Hi all,
I've booked a trip to Madeira mid October for myself and girlfriend.
We are using Freeride Madeira for 4 days of riding. She rides at a 'Red' level and we have booked a tour based on this. Has anyone ridden a 'Level 4' tour recently? Tricky thing to gauge the level - One red trail is another countries black. Enough trails of this level for 4 days riding?
Either way I'm sure it will be a laugh!
We’re considering booking for mid October too and using Freeride Madeira.
Haven’t quite decided if we’re doing it or not.
I’m hoping for reasonably flowy long trails rather than just about hanging on. You’re right though, I’m having trouble finding out the actual level of the riding.
Level is easy red, with some optional jumping.
I’d personally heard the riding there was pretty hard core, hence it’s on my list to go to. If it’s not so bad maybe I can convince my fella to go.
I went two years ago. There were many groups- fill their questionnaire in correctly and you'll end up with a group at your level.
I think I said something similar (red/ optional jumping), the guides were all very good and able to take us to a good variety of trails (stopping to point out the jumps for those who wanted to, nothing bigger than a few feet in the end). There was plenty of hardcore stuff available (that's what you see in the movies), but everything we did was rollable, and no major rock gardens or anything to be afraid of.
I only did one day, but was with people who had done several and they said most of the trails we were riding were new for them.
The trails were all fairly long (we did about 6/7 in a day I think), but the brilliant thing about Madeira is the variety. Due to the micro-climate they can take you to muddy or bone-dry trails (and lots in between). We did one fairly average trial to begin with, they used that to gauge what we were interested in and they took it from there.
Yeah i think there are lots of all sorts of different trails available, so If you have told them the sort of thing you want I think you'll be fine.
We went down one that had a 6 foot drop to flat in it, but this was clearly pointed out and there was a chicken line round it (which I took), most of the riding was pretty steep and gnarly though, like it always seems to be whenever I go abroad for biking
Ideal, thanks all.
Interested to see what it's like!
Only went for one day with FM. Despite me giving them my height etc a few weeks beforehand and me telling them i usually ride a Medium the day of the ride theyd prepped me a Large 🙄 No chance to change as they were ready to go, never really felt right. Then we went down this trail that was dodgy from overnight rain, guide and one other rider rode over this wooden bridge that switched back. As i got on the bridge the guide just shouted " Watch out!" no explanation, i hesitated bike slid from underneath me and i ended up down a ravine and fortunately the loop on my Camelbak hooked over a branch otherwise i would have fallen much further 🙄
