Gujan and Christof avoid calamity to win

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Just hours after finishing a rain soaked stage three at the Claro Brasil Ride mountain bike stage race, the Czech duo of Robert Novotny and Kristian Hynek were camped out in a hotel courtyard, doing their best to prep bikes for the following day. The glum look on their faces told the tale. On this day, anyway, it'd been a losing battle.

"The winner of this race won't necessarily be the best team. The winner will the best team whose bikes don't break." surmised Hynek (Free Cycling/Factor Bike), who along with his partner ended up third in the 87km circuit that started and finished in Rio de Cantas Tuesday and included the most technical riding thus far in this inaugural six-day race in Bahia, Brazil.

Unfortunately for Hynek, two flat tyres derailed his team's run at the stage three win. But they only ceded 3:19 and continue to hold a solid 13:06 margin over the stage three winners.

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The victors and top beneficiaries of Hynek's misfortune were Christof Bischof and Martin Gujan (Swiss Machine), who excelled in the rock-strewn downhill sections, and did enough on the uphills to grab the stage win.

"In the first downhill we made a gap," explained Gujan, a World Cup-level pro who rides for Cannondale. "After that we just rode our race. We got caught on the uphill, but then in the next downhill we got a gap again. Then the Czechs had a flat and we were able to ride to the finish."

A for the notion that bike survival may prove as important as good form, Gujan was in complete agreement.

"With so much sand on the trails and the rain, it just destroys everything," he said. "Today we were not the fastest, we just had the best day overall."

In the women's open class Ivonne Kraft and Celina Carpinteiro took their third straight stage win, opening a commanding lead in the overall standings, 45 minutes ahead of the Brazilian duo of Janildes Fernandes Silva and Julyana Rodrigues (Jaju).

"It was a nice ride until the rain," said Kraft referring to a midday storm that 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. "I loved the technical sections, and Celina learned a lot. I think she will like it now, too."

It was also a three-peat in the mixed division, with Colorado's dynamic duo of Brian and Jenny Smith taking another stage win. Their biggest advantage, Brian Smith's ability to carve sweet lines in the techy singletrack, and his wife's knack for holding his wheel.

"Normally he's too far ahead of me, so I have no idea which way he goes, but here it's different," explained Jenny Smith, who lives in Gunnison, and along with her husband have a 22:42 lead overall. "I really trust what he does, so I can just follow him through."

Racing in Brazil continues Wednesday with another Rio de Contas circuit. This time riders will cover 95km and ascend 1750 metres. On the eve of stage four, race organisers warned riders that this will be the most technical day of the event, which couldn't have been good news for the Shimano neutral service crew.

"The rain and sand is making it very bad," said head mechanic Ronaldo Aguagm. "The biggest problem is brake pads. We are sold out of Avid Elixirs, and yesterday we work on 160 bikes. Today I think it will be more. We're going to be up working all night."

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