Video & Race Report: Race Day 1 - Trans Madeira 2021
After a year of positive thinking and hard work preparing the 4th edition of Trans Madeira powered by Cannondale, the race week finally came, gathering over 100 riders from several different nationalities on the Pearl of the Atlantic.
The first day out of the five started at the City of Machico on the Eastern part of the Island. An area famous for hosting the Enduro World Series and having an unreal diversity of tracks so close to each other.
The day started above the clouds waving through dusty berms and diving into loamy pine forest but also plenty of mud just before finalising the day on the iconic cliffs and Acacia forests of Machico. Riders are loving life and well it’s hard not to when your riding world class trails, making new friends, enjoying plenty of good food, beers and beach life.
48km // 725m Up // 2700m Down
Full results: here
First stop of this TM edition is Machico, very well known as is the host village for the EWS rounds in the island.
Hotel set for the first two nights.
Morning views from the base camp in Machico
Early morning scenes.
Loading the bikes in Machico to shuttle for stage 1.
Stage 1 is a classic, Parque Ecologico, a balcony over Funchal.
The dirt was running mint with good grip at Parque Ecologico
It's a snake of a trail
Christian Textor, second today. These switchbacks have seen a few World class events...
Misty.
Anita Gehrig, second today behind her sister Caro.
Joe Connell rode super consistent all day and is leading the race.
Jerome Clementz, stylish as ever.
Lachlan Blair, third fastest man today tweaking it on stage 1.
Fuel made creative at the food stops.
Plus bolo do caco, the traditional Madeira bread
Moody scenes on stage 2.
Alex Lupato, 18th today.
Local hero Pombo on Trutas trail.
Lewis Buchanan from Scotland, navigating on familiar conditions.
Dan Wolfe negotiating the slippery and muddy stage 2
Quite the views for part of the day.
Jono Jones enjoyed the wet stages, had a good day and ended up 4th.
Stage 3.
Zoom in and spot the rider.
Caro Gehrig, fastest woman today.
Quatro estradas, the DH classic trail, got extended with an, at first, easier trail that eventually made the riders struggle because of the rain and butter red dirt.
Joe Connell embracing the elements.
Stage 5 was shortened because of the slippery rocks at the bottom of the trail.
Steep corners at the top of Boca Do Risco, stage 6.
The classic featuring the leader Joe Connell.
And a different view for Peter Ostroski.
Down to Machico.
Very much needed after a day of dust and mud.
Hydrate o'clock.
To celebrate a great mountain bike day, Coral, what else?
Author Info:
Member since Nov 28, 2017
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Learn how to corner you cheating bandit.
I remember watching a certain ex downhiller, now EWS racer at an SXC race at Laggan, he straight lined a whole downhill section passing the entire elite field whilst they twisted around trees on the brown line, all were between the tapes so all fine. Finding lines is part of racing.
The irony though that JC was leading after day 1 and he famously got cutting the tape at the mega.
This incident wasn’t even close to the main line, so its not really a line choice argument.
If you raced or worked on any events like this you’ll know that the tracks are not double taped and the organisers rely on a bit of self policing to help keep things fair.
It's the organisers fault then, the track is within the tape. Them's the breaks
like I said, very harsh calling it cheating! you are confusing opinion with rules
Only done a couple of enduros (won them with no inside lines as everything was taped accordingly).
I have raced Dh many many times.
Enduro is just too bloody hard physically compared to Dh to do too many.
Oh by the way I’ve work on another Trans event for several years, so my opinion is not just pb couch shite… I’ve still got my notes of racers we caught cutting the course.
Can you setup wide on the green line for a corner as that's gaining an advantage too?
I like that you reverted to swearing. Good lad. I bet the kids reading love that stuff.
Sounds like you need some better defined rules for the public to read.
this guy but my guess is that all were probably doing it