Novotny and Hynek check back in at the top

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Another day, another host of epic tales from the Claro Brasil Ride mountain bike stage race.

Wednesday's setting was the second straight Rio de Contas circuit race, this time with 95km and 1,750m of climbing. The key features were a trifecta of bruising climbs: a reasonably gentle 25km grind at the start; a mid-race hike-a-bike from hell that lasted in excess of 30 minutes for most riders; and a precipitous nine-kilometre paved climb at the end that had multiple ramps in excess of 13 percent.

The highlights were several sections of giggle-inducing singletrack, more epic scenery, and enough cloud cover to keep the heat at bay.

The day's winners all started the stage in their respective leaders jerseys, resulting a further consolidation of the overall standings.

The Czech duo of Robert Novotny and Kristian Hynek waged the same battle they've been in all week: watch Christof Bischof and Martin Gujan (Swiss Machine) ride away on the technical downhill sections, then reel them back in when the course mellowed. This time it was the long, straight stretch of dirt road at the 70km mark that served as the reconnection point.

The end game came 15km later at the aforementioned punishing paved climb.

"Our goal from the beginning was to not lose too much time in the technical, but also not take a lot of risks," explained Hynek (Free Cycling/Factor Bike). "Our plan worked and when Robert attacked on the last climb, Bischof could not follow."

The winning margin was 4:40 on a day that lasted just over four hours and 40 minutes. The duo teams are 17:46 on the overall with two stages remaining.

Andy Eyring and Lukas Kaufmann (Team European Youngsters) held on for third in the stage despite two early punctures for Kaufmann. It's been that kind of week for the pair, who've had seemingly every mechanical known to bike racing.

Fortunately for them, they have faced an unglued bottom bracket shell, something American Jeff Kerkove did face Wednesday.

"It was about 10k [in] and the thing just came apart," said Kerkove, who along with mixed team partner Sonya Looney, ended up fourth on the stage. "It was bad. The chain wouldn't stay straight, it was skipping in basically every gear. It felt like riding without a rear skewer, the back end was moving around so much. So I had to ride super conservative."

The mishap resulted in a major tightening in the battle for third place. Kerkove and Looney now lead Paul Romero and Karen Lundgren (Sole-Ellsworth) but by less than four minutes.

The good news is that Kerkove found a loaner bike for Thursday courtesy of the Brazilian Topeak distributor, which also imports Scott bikes.

At the front of the mixed race, Brian and Jenny Smith made it four-from-four despite husband and wife spending unscheduled time in the dirt. Brian took a trip over his bars early in the stage while Jenny washed out her front wheel and hit her neck on a tree stump.

"My crash wasn't a big deal," explained Brian. "But like 20 minutes later I'm riding and all the sudden I hear Jenny screaming. For a second I really thought our race was over. But she wasn't hurt and pulled it back together."

The end result was a 14-plus minute win ahead of Switzerland's Renata Bucher and Damian Perrin (Team Zaboo Free-Mountain). The Smiths own a 37-minute general classification lead.

It was also more of the same in the women's category, with Ivonne Kraft and Celina Carpinteiro also taking their fourth straight stage win, and expanding their lead over the Brazilian duo of Janildes Fernandes Silva and Julyana Rodrigues (Jaju) to over an hour.

Italian Lorenza Menapace and Portugal's Sandra Araujo are third overall at 1:10:52, but took second on the stage.

"Sandra is getting a little tired because this is a first for her, but after getting dropped by the Brazilians early we catch and drop them on the singletrack," said Menapace, who owns dozens of 24-hour solo and XC marathon race wins.

Racing in Brazil continues Thursday with a trip back to event start city Mucuge. But unlike the brutal trip to Rio Contas, the 135km return has only 1,716m of climbing. Still, the race cut-off is nine hours, and number that could be tough for some of walking wounded further back in the field.

All told, 81 teams of two are still alive in this inaugural event in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Of those 81, 30 have logged in excess of 24 hours in the saddle in the last four days.

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