Brasil Ride Preview

Follow Jason Sumner Through the Soggy Hills of Brasil’s State of Bahia

By Jason Sumner 

The 2011 Brasil Ride commences Sunday with a 12.4km prologue time trial in Mucuge, a quiet, small town that borders the breathtaking Parque Nacional Chapada Diamatina in the western region of the Brazilian state of Bahia.

The first day will serve as warm-up for this seven-stage, south-of-the-equator cross-country adventure, that will send about 150 teams of two on a 585-kilometer journey that includes a Mount Everest’s worth of climbing.

While every day will present its own set of challenges, stage 2’s 145km slog from Mucuge to race co-host city Rio de Contas is likely to determine the overall outcome. The day’s point-to-point route includes 3372 meters of climbing, and will take most riders at least 8 hours to complete. A year ago times ranged from 6:41 for eventual champs Robert Novotny and Kristian Hynek, to more than 12 hours for the last place women’s duo. Official stage 2 cut off time is a yawning 11.5 hours.

Stages 3, 4 and 5 all start and finish in Rio de Contas. That’s one more than a year ago, thanks to stage 3, a cross-country-format route where riders will contest five laps on a 7km circuit. Stage 6 brings the Brasil Ride peloton back to Mucuge via a 128km route that skirts much of the climbing encountered during the proceeding trip between the two towns. There’s only 1716 meters of ascending this go round.

Favorite tab in the men’s open class goes to Novotny and Hynek, who won the race going away a year ago despite a crash in the waning moments of the race’s final stage. In a bizarre incident, Novotny was inadvertently bumped by a video moto, crashed, and ended up in the emergency room with six broken ribs, a snapped collarbone, and a punctured lung. Race organizer’s enforced the “last 3km rule” meaning the Czech team won the overall even though Novotny never crossed the finish line.

Look for top challenges in the men’s open race to come from Portugal’s Luis Leão Pinto and Spaniard Alejandro Diaz de la Peña, who was a late replacement for Roberto Heras. Former Vuelta a España winner Heras was supposed to be in Brazil, but bailed due to a recent crash at a race in Italy.

Brazilians Gilberto Gois and Ricardo Pscheidt, third a year ago, should also be in the mix. 

The Gunnison, Colorado husband-and-wife duo of Brian and Jenny Smith are back to defend their mixed duo overall title. Top challenges will likely come from fellow Coloradoans Jeff Kerkove and Sonya Looney (Topeak-Ergon), and former German Olympian Ivonne Kraft and her Brazilian partner. Kraft was part of the winning women’s team a year ago. Kerkove and Looney placed third in the mixed class in 2010.

Check back to MountainFlyer.com all week for race reports and photos from this exotic South American adventure. In the meantime, here’s a look at some of the amazing sights and scenes from the 2010 edition.