Brasil Ride Stage 6 Wrap

By Jason Sumner

The 2011 Brasil Ride’s first sprint decided the stage 6 winner Friday. The victors were Czech’s Tomas Vokrouhlik and Martin Horak (BMC), who bested Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso), jumping them on a sharp left hand turn from dirt to pavement at the 50-meter-to-go mark, then holding their small gap to the line.

There was no change in the men’s open GC standings, as Kristian Hynek and Robert Novatny (Future Cycling-Sweep) were a close third, losing only two seconds during the 128km ride with 1716 meters of climbing. They now have a 5:27 lead over Lopez and Pinto going into the final day of this seven-day stage cross-country stage race in the Brazilian state of Bahia.

The top of the women’s standing remained unchanged, as Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) took their sixth stage win.

The outcome was also a duplicate in the mixed category, with German Ivonne Kraft and Brazilian partner Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) notching their fourth stage win. If the pair were racing the open men’s category, they’d be 11^th. Stick them in the masters men’s field, and they’d be third.

The second running of the Brasil Ride concludes Friday, with an amended – and blissfully shorter – stage. Organizers shelved the original plan – a 107km, mostly flat fireroad grind starting and ending in Mucuge. 

They said the change was necessitated by on-going fire concerns in this time of drought. But have to wonder if they just decided riders a break. Whatever the case, the new plan is a 49km route with “zero” climbing, some road sections, and some singletrack, including the techy prologue route. Your author, for one, is certainly not complaining