WE SURVIVED THE HARDEST BLIND ENDURO RACE IN THE WORLD! | Trans Madeira: Race Day 5

Five days, 30 blind stages. The most epic week of my life, hands down. This was unreal. Thanks for following along, guys. Loading bikes up for the last day of riding. Body's tired, everyone's exhausted, hands are smoked. Six stages to go around 3,000 to 4,000 feet of climbing. It's gonna be a big last day, then we go stay in a five-star hotel. That's right, no more tent life. Bougie life, big party, showers. It's gonna be wild, let's go. Up at the top, stage one. Just woke up from a nap. It's pretty cold. Call us out by number and start pedaling. Morning. Sun. Yeah, have a good day. Cheers, bro. Day five start. Legs are basically cement. So cold, mentally and physically exhausted. It's gonna be a tough day, but the sun's out for a brief moment. We're gonna soak it all in, bitches. So fun. What do you think you are? Yeah, boys. So slippery already. Tight trees. Everything's blown. Everything's tired. Whoa. Holy ----. That was bad. There is no traction on the rocks. Yeah, all right, a little better. Yeah, this level of exhaustion is nuts. I'm so tired. It's a whole section of rocks that was just complete ice. Once you hit like that fire road, holy ----, good warmup. Stage one done. Old body, tired limbs. Stage one starts stiff as hell. The Madeiran ice is so real. Hit this stuff, I went rodeo. Both feet off the pedals, held it together. So hard, you're so tired. All your muscles can barely even unclip anymore to get my foot out. It's getting wild, five more to go. I don't know what these are called, but these little guys. Oh, ow. The sharp, the super sharp, jungle stuff. It's all dangerous. Finally made it to the start of stage two. Woo. Ready when you are, bud. Day five, stage two. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Come on. Damn it. Such a stupid crash. Such a fun stage though. Woo. Man, stage two was so fun. Super fast. Slicks and fun berms. Such a silly crash in one of the corners. My front wheel just washed. But, you know, it's all part of blind racing. Got up as quick as I could and pushed through. Man, it's hard. You really gotta keep your head up and when you're this exhausted, it just gets tougher and tougher. But, four more to go. Up, up, up. Stage three. From there, all the way over to there. Let's go. Whoa. Come on. All right. So tired. Easy. Whoa. These dips. Oh, I'm tired. So, so tired. Whoa. Should've taken that. Keep pushing. Inside. Good, good. Wow. Those are sick. So gassed. It's three done. Super exhausting. Time for a snack. Another stage, then a shuttle. Keep going. Slow and steady, Jimmy. Slow and steady. Ryan is really good at slow and steady. While we follow Ryan at a snail's pace up this hike-a-bike, let's talk about what we've learned at the Transmedera. First things first, it's really hard. Probably 10 times harder than I expected. It is just physically and mentally exhausting. I guess I didn't realize that one of the hardest things is staying organized, like making sure you know where your gear is. You don't realize you're gonna be moving pretty much every minute of the day. We get a maximum of maybe six hours of sleep if you're lucky. That's if the dogs aren't barking and the Cory seawater birds aren't making weird baby noises that give you nightmares. You gotta keep a steady pace, stay organized, and keep moving. The climbing, the actual transfers are also harder than I thought, but they're not impossible. A lot of the people here are amateurs, like myself. I trained pretty hard for this. Some people didn't train. Some people are just gifted. Some people can just handle it, but these are really big days. Days one and three are the biggest days. I mean, six, 7,000 feet of climbing is no joke, and then you have your race stages, so it all, it builds up, and the exhaustion really sets in. The other thing is the trails are not easy. The trails are tough. They rank them, take the rankings with a grain of salt because they don't always make sense. They're all relatively physical in one way or another because they're all really long. Most of the stages in the early days are like five, six, seven, 10 minutes, anywhere from two to three and a half kilometers. You can transfer that to miles yourself because my brain's not working anymore, but they're big, they're long, they're tiring. You gotta pace yourself and really learn to race your own race. There's also some pretty steep, slippery, gnarly stuff. They are pretty good at marking things. Gnarlier sections are marked with pink, which is caution. Gap jumps are marked with red flags. I forget the other ones, but they explain that all to you in the beginning. It's pretty well run. There's people all over the course. The medics are super fast. We had one severe injury. I think there's only one that I know of, and they saved the dude's life and got to him super quick on a crazy traverse up the big hike-a-bike mountain. What else, Ryan? Food's really good. I heard that the food wasn't very good, but I don't think I've ever eaten more food in five days of my life, and the food was killer, like fish, pork, fish. That's all I can remember right now. Lots of veggies, salad, kind of something for everyone, served for dietary needs and stuff, which is really good. Pasta, snacks, pastries, lots of pastries. They have these creme brulee tart things that are killer. Snack stations are good. They're giving us everything from sandwiches to M&Ms and Red Bulls and brownies and Brazilian bread stuff that's just unbelievable and never be able to pronounce it. Yeah, it's really well run. The only thing that really went wrong is ran out of toilet paper once. I mean, for how big this is and how much you cover and how long you're here, they do an exceptional job. So huge kudos to the whole team here for everything they do to make this happen. It's absolutely insane how fine-tuned it is. Oh, another big point is the weather. They tell you when you sign up that the weather changes in two minutes. It literally does. I think it's rained every single day at some point. Be sunny one minute, rain for an hour, then be sunny again, be freezing, be hot. So you kind of always have a rain jacket, always have some layers. Luckily, it's never too cold or too hot, so you can manage. Definitely bring a CamelBak with snacks and fuel and tools. Mechanics are really good. Mechanic stations, they had more parts than I think we have in America. I've seen them swap brake levers and derailleurs and wheels and fix all sorts of stuff. Really good team, they work 24 hours a day. Huge kudos to them. It's a really big hike bike and people look at me funny when I talk to my camera like this. Like this guy, see, he knows. What's your name? It's Lee. You like the race? Amazing, man. Was it worth it? That was just the most epic stage. How do your legs feel? Finally dried out. Legs are a spaghetti, but it's all gonna come together. Worth all the pain, right? Totally. We're gonna smash it out tonight. That's it. People are having a blast. People party, people have a good time. This is the most stress-free racing I've ever done. Granted, I don't care too much about the results like my buddy Ryan here. He's super fast, but it's an awesome time. Amateurs, pros, everybody's here to ride bikes and kill it. So, follow along for the rest of the day. And then I'll be shutting down because my brain's not working. Stage four, day five. Go. Here we go. Wow. Holy. Feeling pretty good. Everything hurts. So long. Yeah. Holy. Yeah. That was fun. That was a huge one. Yeah, Ryan. So tiring. I know. And so dusty. Yeah, it's crazy. We got juice and dust from two bikes. Yeah. That was so good. Yeah, buddy. The whole time we're just like, stay up, stay up, stay up. Dude, so many moments. We're two to go. Everybody feels good. See the excitement? Look at that. Yeah. A little bit. Last shuttle of the trip. The last like three kilometers stage two. Crazy fast, crazy fun. Two stages left. So sad. We're off. To the final two stages. Trans Madeira. Spring 2022. 30 blind stages. Come on, boy. Wow, it's steep. Yeah. This is wild. So steep. There we go. Wow. Yo. Oh no. Get back in there. Come on. All right. Oh, I'm so tired. So sketchy. That was sick. Come on. Oh my God. Yeah, I'm good. Hold on. There you go. The last two stages are pretty steep and fortunately after five days, my hands and legs are blown. I just can't hold on to the bars. Silly crash. Had some fun. Some more moments. Had plenty of those, but six months ago I didn't think I could finish this. So still stoked. One more stage. Finish strong. Yeah, boy. Final transfer. Stage six or stage 30 overall. Day five. Five days completely blind racing. Hardest thing I've ever done. Most exciting, ridiculous, amazing thing I've ever done. Met some awesome people. Had a killer time. One more stage. Time to finish strong. And there you have it, folks. Start the final stage. This is it. Final stage. Everybody, he's got no chain. I've got no arms. Everybody's exhausted. Everybody's stoked. We're going to finish strong. Let's go. There we go. Yeah. One switch, GoPro. Yeah, boy. Finish, boy. Yes. Oh, so good. Little gaps. Drop. Yeah, yeah. So tired. So fun. This was epic. Yeah. Oh my God. Levada. Yes. Holy. That was big. Yes. 100 meters. Oh my God. I can't hold on. Trying to finish strong. Pedal finish. Yeah. Oh my God. Yes. Yeah, buddy. Wow. Transmedia. Five days. 30 blind stages. Hands down the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Didn't think I could do it six months ago. Let's go. Final rip through the city. Unbelievable. Hell yeah, man. Thank you. There it is. Bro. So good, man. Thank you so much, dude. That was epic. Thanks, bro. Yeah, boy. You made it, bro. Good, man. There you go. Cheers, man. That's it, baby. Five days. 30 blind stages. All done. So good. So painful. The most epic week of my life. Hands down. This was unreal. Thanks for following along, guys. Well done. Yes. Nice work. There we go. Good job, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice work. Cheers, guys. Ah. Photo finish. Let me check into this bougie hotel. Bunch of bags. Too bad you can't smell it in here. Really bad. Nice glitter. I don't know. Look for our tent. 427. Ladies and gentlemen. Look at this. Not bad.