Madeira takes a year out from the Enduro World Series in 2018, but in comes the Trans Madeira, a 5-day, 200km, 25-stage enduro race.
Antonio Abreu is one of the team behind Trans Madeira and likely the man you’ll be speaking to during the race entry process. We caught up with Antonio to see where Trans Madeira came from.
What’s your background in the cycling industry?
Freeride Madeira started officially in 2013 with the goal of promoting Madeira as a unique mountain bike destination, focused on bike holidays all year round, offering a 360 degree experience of the island, its culture, trails, landscapes and passion for the sport.
Since then, Madeira has grown so much in terms of mountain bike tourism and has been proving itself as one of the most diverse terrains on earth. Our experience in the cycling industry comes from working with tourists from all around the World that visit us from January to December to experience the islands trails and the freeride lifestyle.
It also comes from working with some of the most influential people in the industry, from filmmakers to photographers to World-Class athletes. We are proud to organise bike holidays for the big names of the industry, bike camps for big groups and press launches.
Last year we were part of the Enduro World Series, which was a life-changing experience and a true test to our trails and capability to make it happen, and this is really how things kicked off for the Trans Madeira.
Photo by Antonio Abreu
How did Trans Madeira come about?
We feel that Trans Madeira is a bit going back to our origins as local mountain bikers, over ten years ago we were just looking for new trails that would take us from one side of the island to another on an epic adventure, usually finishing at sea level with a beer or poncha.
This is how Freeride Madeira also started but Trans Madeira really takes us back in time. We actually had the idea on the back burner before the Enduro World Series but had to postpone it a bit.
Madeira’s trail network has grown exponentially over the past couple years with new trails being built but also a lot of trails being reborn. These trails were used by our ancestors to move around and connected the island.
After the Enduro World Series Madeira, where we basically stayed in the East side of the island, we were blasted with questions from riders about other trails and Trans Madeira naturally emerged once more in our minds.
What we’ve been offering to Freeride Madeira clients for the past couple years it’s a true experience of the island, making them feel like locals with the food, the riding and the culture – add special stages and a ticking clock to all of this and Trans Madeira is born.
Photo by Sven Martin.
How did you choose the route for the event?
Our knowledge of Madeira’s trails connected to our experience of organising enduro mountain bike events for the past six years help us to understand the best way to move around. The island is quite small, about 50km by 30km, but the amount of trails that exist and the possibilities of making greater things are simply unbelievable.
With the highest peaks standing over 1800 meters, it’s quite easy to understand why it’s such a special location for this sport. The route is based on our trail network and the ways to connect them to an overall experience of the island but we also had in consideration the bike camp locations in order to offer a great adventure. We certainly want to have adventure and enduro racing well balanced for Trans Madeira. So you better be fit!
Are there plans to change the route over time?
There are surely plans to change the route in the future. We are aware about the limits of the island and surely some things will have to remain similar to prior years but changing some things will always be possible.
As this is the first experience we also want to get feedback from racers and from our local government that slowly starts to partner up and see the value of making this kind of events happen in Madeira.
Photo by Antonio Abreu.
What kind of red tape did you have to cut through to get the event off the ground?
There’s a huge financial investment in order to make Trans Madeira lift off in this first edition and before we launched the event we weren’t sure if we would have enough riders to break even. We had to create a weird cancellation policy that basically said that if we didn’t had enough riders registered till 31st January we would have to cancel the event and refund everyone. It was scary for all of us.
Fortunately, in the first five hours of registration we were already 50% sold out and we only have a couple spots left. The other thing is to get our local community and government aware of the potential that this sport has. These events are an open door to promote the island out there and we basically live out of tourism. Our goal is also to reach and change those minds in order to make Madeira an adventure destination for all kind of outdoor sports, with enduro and all other mountain bike disciplines carving and earning their place.
We already proven that but we feel that there’s still a long way ahead of us. With the event, we plan to keep our chase in legalising more trails and working with the official entities in making it sustainable.
Photo by Sven Martin.
What advice would give to anyone looking to organise a similar event?
Can’t give much of an advice for now as we’re still starting. We would say that it’s important to have a multi-disciplinary team in order to face up all challenges ahead. Get inspired by other successful events but create your own thing. Each place you ride your bike is different and that should be the thing that makes it work. Search for that and make it special for everyone.
Use your local knowledge and your passion to make greater things. Share what you’ve been doing for the past twenty years with those that visit you, they’ll enjoy more than you and you’ll realise that you’re fortunate to be able to ride these trails 365 days per year.
Sounds like a good advice? Hope so!
How many people make up the team behind event and what do they do?
The core team is based on four people, Antonio Abreu, Filipe Caldeira, John Fernandes and Roberto Chaves, the last three are Freeride Madeira founders and are active all year round making bike holidays and trail building which demands extra coordination.
Roberto and Filipe also have baby daughters, which makes it even more interesting! Antonio is more focused in marketing and logistics, Filipe on the financial aspect of the event, John on the international media and Roberto on the trails. We can’t leave out Alexandre Gouveia, Freeride Madeira’s certified and main trail builder.
Joining us we have a great support from a lot of people that will be more active during the week of the event itself. From a chef, to bike camp staff, to more trail builders…
Photo by Jacob Gibbins.
How did you learn what you needed to know to get the event off the ground to the point where you could open entries?
It was all based on our experience with organizing enduro races in Madeira for the past six years and also operating as an all year round bike holidays company. We’ve also used our experience of traveling around the World and communicating on a daily basis with professional mountain bikers that visited Madeira, where they always add their input to make things better.
To make the event process move forward was stressful as we needed to coordinate a lot of things in order to make it happen: trails we could use, cost predictions, permits for camping and racing, logistics, staff, date coordination, media, social media, website and specific rules.
Before launching the event we were nervous with the reaction of the local and international biking community but we got positive feedback on all ends!
Where next for you and Trans Madeira? How do you plan to go about getting extra helpers etc. etc.?
At this point we’re wrapping up registrations which close on the 31st January. Although we already reached our goal we honestly don’t want to leave a rider out and this means we can keep up our high quality standards and make it happen for a couple more riders that want to join in!
We plan to use all local staff to help us with all aspects of the event: bike camps, food, trail building, timings. We’ll have Aspect Media joining us as the official media crew that will be capturing the event every single day as well as two international photographers to get the word out there!
As we had the Enduro World Series Madeira experience, our team is strong and ready for the challenge ahead of us!
Photo by Sven Martin.
Anybody to thank at this point in the journey? Long suffering spouses/parents/friends?
Definitely!
There have been moments of panic, stress and fear but it all helps if we have a good family structure that have the right words to say in the right timings. In all things we’ve done in the past related to mountain biking we get deeply connected to it and we give all we have to make it happen.
It’s key and a true secret to the success of Freeride Madeira to offer an experience of a lifetime to someone that comes from the other side of the World to ride in Madeira – for that you have to commit 100% in everything you do. All this has to be balanced with our girlfriends, wives, friends and parents and fortunately we’ve been getting such a warm support from all.
We want to leave a legacy and we want to make history for Madeira once more – we feel lucky to be able to make mountain biking the way to pursue that.
