17 riders taking part to the Brazilian Championships, that this year will be raced in a pan-flat route, in the whereabouts of Rio de Janeiro.
Affonso (Alpina), Bulgarelli (Bonsucro), Gaspar (Bouygues), Nascimento (Prio) are the 4 making up the breakaway.
Their advantage is pretty large from the start, there being no teams pulling the peloton. It’s around 20 minutes only after 20 kilometers. Would I spoil you the fun if I told you one of those 4 will take the win?
Here’s an awful show of what happens when all the decent enough teams get a rider in the break:
Fast forward to the end of the race, something actually happens. Last year’s champion Affonso (Alpina) wants to defend his title in style and attacks with under 5 kilometers to go.
He looks strong until the 2 kilometers to go mark. Until the other 3 decide they can actually respond to his attack. Bulgarelli (Bonsucro) comes from behind at light speed while Nascimento (Prio) tries to stay on his wheels. Gaspar (Bouygues) is not too far either.
It looks like Bulgarelli (Bonsucro) is the strongest today though, and flies past everyone and gets under the 1 km to go mark with a good margin.
And he keeps it up until the finish line! Bulgarelli (Bonsucro) can raise his arms and realize the heroic effort he has… oh wait.
Nascimento (Prio) is 2nd, in front of Gaspar (Bouygues) who is a narrow 3rd, in front of last year’s champion Affonso (Alpina) who will have to give up his title. The other 13 won’t even finish because they’re very well out of the time limit. Eww.
The same riders will be taking the start to the TT. Nascimento (Prio) is the clear favourite for it after taking a nice win in 2014, but a few of the Bonsucro riders beg to differ; Only the racing will take away our doubts. At least this won’t be won by the breakaway. Or will it?
Oyakaua and Nicacio (Bonsucro) set the same time after the 1st checkpoint.
And well the same appears to happen at the second intermediate…
Nascimento (Prio) takes the start, but there’s some bad news for his team: he’s just 3rd behind the 2 Bonsucro riders after the first checkpoint, more than 40” behind.
Would you believe it? Well Nicacio and Oyakaua (Bonsucro) still are moving at the same speed after the 3rd intermediate. 36 kilometers have passed for your information. That’s stupid and exciting at the same time. Nascimento can be counted out from the winning fight as he accumulated a 1 minutes and a half gap after the 3rd checkpoint.
As they cross the line, yeah well they cross it with the same damn time, but it looks like Nicacio was some decimal of second faster.
Nascimento (Prio) will be really disappointed to hear that his Champion Jersey will have to change hands with Nicacio (Bonsucro). What a bad day for him, only 3rd with a 2’16” gap, after being rumored as the big favourite.
