Hynek and Novotny turn the tables on day three

Imagine running the Indianapolis 500 through midtown Manhattan and you get the general idea of what Tuesday’s Brasil Ride stage 3 cross country looked like.

At 10 a.m. sharp, all teams in the top five of their respective categories (open men, open women, mixed, and master’s men) were turned loose on a 7km circuit that started and finished in the small town of Rio de Contas. Three minutes later, the gun sounded for the rest of the field, made up mostly of serious weekend-warrior types.

You can guess what happened next. With five laps of racing on the docket, it took less than two laps before the top men’s teams were barreling through the back half of the amateur field; some riders were lapped twice by the elites.

That made for some interesting – and occasionally harrowing – moments, especially on the crux of the circuit, a steep, loose, rocky descent near the end of the lap. It’s not often that a World Cup-level field has to pick its way around walkers on the fastest part of the course.

“It probably wasn’t ideal for anyone, but I think people understood and made the best of it. And it was a very fun trail,” said stage winner Kristian Hynex (Future Cycling-Sweep), who escaped early in the 35km race with Luis Pinto (Spano-Luso), and then took a two-up sprint at the line, stopping the clock in 1:33:58. German Lukas Kaufmann (Easton Rockets) was third, at 2:26.

The good news is that this unique stage included the core elements of a true mountain bike race: technical climbing, rough and fast singletrack, and the aforementioned loose, rocky plunge that favored full suspension bikes and/or riders with a little courage.

There was also a quick trip through the inside of a small, open-air chapel, right after a steep hike-a-bike and right before the plunge, giving riders a chance to say their prayers before dropping in.

The compelling challenge was stark contrast to stage 2’s 145km slog, that culminated with mind-numbing, 20km fire road climb in the heat of the day.

“That was some seriously good stuff,” said Californian Paul Romero (Sole-Specialized), who was second master across the line and 26th overall. “If you got a clean line, you could really moto it, just launching off one ledge drop to the next.”

Tuesday was also the only day in this seven-day affair where teammates didn’t have to ride together. Instead, it was every man or women for themselves. Afterward the combined time for each two was averaged to calculate impact on the general classification.

That gave Hynek and teammate Robert Novatny a 1:53 GC gain on Pinto and his partner, Alejandro Lopez, slicing the GC gap from the Czech to the Iberian duo to just 44 seconds with four days of racing to go.

The mixed field saw greater expansion, with German Ivonne Kraft and Brazilian partner Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) widening their GC edge over the Italian duo of Annabella Stropparo and Piero Pellegrini (Annapiero) to more than 40 minutes.

Stropparo’s mere presence in Brasil has rankled some feathers within the Brasil Ride peloton, as the former World Cup star is in the midst of a doping suspension. But since this is not a UCI-sanctioned event, there’s nothing stopping her from racing.

“I don’t understand why some people are so worried,” Stropparo said, claiming that her case is still under investigation and that she feels she will be exonerated. “I am in trouble because my old boyfriend was not a good guy, and they try to make me part of it. My husband and I was invited here by the race director and I think it would be great to take a holiday doing what I love to do.”

The top of the women’s standing also remained intact, as Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) took their third stage win in a row. For comparison sake in the unofficial women’s stage 3 standing, Kraft was first (44th overall), Stropparo second (46th), Nascimento third (64th), and Gobbo fourth (100th).

Up next in Brazil is the stage 4, an 81.5km loop starting and finishing in Rio de Contas. In between riders will face a 2343 meters of climbing.