Brasil Ride Espinhaco is a 5 day UCI stage race down in South America in a beautiful part of Brazil. It was nice to get the first stage under the hat after what was a pretty long 26 hour travel day, door to door, from the Guatemalan highlands to the Brazilian tropics.
The travel was smooth with Michael Graczyk dropping me at the airport after a great 2 month homestay with his family in Xela. Once on the midnight flight, I slept to Colombia, switched planes, slept to Brazil, then it was a 2.5 hour drive to race site in Conceicao do Mato, a small Brazilian town approximately 700 km North of São Paulo, surrounded by lush hills.
Coming in short on time, a day before the race, I took advantage of the limited time to pre-ride the 14 km sweet prologue course with a couple euros, Milan Damek and Tiago Ferreira, then set up the Kona Hei Hei for the conditions. Afterwards it was off to grocery shop and sniff out some dinner.
By the time the food duties were done it was pitch dark. Having to cross the divided road to the other side I figured I’d just bunny hop the median. Still jet lagged and not being able to see, I launched that median, not realizing it had a 5 foot drop on the other side. I ate shit hard. Flying over the handlebars, crashing heavy on the street below. The reflexes saved the day, escaping with just a banged up elbow and left shin. Being a hockey player, I jumped right up to get to the bench. AKA, remounting the bike and continuing onwards, hoping everything on the bike and body still functioned properly, which thankfully they did! Later, one the adrenaline wore off I realized I had hit one of my balls pretty hard, and it was sore for a few days afterwards!
Nonetheless I felt lucky to be lining up to race the Prologue the next morning. The body was pretty good outside of some swelling on the leg, and the achy ball, and thankfully the bike was also good but with a few battle scratches. The Prologue went solid 43.5 minutes = 10th on the stage, not bad for a diesel engine on a short hard course in the tropics. Stage 2 would be a better gauge of the fitness with50km 1400m on deck . The plan was to stop hopping off night drops and start moving up the standings!
Stage 2 through the green rolling hills of Brazil was a tough one for the Canadian. The engine was revving high on the opening 20 minute climb, so when the lead group of 12 riders lulled, I put in a surge breaking off the front, setting a few KOM’s, getting fired up for the rest of the stage ahead. 2016 World Marathon Champ, Tiago Ferreira from Portugal would come ripping by near the top, he was on a mission, then a few Brazilians came chasing hard. Settling into a group from 4-6th, we had a good rhythm going into the long descent. Both these guys sprinted hard for the trail so I let them have it since they were locals and probably new the lines. That was a mistake as one guy took off while the other one blocked the trail for a few minutes, ignoring all the requests to pass.
Trying to squeeze by I had a small crash, bending the handlebar direction, but soon after the opportunity came to pass so I went for it with the crooked cockpit. The trail was rugged rolling over some rocky and uneven terrain. It was proper mountain biking. The best tactic was to go fast so the wheels wouldn’t get stuck in the big holes between rocks. With the technical aspect of the descent I decided to pull over to bang the handlebar back in alignment, the masses caught up from behind, then heading into the next climb the legs went MIA. One group went by after another.
Having spent 4 of the last 6 months at high altitude, and using my Isocapnic respiratory trainer from Luke Way, the lungs and cardio are at an all time level. They were saying go go go, while the legs, were probably caught off guard, pushing alot more watts here at near sea level, compared to up at 2200-3500 meters where most the training had been. Basically I blew myself up really good. From experience, I know the legs will catch up and adapt, but it may take a week or two.The heat and humidity of the tropics was also something. Generally I can escape a 50 km race on 2 bottles, but this day I’d stop twice to refill, taking in a total of 6 on the day and still coming across the finish line well dehydrated.
Lots of rehydration with F2C Electro-durance post race, and a Brazilian buffet in the evening had the body feeling much better when it went to bed.
The Queen’s stage at Brasil Ride Espoinhaco was one to remember taking us into the beautiful Serra do Intendente natural park.
After the full tropics meltdown on stage 2, I was concerned about even finishing the 83km, 2300vm stage 3. Going out conservatively, dangling off the back of the lead group of 15 riders, I’d stop at the first feed zone to reload the bottles with fresh cold water while the rest rode away. From that point on the body came alive, in large part thanks to the cloudy weather and cooler temperatures as we climbed up to a plateau at 1400 meters in the Park.
The riding was great with a big climb, a nice traverse across the top then an epic 30 minute single track descent down a proper rugged, rocky natural trail. It tested my bike handling skills and put my 120mm of Fox 34 suspension to full use! The challenge was to focus on the trail and not be distracted by the waterfalls and gorgeous surrounding landscapes.
As the day went on I was picking riders off and soon had 5/6th in sight. After a long chase I’d catch them on the finishing climb and attacked right away as the legs were good. I couldn’t shake the one guy, he just stuck to my wheel not wanting to pull through, so we had a sprint for 5th, unfortunately the gears slipped and he got it but it was nice to have the power back after a rough one on stage 2.
Stage 4 was an old school 6km XCO course which we lapped 4 times. It was pretty rad with one big climb followed by a long rolling descent on some great flow trails back into the Brasil Ride main stadium. The legs were good this day and after the opening 3 km double-track climb I had made my way from the 40’s up to top 10, then sprinted a few guys to head into the trails in 6th, just off the leaders. The trails were loose, with a pile of bermed corners, a couple drops and no where to let the guard down or you’d hit the deck for sure. It was a brutal 1 hour and 5 minute race fighting a seesaw battle for positions 5-12th. Every lap we’d go cross-eyed fighting up the climb for positioning on the trails, then hang on for dear life before repeating. In the end I’d roll in 8th, setting up a tight battle in GC the following day for a top 10 as the competition was tight with 5 of us sitting within a few minutes of each other.
Post race the stages would be spent around the main stadium catching up with fans and other riders, having lunch, washing bikes, getting massages, then taking off on the 20 minute half pipe commute back home, down a big decent, through the town of Conceicao do Mato Dentro, then up a 20 percent climb to the hotel. Rolling through the cobbled streets of the town of 20 000 inhabitants, I’d usually start to crack so would stop by the Acai smoothie stand for a cold Acai berry smoothie. These berries are native to the Amazon area of Brazil and are considered a superfood containing loads of antioxidants, boosting the immunity and cooling the system, all good things after a tough day of racing! Dinners were usually spent meeting up with other racers at 1 of 2 local Brazilian BBQ joints in town which offered freshly cooked meat and a buffet of potatoes, rice, beans and veggies as sides. The diet seemed very similar to Canada, although I’d say Alberta beef is still superior!
The final stage at Brasil Ride was a 49 km loop, mostly double track, going through the surrounding agriculture and jungle landscapes. The course profile was like a saw blade with numerous short climbs and descents. After a 9 hour sleep the body was rested, but the legs were unfortunately MIA at the start of the stage, struggling to keep pace in the lead group of 18. Downing a gel, spraying water down my neck, I unfortunately couldn’t get the body into full gear and slowly lost the leaders, leading to a long solo slog ahead. With 20km to go the legs finally came alive on the days big climb, just in time to hopefully salvage the day. Passing 5 riders was a momentum boost before hitting a cool single track descent through a tunnel of trees. Some of the single track this week was actually pretty gnarly, and the Brazilians were hitting the often blind corners full speed which told me they had done their homework!
Suffering at the the start of the stage I was wishing it was over, but now with the legs firing I was wishing it was longer, knowing I was gaining ground back. In the end the stage came to a close in just over 2hrs. The atmosphere was great around the stadium as the Brazilian cycling culture appears alive and well. Mario Roma and his team at Brasil Ride sure know how to put on World Class events. I had previously raced the World 24HR Champs down here in a different part of Brazil in 2019, also put on by Mario and his crew which was a great show.
As the results tallied up, I had missed 9th overall in GC by just under a minute, ending up 12th. It was a tight battle all week with a solid group of riders from Europe and Brazil. The meltdown stage 2 was costly in the overall standings but this week of tough racing will pay off later on in the year. Now it’s time to let the past 2 months of non stop training, racing and bike touring in South America settle into the system before the main part of the race season kicks off end of May in Canada with a Belgian Waffle Ride and then Unbound Gravel XL the weekend after in Kansas.
Over and Out from Nepal where some high altitude training and some big mountain adventures are on deck!