John Fernandes of Freeride Madeira on the highs and lows of building a mountain biking paradise
The Ride Companion
TRC Media House
4.9 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2025
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Olly sits down with John Fernandes, co-founder of Freeride Madeira. John takes us through the wild journey of turning a passion for trail building into a global MTB hotspot, hosting the Enduro World Series, Trans Madeira, and welcoming some of the biggest names in the sport.
The lads discuss how Jacob Gibbins' iconic photos and Brendan Fairclough's first visit helped put Madeira on the map, the behind-the-scenes madness of shooting DEATHGRIP, and what it really takes to maintain over 200km of hand-built trails across the island.
John also shares what it was like hosting the EWS, the brutal reality of trail building, why other companies aren't pulling their weight when it comes to maintaining the trail network, how Brandon Semenuk managed to end John's relationship! Finally John talks about what's next for Freeride Madeira, including new eMTB trails, jump lines, and the epic expansion of Trans Madeira to a whole new island. If you've ever dreamed of riding in Madeira, this one's packed with history, insight, and plenty to get you stoked on booking a holiday!
Learn more at freeridemadeira.com or contact info@freeridemadeira.com
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | and you'll be ending at the beach, goes on Sand Beach for a party and dinner. |
| 0:06.0 | It's gonna be cool. |
| 0:08.0 | I've got an intro prepared, dude. |
| 0:16.0 | We're here at the ride companion, okay? |
| 0:21.4 | So I was going to come in hot with an intro. |
| 0:23.3 | I've got a small piece of paper from my shopping. |
| 0:25.9 | Got my Madeira hat on, dude. |
| 0:28.1 | Right, you ready? |
| 0:28.9 | Right, you ready? |
| 0:30.1 | Okay, so I've mentioned the island of Madeira too many times to count on this podcast. |
| 0:36.4 | I never stopped going on about the riding, and we are here right now. |
| 0:40.9 | We're here not only with Old Sheffé, I wrote here, that's the boss, right? |
| 0:45.8 | Is that quite good? |
| 0:47.0 | Yeah, as you say, it's more Spanish, but it's... |
| 0:50.6 | Oh, how did you say it in Portuguese? |
| 0:52.5 | You could say, like, O Pat say like, O Patraub. |
| 0:55.7 | O Patron, you know? |
| 0:58.6 | El Patron's something. |
| 1:00.3 | It's a, yeah. |
| 1:01.6 | You'll take me. |
| 1:03.7 | You know, well, that's it. |
| 1:06.6 | Well, so you're not, you, you're actually the boss, man. |
... |
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