Was time to get some rocks under the rubber.
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But if there are jumps around you can be sure the boys will session it till the batteries are dead!
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Andi Tillmann with his signature one foot euros.
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| While Andi went full freeride mode Felix put some racing steeze in there! |
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If you have to hike a lot you get innovative! Andi using his Leatt brace as a hike-a-bike device.
The boys resting their hands.
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That backdrop though
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Short unintentional break.
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Good times with good people.
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Waiting for the last sunset of the trip.
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Over and out.
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Thanks for watching guys! Hope you enjoyed our little journey and leave us some suggestions in the comments!
Huge thanks to our sponsors Scott, Leatt, Acros, Chromag, Schwalbe and Alexrims for the awesome support and to Brian from Ride Portugal!
Special thanks go to Julian Mittelstädt for the hard work and the absolute bangers as well as to David Skoula for always helping us out with our bikes!
For more updates follow us on www.fb.com/infocusmtb or Instagram @teaminfocus
Production by www.momentpictures.com
MENTIONS: @teaminfocus
Author Info:
München, Germany
Must Read This Week
Awesome and inspiring video to start my Thursday morning out with!
a lot of burned trees stil can give raw material
not for furniture
but for clenex is cheap raw material