It’s not all sunshine and lollipops as the 2021 edition of Trans Madeira enters its third day of five.
Multi-day racing has returned to the Portuguese island of Madeira for the Spring edition of Trans Madeira. Day three of racing is under way, and you can catch all the action from the last two days here.
Germany’s Christian Textor is leading the Men’s race, and is having a good battle with Joe Connell. Daniel Pombo is leading the Men30 category, with Pole Bicycles’ main man Leo Kokkonen leading the Men40. Anita Gehrig leads out her sister in the Women’s category.
Day 1 Highlights
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.
Day 2 Highlights
Day 2 at the spring edition of the Trans Madeira saw everyone wake up at the camp down on the beach in Machico on the far west of the island and head up, right up.
The day was planned to take in 7 stages, a lot in the damp, technical woods and drop down the south of the island finishing down in the capital city of Funchal, and the next camp of the week right down on the waterfront.
The weather gods had other plans for us all though and decided to throw in some biblical levels of water just to spice things up. With stage 1 turning into a river, but with more water and the remaining stages looking much the same. It was called just before lunch to cut 3 stages from the day due to flooding and medical access, so 7 became 4 and everyone made a much-needed early return to camp to dry off and refuel.
Day 3 tomorrow promises some of the most epic parts of the week so there’s a lot of excited/nervous riders down here this evening.
