Claro Brazil Ride Stage 3 Wrap

The winner is the best team whose bikes don’t break By Jason Sumner

MUCUGE,Brazil - Testing trails, mechanicals and Mother Nature ruled the day on a rain soaked stage 3 at the 6-day Claro Brasil Ride mountain bike stage race Tuesday.

While GC leaders and stage 2 winners Robert Novotny and Kristian Hynek were busy dealing with a pair of punctures, Christof Bischof and Martin Gujan (Swiss Machine) were cleaning a pair of lengthy rock-strewn downhill singletrack sections on their way to a stage win in the 87km circuit that started and finished in Rio de Cantas in the Brazilian state of Bahia.

Novotny and Kristian Hynek (Free Cycling/Factor Bike) ended up third at 3:52, easily maintaining their lead in the hunt for the overall. “The winner of this race wont necessarily be the best team. The winner will [be] the best team whose bikes don’t break.” said Hynek, whose team sits on top of the GC by 13:06. 

In the women’s open class Ivonne Kraft and Celina Carpinteiro took their third straight stage win, as did the husband and wife mixed team of Brian and Jenny Smith.

Both teams are also way out in front in the GC, with Kraft and Carpinteiro up 45 minutes on the Brazilian duo of Janildes Fernandes Silva and Julyana Rodrigues (Jaju), and the Smiths 22:42 up on Swiss Damian Perrin and Renata Bucher.

Fellow Coloradoans Jeff Kerkove and Sonya Looney (Topeak-Ergon) had an off day due primary to Looney’s on-going back-muscle problems.

“It got so bad I could barely walk,” said Looney, whose team sits more than 25 minutes off the lead. “Today Jeff said his effort level was around a two. Mine was probably a 10.”

The deluge of rain didn’t make things any easier. A wicked midday storm pummeled the front of the field, and forced some of the back markers to find an alternative route when one of the course’s river crossing became impassable.

Racing in Brazil continues Wednesday with another Rio de Contas circuit. This time riders will cover 95km and ascend 1750 meters.

Live vicariously through the Brian and Jenny Smith Claro Brazil Blog

Start in Rio Contas	Digging Deep	Jeff Kerkove and Sonya Looney
Czecks lead pre punctures	Swollen River	Techy Trail
Wet Ride	On the move	Sffering

Overall Results After Stage 3: