Tour do Rio ended with a victory for the Colombians and with good news for Brazilian cycling. Juan Suarez, EPM Une, was the fastest after the five stages and got to keep the yellow leadership shirt. But Brazilian cyclists Magno Nazaret and Antonio Nascimento have shown they were the best sprinter and the best in climbing up mountains. Both were from the FUNVIC/Pindamonhangaba team, and Nazaret got the green shirt of best sprinter, while Tonho was ranked the best mountaineer and got the white shirt with red polka dots.

The competition was complimented by Canadian Adrien Levesque, International Cycling Union’s (UCI) representative, and must ascend to level 2.1 on the next season. To mark the success of Brazilian cyclists, Brazil will have four spots in the road modality of 2012 Olympic Games in London.

“2011′s Tour was a complete success”, resumed the competition’s organizer and idealizer, Luisa Jucá, from Conexão Marketing.

UCI’s representative, Adrien Levesque, lavishly praised the event: “In terms of promotion and mass appeal, Tour do Rio was perfect. The routes successfully mixed mountains with fast stages and have my vote to ascend to UCI’s level 2.1. This way, it will be able to receive teams that participate in Pro Tour, like Tour de France”, stated Levesque.

TOUR DO RIO 2011 – 5th STAGE: OFFICIAL RANKING

Stage’s Ranking

Full Ranking

Ranking by Teams

Ranking by Points

Mountain Ranking

CHECK TOUR DO RIO´S BEST MOMENTS – 5th STAGE (RIO DAS OSTRAS x RIO DE JANEIRO)

Tour do Rio’s second edition ended this Sunday (7/31) with a 176 km route between Rio das Ostras and Rio de Janeiro. The EPM-Une team has confirmed its favoritism and got both the teams award and the full ranking award with Juan Suarez. The 26 year-old cyclist has overcome his teammates Jaime Castañeda and Edward Beltran, and got to keep the yellow shirt.

Suarez has taken the Tour’s leadership in its first mountain stage, the 3rd stage, which ended in Teresópolis. The South Americans’ good performance assured that six Colombians got placed between the full ranking’s top ten.

Among the teams, highlight goes to the Funvic/Marcondes Cesar/Pindamonhangaba team. The team had many reasons to celebrate its performance in the competition. Antonio Nascimento was placed 5th in the full ranking and was awarded with the King of the Mountain shirt, while Magno Prado, who won the 4th stage, ended the competition with the green shirt (ranking by points).

American Eric Schildge (Jamis Sutter) won the final stage after 3h49min23s of cycling. Schildge got to the finish line before the Brazilian cyclists Breno Sidoti (Pindamonhangaba) and Mirko Tedeschi (Petroli Firenze), who were respectively placed second and third. The three cyclists were part of an “escape” with two other athletes: Magno Prado and Walter Ribeiro Jr (Padaria Real). The “escape” group crossed the final mark with and advantage of 2min05s to the big group.

Aiming at conquering the green shirt, the team from Pindamonhangaba placed two cyclists in the “escape”. Sidoti won today’s first bonus sprint, while Prado won the three remaining bonus sprints in the stage. With this, Magno won 15 points and overcame Argentine Edgardo Simon (Padaria Real/Caloi/Sorocaba), becoming leader of the ranking by points.

On the other hand, Suarez and the whole EPM-Une team controlled their actions in the elite group and had no difficulty in maintaining both the full ranking leadership and the leadership by teams. It was one more victory conquered by the Colombians in Brazilian territory: in 2010, they won Volta de Santa Catarina and Volta de Gravataí.

Coledan expelled from the Tour

An isolated but unfortunate episode has marked Tour do Rio’s final day. Italian Marco Coledan (Trevigiani) was expelled from the competition after being accused of racism. The argument was between Coledan and Brazilian Renato “Centenary” (DataRo Cycling Club), and took place during the competition’s fourth stage.

Both were in the big group of cyclists when the misunderstanding happened. The Italians had already been criticized by the Colombians, but the situation got worse with “Centenary”. According to Murilo Ferraz, partner of the winner of Volta de Goiás, the Italian has used the terms “negro lazarento” (leprous nigger) against the Brazilian cyclist. “Since I have competed in Italy last year I understood what the Italian said and I told him that here in Brazil this was racism”, stated Ferraz.

Rafael Andriato (Petroli Firenze), who has raced together with Coledan in Trevigiani last year, lamented what happened. “Ever since the first stage we have had some misunderstandings, some argument between Brazilians and Italians. The Brazilians have been saying they moved a lot in the big group, but this is common in Italy. In Brazil things are a little different, and the major arguments have happened when some Brazilian cyclist was trying to position himself together with someone from their group.”

“What happened with Coledan, I’m certain that he did not intend to hurt the Brazilian cyclist. I didn’t see it, because I was in another group. We only have their two versions of the story.”

The decision of expelling the Italian from the competition was unanimously made by the event’s organizers.

By Leandro Bittar anda Tadeu Matsunaga , to the website Prólogo/ Revista VO2

In a few moments Tour do Rio 2011′s 5th and final stage will begin!

The cyclists will leave Rio das Ostras in direction to Quinta da Boa Vista in a route of 183,9 km, and will cycle for an estimated time of almost four hours.  One of the most exciting moments will be the athletes’ passage through the Rio-Niterói bridge.

It’s worth reminding that Argentine Edgardo Simon (Padaria Real/Sorocaba) is still wearing the green shirt of best sprinter, while Colombian Juan Suarez (EPM Colombia) keeps leading the competition’s full ranking and will run the last stage wearing the yellow shirt.

The race will start at 7 am in Lagia de Iriri, and will end at about 10:30 am in Rio de Janeiro’s northern area. Starting at 9 am, the Good-Bye to Training Wheels program will take place at the location.

Who will win Tour do Rio 2011?

Brazil got two top places in the podium of the stage. Magno Nazaret and Antônio Nascimento were the 1st and 2nd, followed by Tyler Wiren. Magno is the Brazilian champion in the modality.

“It was the hardest race in this year. There were moments, I thought about giving up. At two kilometers from the finish line, I was exhausted and had no strength left, I almost slowed down my pace. But the people on the street encouraged me and took me to the end”, said Nazaret. “The team has worked hard so that Tonho could win the mountain marks. When we were at 20 km from the finish line, I decided to part from the group and go forward”, he completed.

Antônio “Tonho” Nascimento has won the route’s two intermediary mountain awards and recovered the white shirt with white polka dots given to the competition’s best mountaineer, overcoming the Colombians’ favoritism.

“It’s an honor to wear this shirt. Tour do Rio is a wonderful event: it’s very well organized and it has strong athletes. Being the King of the Mountain is something special”, said Tonho, who will stay with the symbolic title for the rest of the Tour, since the last stage will be plain and there will be no mountain marks to be reached.

Argentine Edgardo Simon (Padaria Real/Sorocaba) kept the green shirt of best sprinter, while Colombian Juan Suarez (EPM Colombia) kept leading the competition’s full ranking and will continue wearing the yellow shirt in the Tour’s final stage.

CHECK TOUR DO RIO’S BEST MOMENTS – 4th STAGE ( TERESÓPOLIS x RIO DAS OSTRAS)

Brazilian team Funvic/Marcondes Cesar/ Pinda made a great race in Tour do Rio’s 4th stage and conquered today’s first and second places with Magno Prado and Antônio Nascimento.

In the 190 km route with long climbs and steep descents, the group controlled the “escapes” until the end of Nova Friburgo’s mountains, when Pinda took the lead and took Tonho to the mountain mark. Thanks to this effort, the cyclist will once again wear the polka dots shirt.

Soon after that, a group of eleven cyclists got out of the big group. Four Colombians from EPM-UNE were in this group, including Juan Suarez, who was wearing the yellow shirt. Three cyclists from Pinda were also in this group – Tonho, Magno and Adélio –, besides Flávio Reblin (Memorial/Giant/Santos).

The “escape”, which lasted for over 100 km, quickly opened advantage and got to the final kilometers with a 9 minutes advantage to the big group. When the group was at less than 15 km from the final mark, Magno jumped out of it and opened an advantage of about 20 seconds, which guaranteed his victory in the stage. Tonho overcame his rivals in the sprint and was placed second, which made him the race’s best placed Brazilian cyclist.

The most injured cyclist in today’s stage was Rafael Andriato (Petroli-Firenze), who couldn’t get into the “escape” group and didn’t have support to narrow their advantage. Thanks to that, the Brazilian cyclist who runs with the Italian team fell from the second position, saying good-bye to his dream of conquering the title.

Edgardo Simon, who got to the finish line in the same group as Andriato, kept his ranking by points.
The stage’s saddest moment was the parting of Renato Seabra (DataRo/Foz do Iguaçu), who fell at the same place in which his teammate, Renato dos Santos, had fallen last year. He had a cut in his hips and couldn’t keep on the competition, which opened the way for Tonho in the dispute for King of the Mountain.

Tomorrow is the competition’s last stage, consisting of 120 km between Rio das Ostras and Rio de Janeiro.

By Leandro Bittar and Tadeu Matsunaga, to the website Prólogo / Revista VO2

TOUR DO RIO 2011 – 4th STAGE: OFFICIAL RANKING

Stage’s Ranking

Full Ranking

Ranking by Teams

Ranking by Points

Mountain Ranking

EPM UNE team ruled the podium’s three top places in the 120,3 km stage. Juan Suarez wears the yellow leadership shirt. Jaime Castaneda was placed 2nd and Edward Beltran was placed 3rd.

“I’ve been training for this competition since January. The terrain is similar to what we have in Colombia, with many climbs. My partners helped me win. Now we will work hard to keep the good ranking”, said Suarez.

Renato Sebra (Dataro/Foz do Iguaçu) was one of the major Brazilian names in the stage. The Brazilian took the leadership of the mountain ranking and this Saturday he will wear the white shirt with red polka dots given to the best athlete in climbs.

“I will give my best to keep this shirt. The team has made a wonderful job in the mountains. The Colombians are very strong and have a good rhythm, since they just competed in Volta da Colombia, said Seabra, who is expecting more difficulties in Tour do Rio’s fourth stage, between Teresópolis and Rio das Ostras. “It will be tough, not only due to the route’s length, but also for its unevenness”, states the athlete.

The green shirt will be worn by Edgardo Simon (Padaria Real/Caloi/Céu Azul/Sorocaba), who won the first stage, but fell to 13th in the full ranking after today’s results. Rafael Andriato (Petroli Firenze), who won the stage between Volta Redonda and Três Rios, was once again the best ranked Brazilian cyclist (seventh place) and is placed second in the full ranking.

“I’m very pleased with my ranking because I was able to finish the race with the mountaineers, and this is not my specialty”, said Andriato.

CHECK TOUR DO RIO 2011′S BEST MOMENTS – 3rd STAGE (TRÊS RIOS – TERESÓPOLIS)