Suarez wins Tour do Rio

Juan Suarez has topped a week of domination for his EPM-UNE team, holding on to claim overall honours at the second Tour do Rio. The fifth and final stage of the event, 183.9km from Rio dos Ostras to Rio de Janeiro, was won by Jamis-Sutter Home's Eric Schildge from a five-man break with the peloton crossing the finish line more than two minutes after the American.

Suarez's maintained his 27-second advantage over teammate Jaime Castaneda to win overall. EPM-UNE swept the GC podium with Edward Beltran finishing third overall, 37 seconds behind Suarez.

Suarez told reporters beside the podium that his victory was due to the hard work he had put in with his team firstly on Stage 3 where he escaped for a 22-second win, and then backed up with a solid performance on Saturday, where he finished sixth, 10 seconds off the stage pace.

"This is an important win for me," the Colombian said. "The team has done an excellent job and I thank them for all the work they've done here. This race was won in the mountains."

Suarez and his EPM-UNE teammates received strong competition from the local Brazilian teams, with Antonio Nascimento (Funvic / Pindamonhangaba) the only rider to break up the Colombian domination at the top of the general classification - the team claiming the top four places, with Nascimento fifth, 57 seconds back.

"Congratulations to the Brazilians, they worked really hard this week and pushed us all the way," Suarez said.

Coledan ejected from race

The day got started under a cloud with Trevigiani's Marco Coledan barred from starting the race after it was deemed that he had persistently racially vilified other riders within the peloton. Cyclingnews understands several riders were labelled as "monkeys" by Coledan. The move followed constant aggression within the peloton over the opening stages of the race. While UCI officials would not comment, race organiser Luisa Jucá was very unhappy with the behaviour of the Italian.

"I hate racism," she told Cyclingnews.

Coledan was fined under UCI article 12.1.040 following Saturday's stage with officials meeting yesterday evening to discuss disciplinary action, with Jucá saying there was no choice but to ensure the Italian did not start on Sunday.

"How can we leave a guy like that in the race?" she said. "He's a visitor to our country and it's a criminal offence to say things like that here. He could not stay; he had to be made an example of. It doesn't matter which team he rides for. If he wants to come to Brazil, he must abide by our rules. Next year, Trevigiani will not be invited."

Early break goes long

With Coledan confined to the team car for the day, Stage 5 got underway from the beachside town of Rio dos Ostras. Only 18 kilometres down the coast the day's break of Schildge, Walter Ribiero Jr (Caloi), Breno Sidoti, Magno Nazaret (Funvic / Pindamonhangaba) and Mirko Tedeschi (Petroli Firenze) formed with a 10-second gap on the peloton. The escapees steadily moved out of sight on the long, flat stretch of highway, assisted by a strong tailwind, for a maximum advantage of 5:10.

"At the start line, Ani (Anibal Borrajo) said: ‘Eric, this will be a good day for you to go in the break,'" Schildge told Cyclingnews following his win. "And I said: ‘Ani, I'm a little tired man, yesterday was really hard. And he said: 'okay, if you want to just stay in the field then you can just help me in the finish'.

"There's something about it now in my brain, to be a breakaway guy, so when that break went, I just hit it. Oh my god were we going fast! In that first 15 – 20 km we were going about 55 km/h on the flat and I had to tell the guys to slow down a bit."

Nazaret began the day 14 points behind points classification leader Edgardo Simon (Caloi) and in 6th position in the race for the green jersey and so began to chip away at the margin, claiming third in the first intermediate sprint, before going on to be first over the line in the remaining three primes.

As the 20 kilometres to go sign loomed, so did the Rio-Niterói Bridge, which crosses Guanabara Bay to the north of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

"That was my most nervous moment," explained Schildge. "When we hit the bridge I was like please let it be flat. But I think by 180 kilometres nobody had the legs to put in a really big attack."

Despite what many had predicted for the stage, the breakaway was not going to get caught and the five escapees would be left to fight it out at the finish within the grounds of the old imperial family's home in the city's north, Quinta da Boa Visa.

The picturesque parklands were packed with locals young and old and Schildge had his eyes firmly fixed on the slight rise to the line.

"That's my kind of finish," the beaming 23-year-old said. "It was very long and I knew if I could get any kind of gap on those guys that they would never come around me. The people in America don't know that about me yet but hopefully they'll know now."

It was Schildge's first win of the season, and the biggest of his career. Having toiled away in breakaways over the last three stages, the Dartmouth-educated rider was especially pleased to come away with the win.

"My fiancée asked me: ‘Why do you always go in the breakaways? You're a sprinter,'" Schildge said. "And I said: ‘Every once in a while one's going to stick.' I've been in maybe a dozen or more breakaways this year and this is the first one to make it to the line and it's a good one."

Nazaret's fifth placing earned him the green jersey, by five points over Simon and fellow Brazilian Rafael Andriato (Petroli Firenze). As there were no King of the Mountains points on offer, Antonio Nascimento (Funvic / Pindamonhangaba) was unchallenged on 26 points, 14 ahead of his nearest rival for the polka dot jersey Ibon Zugasti (MMR).

It was unsurprising that EPM-UNE cleaned up the teams classification while their rider Edward Beltran finished as best young rider.