Robert Novotny wins Brasil Ride without crossing finish line
The 98.5km circuit in Mucuge on Friday was the site of a dramatic conclusion to the inaugural edition of the Brasil Ride. Robert Novotny and Czech teammate Kristian Hynek were declared the overall winners
despite the former’s collision with a video moto which kept him from crossing the finish line and put him in hospital with a broken collarbone.
"Given the circumstances and the fact that the riders were only 2km from the finish line, we decided that this would not be the proper way to lose a race," said race director Mario Roma while announcing
the winner. "All the top teams agreed with this decision."
The teams and organizers sat down together to have a conversation, and ultimately awarded the Czech team the same time for the last stage as the group of three teams which crossed the finish line together.
Local pair Ricardo Pscheidt & Gilberto Gois won the stage with a time of 3:40:28, followed by the German team of Andy Eyring & Lukas Kaufmann and the Swiss team of Martin Gujan & Christof Bischof in the same time.
“The whole day was basically a truce because of the conditions, so there was never any pressure,” said Bischof to race press. “We even waited when the Czech team was having a problem with their wheel.”
The overall classification was pretty much already set in stone. The Czech team led by over 17 minutes ahead of the Swiss pair, and more than an hour ahead of the overall third-place Brazilian team. Witnesses
explained that the video moto had swerved unexpectedly and the crash was no fault of Novotny’s.
Husband-and-wife team Brian and Jenny Smith won the mixed competition thanks to winning all of the first five stages. Swiss pair Renata Bucher and Damian Perrin had the honour of winning the sixth and
final stage.
Only six women’s teams survived until the end of the final stage, with Portugese team of Ivonne Kraft and Celina Carpinteiro dominating for most of the race and winning the final stage in a sprint ahead
of local pair Janildes Fernandes Silva and Julyana Rodrigues, matching the winning pair’s time of 4:06:18.
The inaugural edition of the race was proof enough that the Brasil Ride has the potential to be one of the most difficult races in the world. The final stage was so plagued with overnight precipitation
that several stretches of the course had flooded and the riders were forced to ride through the water, all-but destroying their bikes in the process.
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