Another day, another victory for Hynek and Novotny

Image 1 of 6

There was a flip-flop at the top of the standings Wednesday at the Brasil Ride, as the Kristian Hynek and Robert Novatny (Future Cycling-Sweep) grabbed the stage 4 win and jumped into the yellow leader’s jersey in this seven-day mountain bike stage race in the Brazilian state of Bahia.

The Czech duo attacked on the last climb of the blistering hot 81.5km stage that started and finished in Rio de Contas, and made it stick, crossing the line in 3:33:26, 1:54 ahead of previous overall leaders Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso). But the gap is small with the top two teams separated by just 1:10.

“Halfway up the first climb we separated from the groups and it was just me, Robert, and the other Czech team,” said Hynek, the only member of his team who speaks solid English. “But just before the first downhill Luis and Alejandro catch us, and then in the technical section [Germans] Lukas [Kaufmann] and Christopher Maletz catch on.”

From there the four teams did a reasonable job of sharing the work across the stage’s mostly flat mid-section. But when the stage turned up once again, the heat started to rise exponentially, as did the action.

“Robert was stronger than Alejandro today and that was the difference that allowed us to attack,” continued Hynek, who when not racing his bike operates a small high-end cycling import business, which includes Enve Composites and Parlee. “The key for this race is always the second partner because that decides the speed.”

The mixed dup competition has also gotten heated, with German Ivonne Kraft and Brazilian partner Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) getting all they can handle from Italian duo of Annabella Stropparo and Piero Pellegrini (Annapiero).

“The battle is always in the first 30km,” said Kraft. “If we are ahead than she starts losing motivation in the head. But if she is still there then, she gets confident and it is very hard. Today it was a very hard day.”

Still Kraft and Ferraz took the stage and now own a 44-minute lead in the overall. Kraft would be crushed if it was the other way around.

“I do not think she should be here,” said Kraft, alluding to Stropparo’s recent troubles with the Italian doping police. “But now I must try to beat her to show that is not the right way to be.”

The top of the women’s standing remained intact, as Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) took their fourth stage win in a row in the three-team field. The lead in the overall is nearly 90 minutes.

“It would be nice if there are more teams here,” said Gobbo, who is better known for her adventure racing skills. “But we can always find other teams to ride with, so there always a race.”

Next up is another Rio de Contas start/finish stage, this time covering 95km with 1750 meters of climbing. Start time is 7 a.m. Cut off is 10 hours. Features include plenty of testing, rocky singletrack and the final grueling asphalt climb. Expect the heat to be a factor again as well.