Transmadeira is a one-of-a-kind mountain bike race held on the small Portuguese island of Madeira in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. For fifteen years, the event has welcomed adventurous visitors to compete on world-class trails for five days of racing across a course that covers nearly every part of this picturesque rider’s paradise. Last month, Marcelo Gutierrez joined Transmadeira, and he shares his experience below.
Almost 24 hours of moving time, almost 10K meters gain, and almost 250km in 5 days of riding and over 140 riders, THAT’S EPIC!
TransMadeira 2022 was an experience that I wont ever forget and better than that, a dream come true. 3 years ago that I stopped my racing carreer and decided to go and tick the boxes of those places and advenutres that I have wanted to do for a while, so I am so glad and grateful that have finally made it to Madeira and even better than that, have finished on 2nd place on this magical adventure.
A five days event is definitely a challenge not only physicaly but mentaly. One thing is to race 1 track on a dowhill race, one things is to race an enduro race where you might have 5/7 stages that you sort of have an idea of what’s coming and it’ll be for one day or max two days, but a whole different game is to race BLIND 30 tracks in all sort of different conditions for 5 days in a row.
It was a constant battle between my racing self and my new mindset… Of course you are on a race, but at the same time there are some rad flowy sections and some insane views that almost make you want to stop and repeat or simply enjoy the view. But well! I belive I won the internal battle and manage to enjoy every single stage, give my 100% make tons of new friends, manage to ride clean and steady so I could keep the bike in good shape for 5 days and also being aware of my own energy so I could attack each day as hard as I could.
The biggest thing that I would take from these sort of events is to see how amazing the bikes are, gathering 140+ people from 25 countries, ages from 17 to 64, men and women, hardtails, trail bikes, enduro bikes and even some crazy dudes almost in DH bikes. All of us with one goal: have a good time and ride bikes. There was nothing else that mattered during those 5 days than making the most of the experience. Lots of interesting conversations, the most incredible views; I belive it does not get much better than that!
Rider – Marcelo Gutierrez
Cinematography & Editing – Marcelo Gutierrez
Photos by @valen_tinr @carlodesantiphotography @johndrfernandes @
