In early June 2012, Tom Danielson, Georgia Gould and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski were among thousands of competitors at Vail’s Teva Mountain Games, a multi-sport event that includes bike racing, kayaking, rock climbing and trail running.

All three cyclists made the most of their trip to the Colorado high country, winning their respective races and collecting the accompanying $3,000 first-place prize checks.

A few days later, fellow pro cyclist Danny Pate penned what appeared to be a semi-sarcastic tweet, asking: “Hey @tomdanielson does @usacycling or @UCI_cycling know you raced the Teva Games this year, I don’t think it’s a UCI race?”

The Team Sky rider did not reply to VeloNews.com’s request for comment. But a source close to Pate said he was upset because, due to a rule that bars UCI license holders from competing in events that are not sanctioned by either the world governing body or a national federation, he’d not been allowed to compete in a regional Colorado road race earlier in the season. Now he was sounding off after seeing fellow ProTour rider Danielson doing just that.

Fifteen days later, in what appears to have been a response at least in part prompted by Pate’s tweet, USA Cycling technical director Shawn Farrell sent an email to Horgan-Kobelski, Gould and several other pro-level mountain bikers who had competed in Vail. (Danielson was not part of this group, but presumably received a separate email.) VeloNews obtained a copy of the correspondence, which read in part:

“Dear Pro Mountain Bikers: It has come to our attention that you participated in the 2012 Teva Games in a MTB discipline. This event is not sanctioned by USA Cycling. As such, a professional rider on a UCI team may not participate in it, according to UCI rule 1.2.019. The penalty for not following that rule is a fine of 50-100 Swiss francs and a one-month suspension. As this is the first documented and reported case of this in your collective instances, we will not be proceeding with any suspensions, and are choosing the low end of the fine spectrum. Therefore, please consider this your notice that you were fined. I shall leave it up to you and your teams to decide who wants to pay.”

At the time, Gould was in the final stages of qualifying for the upcoming Olympics in London where she would go on to win a bronze medal in cross country. Even the mere mention of a suspension made her nervous.

“I didn’t even know about the rule, then I get this email that says since this is my first offense we will only fine you 50 swiss francs,” recalled the Team Luna rider. “But in reality it was clearly not my first offense. I’ve done the Teva Games every year it’s been going on.

“We just paid the fine and that was it. But it was all a little weird. When my team manager contacted the UCI, they said it was up to USA Cycling whether or not to enforce that penalty. Then USA Cycling said it’s a UCI rule. So it felt like everyone was saying it’s not us.”

Regardless of who was driving enforcement, the message seemed clear: What for years had been an overlooked rule in the UCI’s book was now having an increasingly profound impact on both U.S.-based pro cyclists and the pro-am events, unaffiliated with USA Cycling, that dot the North American bike racing landscape.

This is not the first time this rule received attention. In 2011, some Colorado pro riders skipped local events because of talk about the change in tune coming from the UCI and USAC. This attitude shift ended up being one of the factors that pushed the then-autonomous American Cycling Association (which provided licensure and sanctioning for most of the racers and events in Colorado) to rejoin the national federation.

It was a hotly debated and highly controversial move that many ACA members felt happened only because of pressure applied by the national governing body, including the enforcement of this heretofore little-known rule.

Whatever the motivations were, the ACA rejoined USAC in 2012 under its old name, the Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado, overseeing a successful, albeit more expensive, calendar of amateur bike racing in Colorado. In 2011, the cost of an ACA license, good for road, mountain, and cyclocross, was $45. In 2012, a USAC road license ($60), plus a mountain bike add-on ($30), and membership in BRAC ($25) totaled $115.

While not mandatory, the BRAC membership was necessary if a rider wanted to avoid a $5-per-race surcharge required of non-members racing BRAC races (which include nearly all the popular Colorado cyclocross races).

Flash forward to late December 2012 in Bend, Oregon, and the final stop of the USGP of Cyclocross. During a packed weekend of racing, elite-level pros and amateurs of all abilities took their best shots at the twisting, technical course on the grounds of the Deschutes Brewery.

All the pros, and a handful of the amateurs, raced with either UCI or USAC licenses. The rest of the amateurs registered using their memberships in the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association, the primary licensure and event-sanctioning body in Oregon. Like the ACA, OBRA has no official affiliation with USA Cycling.

This commingling of licenses in Bend is known as a dual-sanctioned event — an occurrence that will not be repeated in 2013, according to USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson.

“Going forward we will not accept dual sanctioning with the same races on the same course on the same day,” said Johnson during an extensive interview with VeloNews in mid-December.

“The problem that you run into is conflict of liability. We issue a permit in a situation where you have multiple events running under multiple permits on the same day. Then you have the potential for confusion as to whose insurance covers what. Our insurance is much more robust than the OBRA insurance, so we would probably be the default party. We are trying to avoid that.”

Johnson noted that it might be possible to have pros race one day and amateurs the next. But this would dramatically affect an event such as the Bend USGP, which has always offered two days of racing for both pros and amateurs.

Oregon’s UCI-license-holding pros can also expect to be held to the standard outlined in the email sent to the Teva Games competitors, because beginning in 2013 USA Cycling will no longer honor OBRA’s racing activity.

“That means the issue we ran into in Colorado will come up in Oregon where internationally licensed riders have an obligation to respect the UCI rules,” said Johnson. “And the UCI rules are pretty clear about not being able to race in unaffiliated events.”

Translation: Riders such as Adam Craig, Carl Decker, Ryan Trebon and Chris Jones, all Oregon residents, will be forced to choose between racing the occasional OBRA event with the risk of being fined, suspended and even losing their UCI licenses, or forgoing what has been a staple of their training regimen to avoid trouble with the powers that be.

“If that really ends up being the case, then I will have to just not purchase a UCI license until ’cross season,” said Craig, a longtime Oregon resident who competed in the 2008 Olympics as a member of the U.S. national team, but has since turned much of his competitive focus toward enduro-style events that are not currently under UCI/USAC dominion.

“As a North American mountain biker, our lifeblood is just as much these grassroots locally sanctioned events. If that means I can’t do cross-country nationals, whatever. But you’d hope they’d come to some kind of agreement because it seems so incredibly silly that USAC has any input as to what we are allowed to do as professional bike riders.”

USA Cycling’s Johnson counters that adherence to the rule is simply about respecting the international structure of the sport.

“The UCI have specific regulations designed to protect the integrity and value of the international calendar,” he said. “The fact is these riders have equity that was earned by their international competition. Now if a local organizer wants the pros at their event because they are recognizable individuals as a result of their international competition experience, they should be part of the system that helped create that value.”

While it seems at least possible that events on the new world enduro series may soon be part of the UCI calendar, there appears to be no chance that OBRA or any of its sanctioned events will rejoin the USAC family anytime soon.

Since breaking away from the federation in the late 1990s, OBRA has grown its membership to more than 5,000, and this year sanctioned more than 330 races. OBRA’s marquee event, the Portland-based Cross Crusade series, is the largest amateur cyclocross series in the world, averaging 1,100 racers at each of its eight events last season.

“No chance,” answered OBRA executive director Kenji Sugahara when asked if there’s any possibility his organization would rejoin USAC in the face of what appears to be new pressure being applied by the national federation.

“If we were to go back it was just mean an increase in costs to our members and promoters without getting much back in return.”

Sugahara points to an annual OBRA license that costs $20 ($10 for cyclocross only), and a $2.35-per-rider fee for event promoters, which includes insurance and equipment rental. By comparison, promoters who operate under USAC sanctioning must pay $3 per rider for insurance alone.

“I know they have overhead costs, but that’s a really big difference,” added Sugahara. “It seems like we’d all really be better off if they just worried about elites and junior development, and let the local associations deal with the grassroots amateur racing.”

Not surprisingly, USA Cycling’s Johnson doesn’t agree, outlining a long argument that includes claims relating to his organizations “more robust” insurance, greater consciousness of athlete-safety issues, an expansive website that includes a national ranking system for all USAC-licensed athletes, and the notion that the U.S. “recognizes a structural hierarchy for sports, particularly for Olympic sports through the Amateur Sports Act.”

“OBRA continues to say, ‘We are just grassroots. We are all about fun,’” added Johnson. “Well that may be, but in the bigger picture they don’t understand that there is a tremendous advantage to be had by the general growth of the sport in the country which we have been fueling.

“You need to step back and look at the importance of international heroes and role models. They add value and cache to the sport. We honestly believe that the overall benefit far outweighs any incremental increase in cost. Right now anyone in Oregon is outside the system with regard with those progressive opportunities that people tend to find value in.”

While Johnson’s argument comes across as sincere and fair-minded, Sugahara is convinced there are other factors at work — and he believes in his organization’s ability to deliver a quality product.

“We advocate a bottom-up approach, which has been tremendously successful in getting more people interested in the sport,” Sugahara said. “If you make it fun for the folks who are just entering a sport they are going to keep coming back.

“As for [USA Cycling’s] motivation, obviously with 5,000 members and 330-plus events, we’d be a huge revenue source. Sure, there is some truth about unifying everyone under one organization. But clearly to me it’s about the money, too. Why else are they all the sudden going to start caring about which races a few pros do?”

In the end it all comes down to one’s viewpoint on who should be doing what to grow the sport of cycling — and who should have to pay for it.

BEND, Oregon (VN) — Tim Johnson likens it to a mental math problem, a game of knowing how hard to go, and then dialing it back just enough so you can maintain without exploding. The rest of us call it the pain cave, the place body and mind must enter in order to maintain a long solo breakaway.

The Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld rider got the equation right on Sunday, darting away from a large lead group with about 40 minutes of racing to go, and then holding it together all the way to the finish, winning the second round of the Deschutes Brewery Cup, which doubled as the finale of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross series.

Teammate Ryan Trebon finished second, 15 seconds behind, with Adam Craig (Rabobank-Giant) finishing third for the second day in a row.

In the final overall series standings, Jeremy Powers, who skipped Bend, took first, followed by Trebon and then Johnson.

“When you pre-ride the course you need to go a certain speed so that when you are alone you know how fast you have to go if you end up solo,” explained Johnson of his solo-surviving strategy. “You figure out what you should be doing, and then dial it into digestible bites. But it’s easy to get discouraged because your legs are killing you, your arms start getting numb. It’s not much fun.”

The one thing Johnson knew he did have going for him was a loyal teammate in the chase group — Trebon. The Bend local had won the day before, which made it hard for the other pursuers to do too much work.

“Danny [Summerhill (Garmin-Chipotle)] and I were taking turns pulling some,” said Craig of a group that also included Chris Jones (Rapha-Focus), Ben Berden (Raleigh-Clement), Yannick Eckmann (Cal Giant-Specialized). “But Tim rides fast so at a certain point we all knew that we were racing for second, and you had to start thinking about Ryan, knowing he’s just sitting in, and then is going to be winding it up at the end.”

While Craig was able to analyze the situation perfectly, there was nothing he could do to change the outcome. Johnson grew his gap up past 30 seconds and held it there until the end, when he lost a little ground while celebrating during the final meters before the finish line.

Meanwhile, the chase group dwindled to three when Summerhill suffered a late-race mechanical, and Berden and Eckmann fell off the pace. That left the battle for second to Jones, Craig and Trebon. Jones attacked first, but had no luck, and then fell back when he dabbed in a technical section.

That left it to Craig, who did his best to shake the less-technically skilled Trebon in the tricky wooded backside of the course. But Trebon was on his game, and Craig knew it was game over when they hit the grass section for the last time before the finish.

“Ryan was riding smooth,” said Craig. “Really, I was just happy to stay on his wheel as long as I did.”

“I was suffering early on,” added Trebon. “So when Tim went, that was it. I just waited to make sure the gap was secure, and then started attacking the group.”

Meanwhile, Summerhill could only wonder what could have been. A day after crashing out of the lead group when he flipped over the handlebars, he saw another possible podium placing evaporate when Craig’s front wheel snapped the derailleur hanger clean off his Ibis frame.

“It’s a bummer, but that’s racing,” said a philosophical Summerhill. “It was really tight racing, a tight course, single-file lines. So you can’t divert off course too much.”

It was for that reason that Summerhill spent most of both days riding in the front, tactical strategy and/or energy-saving be damned.

“I just feel more comfortable there,” he said. “I mean, today the incident happened when I was in the group and not in the front. That’s why I feel a lot safer in the front.”

Afterward, the question of what the weekend’s results would mean for U.S. worlds team selection was on many minds. Johnson, Trebon, and Powers all seem secure for three of the team’s six spots. Jonathan Page and Jamey Driscoll are also likely to get the nod. But after that, it’s a tangled mess with Summerhill, Jones and Craig in the equation – if the Rabobank-Giant rider wants to go.

“Talk to me in a couple weeks,” was Craig’s answer Sunday, which appeared to be a small reversal from the day before, when he said he flat out that he didn’t want to go to Louisville in February.

“I’d still need to make the team, and if Danny wants to go I think he deserves it.”

Craig said he would talk to to Summerhill and USA Cycling cyclocross program director Marc Gullickson “and then we’ll see what happens.”

Summerhill offered a similar wait-and-see answer, adding that he’d also need to get permission from his new-for-2013 road team, UnitedHealthcare.

BEND, Oregon (VN) — What do you get for a 35-year-old bike racer on her birthday? Same thing you get everyone else — a cake and a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

Unlike regular folks, Katerina Nash (Luna) got her gifts just after crossing the finish line first at the final race of the Deschutes Brewery Cup.

“That’s definitely a first,” said Nash, whose Sunday triumph completed a sweep of the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross series finale. “I was even getting some cupcakes out on course. It was fun.”

Just as fun for Nash was her domination of the 33-rider field. After initially getting balled up at the start, the Czech rider took off like a shot, jumping out to a nine-second lead on the first lap, and then padding her advantage with each ensuing go-round on the tacky, fast course.

Just like the day before, Nash’s Luna teammate Georgia Gould took the runner-up spot, finishing 24 seconds back. The back-to-back second-place efforts were enough to thrust Gould past an absent Katie Compton and into the top spot of the final overall standings. Compton ended up second overall.

“It was always a big goal for me,” said Gould of a run to the series title that included eight podium finishes, but no race wins. “I just wish I had won a race. But that’s racing. Now it’s just time to focus on nationals and world’s.”

Gould said Sunday’s race basically ended in the very first corner.

“I was on the outside and it was sketchy, so I eased up a little so I didn’t crash because people were being so aggressive,” she said. “After that, I started moving up a spot here or there.

“But just as we were getting into the one of the technical sections, Katerina got around to the front and I knew that was the move. I just didn’t have enough room to get around. Then I’m behind people that mess up here or there. That slows you down and by the time I got through the traffic she was gone.”

Caroline Mani (Raleigh-Clement) told a similar tale and got the exact same result as Saturday, third place.

“My start was a disaster,” said the Frenchwoman. “It was a big mess in the first corner. I should have been closer to the front, but I was pretty far back. At that point I didn’t think the podium was possible, but I didn’t give up and just did my own race.”

The other most significant result of the day was a seventh place for Julie Krasniak (Rapha-Focus), which was just enough to keep her in third place overall in the final series standings. Krasniak was 11th the day before.

She blamed her bad legs in part on her recent nuptials, which were last Tuesday in Portland.

“I feel so bad this weekend,” said Krasniak. “But I had my wedding just a few days ago, which is not the best way to be in shape for this weekend. I was so tired and my legs were so bad, so it was my worst weekend of USGP.

“But of course it was still fun even if I have bad legs. All my friends were here from Portland to cheer me.”

BEND, Oregon (VN) — Cross the name Todd Wells off the list of potential candidates to fill out the U.S. team roster for February’s world cyclocross championships in Louisville, Kentucky.

Citing a long Olympic-year mountain bike racing campaign, and the need for some rest ahead of the 2013 fat-tire season, the Specialized rider told VeloNews.com that this weekend’s USGP races in Bend, Oregon, will be his last aboard the ’cross bike until next fall.

“Originally I was going to gear up for cyclocross nationals and then take it from there,” said Wells. “But plans change. I love ’cross, but the team decided that they want me to do well on the mountain bike next year, and I know that in order to do that I have to take a pass on some things. Right now I really need a break.”

That break will include a short vacation in Mexico with his wife, and then some relaxing downtime in his hometown of Durango, Colorado.

“Normally we’d go to Mexico for four weeks instead of four days, but Meg has a real job now so we have to shorten it,” he said.

Wells is a three-time U.S. national cyclocross champion, including a win in Bend in 2010. But on Saturday, he was never in the mix, starting from the fourth row and ending up in ninth place, 1:36 behind race winner Ryan Trebon (Cannondale). Trebon’s fastest four laps were all under 6:50, while Wells was on average about 10 seconds slower per lap.

“Today was decent, but right now I just don’t have the form,” said Wells. “If I can be up front right from the start maybe I can stay up there, but I don’t have the form to come from the back and move up through a lot of people.”

A few years back, Wells might have been able to jump right in and find success on the U.S. cyclocross circuit. But as the sport’s popularity has grown, so too has the number of top level pros who’ve made it their primary focus. That’s not a luxury he has. The size of Wells’ paycheck is determined by mountain bike results, not ’cross.

“Honestly, it used to be a lot easier to drop in and do well,” said Wells. “There weren’t so many people focused on ’cross. It was everyone’s second sport. But now that it’s gotten so much more popular, it’s become a lot of people’s No. 1 sport. So they get a few percentages better and that makes it tougher. So instead of riding in the front, I’m riding in the back.”

Instead of focusing on cyclocross, Wells said his most immediate goals are a second win at the famed Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race and success at the 2013 mountain bike world championships.

“Say what you want about Leadville as a true mountain bike race, but I love it,” he said. “It’s so much different than anything else we usually do, and I get to train at home for three-four weeks in the summer when it’s beautiful in Colorado and all the good trails are open.”

BEND, Oregon (VN) — Hometown favorite Ryan Trebon darted away from Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld teammate Tim Johnson in the waning moments of the last lap to win round one of the Deschutes Brewery Cup on Saturday in Bend, Oregon.

Third place went to fellow Bend local Adam Craig (Rabobank-Giant) at 0:54, with Danny Summerhill (Garmin-Chipotle) and Zach McDonald (Rapha-Focus) completing the top five in what was the first race in the final weekend of the U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross.

The story of the day was Trebon finally breaking through on home soil, something he’d failed to do during Bend’s two-year run as host of the U.S. national championships. He was second twice, just like last year’s nationals in Madison, Wisconsin.

“It’s nice to finally get one at home,” said Trebon. “I obviously like racing here, and I felt comfortable from the get-go, and felt like I was turning the bike pretty well.”

Not turning the bike so well was Summerhill, who spent the early portions of the race in the lead, looking poised for run at the top spot of the podium. But a grisly crash near the end of lap four of eight put an end to those hopes.

“Danny was looking really strong, but lucky for us he took himself out of the picture,” said Johnson. “He was right in front of me when it happened. It was a little off-camber section right before we went back on the pavement. He his wheel, then clipped the inside [course-marking] pole and went up and over. It was really kind of a bad-looking crash.”

After the race a seemingly still dazed Summerhill said he landed squarely on his head and admitted to seeing stars.

“I hit one of those stupid posts that was sticking up in the grass,” he said. “I tried to avoid it and didn’t and flipped over pretty good and hit my head. After that I was just riding like s—t. Then I went into the tape again and that’s when Adam got away.”

Indeed, after spending the bulk of the race in the first chase group behind Trebon, Johnson, Summerhill, Yannick Eckmann (Cal Giant-Specialized), and McDonald, Craig used his superior handling skills to jump away into third solo on the penultimate lap.

“This is such a great track so I figured it was a good idea to skip some of the Christmas parties last night and rest up,” said Craig. “At the start I got gapped right away and I don’t know if I could ride with those front guys anyway. But after Danny fell back to our group he did a bunch of work the last few laps. I kept coming through, but he would just move back around. Finally I just decided to give it, hoping to force an error. It worked. He slid out right before the stairs and that balled up the other guys and I got away.”

But when asked whether his surprising podium spot had him considering a run at a place on the U.S. world’s team, Craig quickly demurred.

“With all due respect I don’t want to go to Louisville,” he said. “It’s two months from now and I’ve been in race shape for 12 months now. My body is tired but seems to somehow to still produce. It’s weird, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow. I was not planning on this going so well.”

Early in the race Trebon and Summerhill took a small lead going over the barriers, and next time through Johnson had latched on, with Eckmann behind him.

With seven to go that four-man group was solidly established, with Summerhill and Trebon doing the lion’s share of the work. Trebon drilled it, briefly gapping the others — but they had retrieved him by the barriers, and at the run-up it was still a quartet at the head of affairs, with Summerhill on point. Johnson was sitting second with Trebon third, with Eckmann the caboose, as the foursome stacked time on the field.

“Yannick was hurting,” said Johnson. “Just to stay on the wheel was all he could do, so I wasn’t really worried about him. Then Danny was able to take himself out of the picture.”

Right after Summerhill’s crash, Trebon jumped again and took a gap of a few seconds rolling through the start-finish heading out for lap five. Johnson and Eckmann gave chase, but Summerhill was left behind, to be caught by Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale), Craig, McDonald, and Ben Berden (Raleigh-Clement).

Next time through the barriers the Cannondale men had reunited and dispatched Eckmann. Now it was a two-man race, with Eckmann some seven seconds down at the flyover and losing ground.

Johnson took the lead for a spell, then sat up to stretch his back and Trebon breezed past, leading over the flyover and into three laps to go. The chase, meanwhile, had swallowed Eckmann.

Trebon really opened the throttle, trying to shed Johnson, but the smaller rider hung tough and stayed glued to his wheel at the barriers and going over the flyover. The chase was 30 seconds down and racing for third.

“I tried to get Ryan to make a mistake a couple of times in the woods, but he was riding pretty good in the technical stuff,” said Johnson. “A hometown win for him is huge.”

On the bell lap Johnson was still on the front with the big man parked on his wheel. Behind, Craig exploded out of the chase to take sole possession of third.

Trebon finally came around and led into the barriers, with Johnson just a bike length behind. Up the flyover and onto the run-up it was still Trebon on the front. Johnson was second into the final corner and that’s where he would stay — his teammate fairly rocketed across the line for the win, with his teammate second. And as darkness fell, Craig — another hometown boy — sailed across the line for third.

“Tim is hard to get rid of,” said Trebon. “He can just suffer so I knew I needed to be in front to get the sprint. Otherwise it was so short that there was no way I could have come around.”

In the overall USGP standings, Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus) long ago wrapped up the title by winning all save one of the first six races. Trebon’s Saturday effort all but locked down second place, while Johnson jumped into a tie with Berden for third heading into Sunday.

BEND, Oregon (VN) — To no one’s surprise Luna’s one-two punch of Katerina Nash and Georgia Gould made short work of the rest of the 36-women field that toed the start line for round one of the Deschutes Brewery Cup in Bend, Oregon, on Saturday.

Indeed, the only real drama was whether it was Nash or Gould who would cross the line first in a race that kicked off the final weekend of the 2012 U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross. That honor went to Nash, who cracked a small gap on her teammate near the end of lap four of six, then held the advantage, winning by a scant 13 seconds.

It was another 49 seconds before third-placed Caroline Mani (Raleigh-Clement) appeared. By then Gould was trembling in pain as her frozen hands began warming up after what was a frigid day of racing with temperatures in the mid-30s.

“I get really cold hands and then when they thaw out it hurts real bad,” said a grimacing Gould, who wore a similar expression during the race’s closing moments as she tried in vain to reel back in her teammate.

“In the beginning we were taking some turns, but then when we saw Caroline coming up from behind, it was time to quit messing around. Katrina got a little gap and that was it. The course had a little bit of everything, so there were tons of places where a little mistake could cost you. You really had to stay focused.”

Nash managed that feat, and was rewarded.

“We took a few turns and every time I rode behind Georgia I made a mistake,” said the Czech rider. “[So] I just went around and picked up the pace a little bit and hoped I could drop Georgia.”

Early in the race, Nicole Duke (Alchemy) managed to make the initial selection, holding third. But by lap two, Duke had been gapped off and would continue to slide, eventually settling for 10th.

Meanwhile, Mani was moving in the opposite direction, smoothly ascending the course’s tricky run-up sections, which could both be ridden by the field’s more technically apt riders. By lap three the Frenchwomen had taken sole possession of third place.

“I felt a little lonely today because I was riding alone most of the day,” said Mani, who was making her first appearance on a USGP podium. “I felt like I was going to die, but [Kaitlin Antonneau (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld)] was behind so I could not make a mistake. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same.”

Behind, the pint-sized Antonneau had dropped a larger group of chasers, caught and passed Duke, and then settled into fourth place all alone. Optum’s Amanda Miller ended up fourth.

“I had an awesome start and then crashed and lost a bunch of spots,” said Miller. “Maybe if I don’t crash I’m third, but the top three were pretty unreachable. I was losing time in the long power sections.”

In the chase for the overall series title, Gould earned 40 points for second place, slicing her deficit to an absent Katie Compton down to just 32 points. That means as long as Gould finishes in the top three tomorrow, she’ll pass Compton, who chose to skip the series-finale weekend to focus on her pursuit of the World Cup title.

“Winning races is the most important thing to me, but of course I’d love to win overall, too,” said Gould when asked whether it was bittersweet to conceivably capture the series crown by default. “I can only focus on who shows up. I can’t worry about who isn’t here.”

BEND, Oregon (VN) — Throughout the 1990s, Bart Bowen was winning top-level road and cyclocross races. Today, he’s the owner and head coach of Sports Performance Powered by Bowen, where he’s helping the next generation of stars (and lots of amateurs) make their way in the sport.

The 4,000-square foot facility in Bend is a one-stop shop for endurance athletes in training, and includes an eight-rider CompuTrainer spin class set-up, strength training apparatus, a Retül bike fit studio, massage therapy rooms, a recovery center and a Pilates studio.

“I honestly find the most gratification in trying to truly change people’s lives,” said Bowen, who won two USPRO road titles and a pair of Super Cup cyclocross series crowns during a 13-year pro career that included stints with Subaru-Montgomery, Saturn and Kona, prior to his retirement from racing in 2003. “We have people coming here who are in their 50s and 60s and are literally in the best shape of their lives. That’s really gratifying.”

Bowen cites an approach that is part scientific, part holistic as the driving factor in his success as a coach and mentor.

“I really try to approach each individual as an individual,” he explained. “We take care of all aspects, be it psychological, nutrition, and body work. If you want to get better, no matter what your sport is, you need to look at all the components and how they work together and affect one another.”

Sports Performance Powered by Bowen offers 16 CompuTrainer classes a week, with additional offerings in strength and core training. They also do one-on-one coaching.

Bowen says his primarily local clientele runs the gamut from pro triathletes to beginning bike racers.

“Last year we averaged about 100 visits a week,” he said. “This year, we’ll have more classes so I think that number will get up into the 120s.”

Though he’s been coaching since 2000, it wasn’t until Bowen moved from Albuquerque to Bend in 2006 that things really took off. He started as the cycling director of what was then known as Rebound Cycling Performance, but when the previous owner decided to sell, Bowen stepped up.

“It was one of those offer-I-couldn’t-refuse situations,” he said. “Then we re-worked the name to help out with marketing.”

And of course Bowen still has plenty of competitive drive. The 45-year-old father of two boys says he still pins on race numbers from time to time, and will be on course in the 45-plus race at this weekend’s U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross event in Bend, the Deschutes Brewery Cup.

“I do a lot of local races just because it’s still fun for me,” he says. “It’s great to be able to bring my boys to ’cross races. They are short and family friendly, and it’s great to be able to talk with people afterward and hear about their experience.”

Bowen is also doing his best to cultivate the next generation. Last year, he helped start the CXmas Fund, a philanthropic effort tasked with raising money to send promising junior ’cross racers from the area to the U.S. national cyclocross championships.

“We put on a race here in Bend called Future Cross that is a fundraiser, and [on Thursday night] we had a fundraising party here at the center as a way to kick off USGP weekend,” said Bowen.

A full tally was still ongoing, but Bowen guessed that they’d raised around $3200 — “enough to send four of five racers to nationals in Madison,” he said. “And next year with nationals in Boulder, we’re hoping to raise even more money.”

“I honestly believe it takes a community to keep young cyclists in sport,” he continued. “So the goal is to give these kids the opportunity to go experience the sport along with all the amazing places it can take you.

“That’s what I’ll always remember about my time racing … how it gave me a chance to see the world.”

Singletrack.com has taken you inside the pages of “The Feed Zone Cookbook“ and given you some of the delicious recipes from Allen Lim and Chef Biju, as well as instructional videos with the authors themselves, walking you step-by-step through preparing the recipes they cook for the world’s best cyclists. This week, Singletrack.com is hosting the final installment of “The Feed Zone Cookbook”with the recipe for the rice cakes whose reputations precede them.

For many, “rice cakes” conjures an image of dry, flavorless wafers with the texture of styrofoam. Trust me, these rice cakes are a delicious snack for your ride unlike the rice cake section of the grocery store has ever seen, and they are quick and easy to make. Once you’ve watched the video, get the recipe for Lim’s rice cakes.

If you haven’t already, check out the other videos, including oatmeal unlike any other that will give you the power for extended racing, and beet juice that will pack your breakfast full of nutrients. Allen Lim’s mother’s own chicken fried rice is a favorite for immediate post-race recovery. The authors will also walk you through how easy preparing a delicious roast chicken can be, a must-know dinner for the endurance athlete.

Jason Sumner from Singletrack.com met the authors Biju Thomas and Allen Lim for a series of video interviews and cooking lessons from their new cookbook, The Feed Zone Cookbook: Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes. Check back in with Singletrack.com every Friday for new sneak peeks inside the covers of the must-have book for the nutrition-conscious athlete. Stock up for Christmas gifts or put it on your wishlist.

It sounds odd, but a basic bowl of cereal was initial genesis for the recently released cookbook, “The Feed Zone: Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes.” The moment of inspiration came during one of Allen Lim’s first trips to Europe, where he witnessed a young pro cyclist pour himself the aforementioned bowl of cereal — for dinner.

Clearly the to-remain-nameless racer was tired of the standard bland-chicken-and-bland-pasta diet that’s so common in the professional peloton, and was looking for a change. Sadly, the best he could do was a box of bran flakes.

“I knew then that there had to be a better way,” recalls Lim, a PhD and sports physiologist who has worked for both the then-Garmin-Transitions team and Team RadioShack, and this year is doing consulting work with individual athletes such as Levi Leipheimer. “I knew I needed to teach this rider, who I was coaching at the time, some simple, but practical recipes. But it was more than that. He needed to learn the very basics. How to shop. How to chop vegetables. How to cook an egg.

In the kitchen with Thomas and Lim. Photo: VeloPress

“What I found when I was on the road was that I was actually teaching guys how to cook, how to eat, how to prepare food from scratch. That’s when I started to fantasize about being able to give them a cookbook, and just say, eat the chicken marsala on page 75. Or make the beet juice. Or here is how you make rice cakes on your own.”

Flash forward to present time, and Lim’s wish has come true. The new athlete-centric book, co-authored by Lim and Chef Biju Thomas, includes 150 recipes complete with full-color photos, shortcuts, substitutions, and techniques to save time in the kitchen. And yes, you’ll even learn how to prepare Lim’s famous rice cakes, which have been stashed in many a pro rider’s jersey pocket during the world’s biggest bike races.

“Trying to change eating habits didn’t go over so well at the beginning,” admits Lim of his time immersed in the European peloton. “I’ve always wanted to innovate in the sport, and I came in from a totally different perspective with both Chinese and American culture. When I went to Europe, I found a sport that was basically full of tradition. Some of that was great and I learned a lot. But other things I saw, especially around food, were very backwards. Guys would finish huge days in the Tour de France and they’d be given a crusty baguette sandwich with salami.”

Knowing that wasn’t enough, Lim started bringing his own rice cooker on the team bus, and making racers fresh rice, scrambled eggs, fruits and vegetables, with the goal of trying to increase nutrient density intake during the critical post-race recovery window.

“It worked because I brought my own stuff and executed it myself,” says Lim. “But it took a long time before the soigneurs and the rest of the staff and management started to support that.”

Indeed, old habits die hard in the hardscrabble world of professional cycling. Lim says that when he returned the following year, the rice cooker had vanished.

This small chapel was part of the course. Photo: Brasil Ride

You’ve read the race reports, flipped through the pictures, traced the GPS files, and thought to yourself,’wow, that looks pretty cool.’ Now you’re asking yourself, if I decide to sign up for the 2012 Brasil Ride, what do I need to know?

Well, for starters, that it’s great. I’ve ridden all 13 stages of this now two-year-old race, and can attest that it is a true bucket-list type experience. The scenery is amazing, the trails are technical, fast and fun, the organization is top notch and the food is great. But before you click over to the race website and punch in your credit card details, ask yourself, am I prepared to suffer — really suffer — for seven days?

Make no mistake, this race is a beast. Just witness this year’s results: 103 teams started, but only 67 actually finished all seven stages. Those who did complete the test did so by riding 337.5 miles, climbing 34,299 feet, and logging between 23 and 46 hours of total saddle time.

The former mark belonged to overall race winners Robert Novatny and Kristian Hynek, a pair of Czech World Cup-level riders who get paid to ride their bikes. The later time belonged to Marcos and Manoel Dias, a pair of Brazilian masters riders, who presumably don’t receive compensation for their two-wheeled efforts.

Most riders fell somewhere in the 35-hour range, including your author, who lost his teammate to a crash on stage 3, but continued riding solo (which is allowed, you just don’t get official finisher status) and ended up logging just a shade over 36 hours for the week.

The toughest part of the event for me was unquestionably the heat. Despite very early race start times, usually around 7 a.m., at least some of most days was spent riding in 100-plus-degree temperatures. The good news is that Bahia, the Brazilian state where the race is held, is fairly arid, meaning humidity doesn’t add to the misery.

Still, body temperature management was key. I wore a light bandana under my helmet, which I doused with water every chance I got. I also carried spray-on sunscreen, and reapplied at least once a stage to avoid getting too cooked on arms, legs and neck.

It’s also worth noting that the 2012 edition of the race is slated to run September 23-29, a full month earlier than this year. And since Brazil is heading into summer right now, presumably the earlier start date will mean slightly cooler temperatures. At least I hope so.

But don’t expect the race to be easier. Race organizer Mario Roma told VeloNews after stage 7 this year that he has a few yet-to-be-finalized modifications in mind for 2012, but the general set-up will remain the same.

This year there were four stages in excess of 50 miles, including what’s become the event’s queen stage, stage 2′s 90-mile grind from Mucuge to Rio de Contas, which includes 10,600 feet of climbing, an extended jungle bushwhack that includes post-holing through a mud bog, and a grinding 6-mile dirt road finishing climb that broke many a racer this year.

The bright side is that the following day’s stage was just 21 miles long, as riders negotiated a tough but exhilarating cross country circuit that included some of the event’s best descending.

Paul Romero shows us that suffering is the name of the game. Photo: Alexandre Cappi

The race’s true gauntlet this year were stages 4, 5 and 6, which were all more than 50 miles and had in excess of 6,000 feet of climbing. Here recovery becomes the key, and the real test. Can you push yourself hard day after day, or does accumulated fatigue build to the point of body failure?

You also need to be at least an above average technical rider, lest you want to spend large chunks of time walking downhill. The Brasil Ride trails remind me a lot of the rough, rocky riding in Moab. If you’ve ever ridden Porcupine Rim, for instance, you know what I mean. The rocks are big, sharp and loose, making deft line choice and the ability — and nerve — to maintain momentum paramount.

Unfortunately, lots of the Brasil Ride peloton hasn’t figured this out yet, meaning more technically savvy riders inevitably spend time slaloming their way around walkers, pleading with them to step out of the way. For whatever reason, the commonly accepted North American trail etiquette practice of walkers giving way to riders hasn’t completely trickled down south, so sometimes firm cajoling is necessary.

Here are some other tidbits of advice and information that will help in your decision-making process.

Cost: A full-price entry, which includes food and lodging in tent city, is R$2,500, about $1,500 at current exchange rates. You’ll also need to figure in travel to Brazil (author’s plane ticket from Denver to Salvador was around $1,600), and budget for meals right after the race, usually under $10. This later point is especially important, because from a recovery standpoint it’s vitally important to eat immediately after each day’s stage finish, and not wait until dinner, which was usually served around 7:30 p.m. Believe me you’ll be hungry again.

You’ll also likely need to swing for at least one night’s lodging in Salvador (the coastal city you fly into). This is because the race site is about 9 hours inland by bus, a trip that starts at 7 a.m. the day before stage 1. Flights out after the race are usually in the evening, so it’s possible to skip the hotel after the race, as the bus will have you back at the airport around 1 p.m. the day after the race. Of course, as long as you’re down there, you might as well spend a few extra days hanging at the beach. This is Brazil we’re talking about after all.

Technical skills are necessary for descents like "the plunge." Photo: Bruno Senna

Ride a Full Suspension Bike: Yes. There’s a ton of dirt road riding, but the pounding from a week on a hardtail would be brutal. Instead opt for a full suspension marathon or XC race set-up. 29ers also make a ton of sense here due to all those road sections, and their ability to roll more smoothly through rock gardens, which are plentiful.

Use Tubeless Tires: A good set of tubeless wheels and tubeless tires is the only way to go. Otherwise, expect to spend an inordinate amount of time fixing punctures. I’d also recommend bring a little extra tire sealant and dropping it into your tires about halfway through the seven days just as a little insurance.

Bring a Kit For Every Day: Yes, you can wash them in the bathroom sink or shower at the end of each day, but that cuts into valuable recovery time.

Be a Good Teammate: This sounds obvious, but it’s stunning how many teams don’t take advantage of drafting on the road sections. It’s inevitable that one rider will be stronger than the other at least a few days, which is all the more reason to work together and support each other. Remember, the only way to gain official finisher status is for both riders to finish every stage.

And that brings us to the most important point…

Pick a Good Teammate: And I don’t mean this in the who-is-my-fastest-friend kind of way. You need to find someone that you are compatible with. Racing mountain bikes with a teammate is a very delicate balance. Ideally both riders will be fairly evenly matched both in fitness and technical skills, not the mention the ability to get along for a very intimate week.

If your skills don’t line up, be comfortable with the notion that one rider will likely spend at least part of the week pushing the other rider uphill. Whoever is better in the technical sections will need to do a fair bit of waiting around.

The good news is that it’s a rich and enriching experience that you won’t ever find racing solo.

2011 Claro Brasil Ride, stage 7

Fast Facts

Stage 7: Fast, fast, fast. That was best descriptor for stage 7′s 49km loop on the flat roads and techy trails around Mucuge. Racing started on the main road out of town, then alternated between trail and road all the way back to the finish line. The front group covered 37km in the first hour, but there was also plenty of legit — and very tough — singletrack. It was a major improvement over the original Brasil Ride plan, a 107km, mostly flat fireroad grunt. Props to the organizers for making a great call, and putting a great capstone to an exceptionally challenging week in the saddle.

Stage Winners: Open Men: German’s Lukas Kaufmann and Christopher Maletz (Easton Rockets) escaped with Czech’s Kristian Hynek and Robert Novatny (Future Cycling-Sweep) in the first singletrack section, then went on the attack late, using their superior technical skills to earn their first stage win here in Brazil. Hynek and Novatny got what they came for, too, a second-straight overall title, besting Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso) by 5:18. Czech’s Tomas Vokrouhlik and Martin Horak (BMC) were third overall.

Mixed: Ivonne Kraft and Kraft and Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Women: Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Both teams also took convincing overall GC wins. This is Kraft’s second Brasil Ride overall title. A year ago, she was part of the winning women’s team.

What it looked like in GPS form: Fast and hard. The stop time was an unscheduled flip into a bush, resulting in a busted Ergon grip, but no major bodily harm.

Author’s total time for the week: 36 hours, 17 minutes, 43 seconds. Ooph… Time for a very long rest.

Brazilian Portuguese Words of the Day:

• Terminado (Finished, as in the 2011 Brasil Ride is in the books.)
• Cerveja (Beer, as in it’s time to indulge and celebrate.)

Claro Brasil Ride 2011

Fast Facts

Stage 6: It’s was back to the stage 1 and 2 start town of Mucuge by way of an 128km route with 1716 meters of climbing. While not the death march that was stage 2′s 145km jungle slog, this was definitely another tough day in the saddle. Start time was a bright-and-early 6:30 a.m. in hopes of keeping most of the racing out of the heat of the day. The riding was primarily on fireroad. Most riders logged between 6-8 hours of saddle time.

Stage Winners: Open Men: Czech’s Tomas Vokrouhlik and Martin Horak (BMC) won a two-up sprint against Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso) on a mostly flat day. There was no change in the overall standings, as Kristian Hynek and Robert Novatny (Future Cycling-Sweep) were a close third and lost only two seconds. They now have a 5:27 lead over Lopez and Pinto going into the final day of racing.

Mixed: Ivonne Kraft and Kraft and Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Women: Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Both teams also expanded their commanding overall leads, all but ending any doubt of who the overall winners will be.

What it looked like in GPS form: It was a long and no-so-winding road during the trip from Rio de Contas back to Mucuge.

Brazilian Portuguese Words of the Day:

• Desperter (Wake-up, as in the Brasil Ride peloton got up at 4:30 a.m. for today’s 6:30 a.m. stage start.)
• Surpresa (Surprise, as in the last stage has been changed from 107km to 49km.)

Fast Facts

Stage 5: Rio de Contas to Rio de Contas again, this time on a punishing 95km loop that started and finished with menacing climbs, the first on rough, rocky roads and techy singletrack, the second on a 10km paved pitch with ramps upwards of 16 percent. In between, more technical singletrack, a mind-numbing dirt road section and another day of blinding heat made this a true day of suffering.

Stage Winners: Open Men: Kristian Hynek and Robert Novatny (Future Cycling-Sweep) expanded their overall GC lead after primary rivals Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso) flatted out of the lead group on the long, flat section that preceded the day’s final climb. The Czech duo, who also grabbed the stage win, now sit 5:29 ahead of the Iberian duo. Mixed: Ivonne Kraft and Kraft and Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Women: Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Both teams also expanded their commanding overall leads.

What it looked like in GPS form: Hard and hot and occasionally miserable. On the flipside there was some seriously ripping singletrack sections. [http://app.strava.com/rides/2126079]

Stage 5: It’s back to the stage 1 and 2 start town Mucuge by way of an 128km route with 1716 meters of climbing. While not the death march that was stage 2′s 145km slog, this will definitely be another gut punch to the Brasil Ride peloton – or what’s left of it. The weather forecast remains unchanged: brutally hot. Start time at 6:30 a.m. Time cut is 11 hours.

Brazilian Portuguese Words of the Day:

• Hydrate-se muito [Hydrate a lot, as in it's gonna be a scorcher so you better drink a ton.]
• Temperatura Alta [Temperature very high. Enough said]

Fast Facts

Stage 4: Rio de Contas to Rio de Contas, an 81.5km loop that included 2343 meters of climbing. But the real difficulty was the heat. Midday temperatures on a nearly cloudless Wednesday soared into the triple digits. There was also the most technical bit of trail yet, a sustained, twisting piece of singletrack that ranged from rough and rocky to slick and muddy. Many proverbial lunches were eaten.

Rocks are ever present by I. Photo: Jason Sumner

Stage Winners: Open Men: Kristian Hynek and Robert Novatny (Future Cycling-Sweep) attacked primary rivals Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso) on the last climb, and made it stick, taking the stage win and the yellow leaders jersey in the process. But the gap is small with the top two teams separated by just 1:10. Mixed: Ivonne Kraft and Kraft and Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Women: Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). Both teams also have commanding overall leads. What it looked like in GPS form Notice the rising heat as the day wore on. Ugh … Goodbye: Singletrack.com was sad to say goodbye our Brazilian partner, Luiz Escudero. We were paired up with the 49-year-old, ear-nose-throat doc by race director Mario Roma. But after conquering the first two days of racing together, Escudero took a nasty digger on stage 3 and could not start the fourth day. That means no finisher’s medal for either of us because both riders must finish all seven stages, but your author is plodding on just for the sake of it. Thanks for a great couple of days, Luiz. Stage 5: Another Rio de Contas start/finish stage, this time covering 95km with 1750 meters of climbing. Start time is 7a.m. Cut off is 10 hours. Features include testing rock-strewn double track with some decent sized ledge drops, and the final grueling asphalt climb that passes the stunning Cachoeira do Brumado waterfall. Brazilian Portuguese Words of the Day:

• Quente (Hot, as in so hot you think you are going to melt. And yes this is a repeat word, but today mandated its use.)
• Gorduroso (Greasy, as in the main batch of singletrack that required solid tire hook-up and a little bit of nerve to get down in one piece.)
• Molhar-se (Keep yourself wet, as in pour water over your head at every chance lest the sun cook your skull.)

RELATED: All Brasil Ride articles and galleries

Fast Facts

This small chapel was part of the course

Stage 3: Rio de Contas cross country, five laps of a 7km circuit. This was solid test of true mountain biking skill that include paved, fire road, techy trail climbing, fast, loose singletrack and “the plunge,” a steep, rocky plummet that forced the faint at heart off their bikes in droves. This was the lone day in this seven-stage event where riders did not have to stay in contact with their teammates. Instead, GC scoring was calculated by averaging the times of teammates.

Stage Winners (individuals): Men Open: Kristian Hynek (Future Cycling-Sweep); Women Mixed: Ivonne Kraft (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes); Women Open: Adriana Nascimento (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes). In the overall standings there was no change on GC. Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso) lead the men’s open; Kraft and Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) head up the mixed; and Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes) lead the women

What it looked like in GPS form: Here are links to your reporter’s Garmin data from stage 2 [http://app.strava.com/rides/2093333] and stage 3 [http://app.strava.com/rides/2101698]. Quite the contrast…

Brasil Ride on (Brazilian) ESPN: See the video here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0bfphwXDM]

Stage 4: Rio de Contas to Rio de Contas, an 81.5km loop that includes 2343 meters of climbing.

Brazilian Portuguese Words of the Day:

• Perigo [Danger, as in what it said on several signs along the 7km cross-country circuit]
• Andar [To Walk, as in what many of the riders did when they came to those aforementioned signs.]

Fast Facts

Stage 2: Mucuge to Rio de Contas, 145kms with 3372 meters of climbing, making this by far the toughest stage of the seven-day race. Attrition rate was exceptionally high, with 28 of the 100 teams that started the day failing to make it to the finish line due to mechanical, bio-mechanical, crash, injury or all four. Technical difficulty, 9.5 out of 10.

Stage Winners: Men: Luis Pinto and Alejandro Lopez (Team Spano-Luso); Mixed: Ivonne Kraft and Mateus Ferraz (Brasil Soul-RC Bikes); Women: Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes)

Out of the Race: Defending mixed duo champs Brian and Jenny Smith, who after winning the stage 1 prologue, saw things go horribly wrong on Monday when Brian came down with a bout of food poisoning and was forced to drop out of the race at the second aid station. “We’ve been racing together for so many years and that’s the first time I’ve ever seen him like that,” said Jenny Smith. “I think he threw up like 20 times. It was terrible.”

Stage 3: Rio de Contas Cross Country, 5 laps of a 7km circuit that starts and finishes on the rough, cobblestone streets of the Rio de Contas town square.

Brazilian Portuguese Words of the Day:

• Quente [Hot, as it was Monday, making for one long and painful day in the saddle]
• Sonolento [Sleepy, as is your intrepid reporter who spent the better part of 11.5 hours pedaling through the Brazilian hinterland.]

RELATED: All Brasil Ride articles and galleries

As the sun set, the course of the Brasil Ride glowed. Photo: Bruno Senna

Fast Facts

Stage 1: Mucuge to Mucuge, 12.4km prologue; trail a mix of sand and rock, combined with a steep paved climb and one knee deep water crossing. Technical difficulty, 7.5 out of 10..

Stage Winners:
Men: Steffen Thum and Simon Gegenheimer (Germany) Ultra Sports Rose Racing;
Mixed: Brian and Jenny Smith (USA) Alpine Orthopedic MTB Team-Breezer-SRAM;
Women: Adriana Nascimento and Sabrina Gobbo (Brazil) Ladies Brasil Soul-RC Bikes

Lost: By American Airlines, the bikes of Topeak-Ergon teammates Jeff Kerkove and Sonya Looney, meaning they did not start the race.

Stage 2: Mucuge to Rio de Contas, 145km with 3372 meters of climbing. This is by far the toughest stage of the seven-day race. Expect the winners to log upwards of 7 hours, while the back markers will spend nearly 12 hours in the saddle. Start time is a painful 6 a.m.

Brazilian Portuguese Words of the Day:

• Por favor [Please]
• Muito Bom [Great, as in great trails ridden today]
• Tudo Bem [Everything Good? A question Brasil Ride teammates will be asking each other all week. If things are good, the appropriate answer is "tudo bom"]

The second annual Brasil Ride mountain bike stage race rolls out at noon local time Sunday on the outskirts of Parque Nacional Chapada Diamantina. First up is a 12.4km prologue time trial that starts and finishes in Mucuge, a small town in western Bahia, the sprawling Brazilian state that gave the world samba, capoeira and Carnival.

All told, some 300 racers will cover 585km over seven stages. Terrain ranges from tight, rocky singletrack to mind-numbingly long stretches of flat farm road. Think the stunning rock escarpments of America’s southwest canyon country, only a whole lot wetter and greener, and you get an idea of what the landscape looks like.

Fast Facts

Time Zone: Bahia is GMT -3 — aka two hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time

Language: In a nod to its tumultuous colonial past, Portuguese is Brazil’s native language. We’ll share a few key words here each day during the race. Today’s selections include:

• Obrigado/Obrigada [Masculine/feminine for "thank you"]
• Bicicleta [Bicycle]
• Armários [Storage lockers, such as those at the where most racers kept their bikes at the airport on Friday night]
• Chuva [Rain, which it did all day Friday. Fortunately the forecast for the rest of the week is a little drier]
• Onibus [Bus, which is where the majority of the Brasil Ride peloton spent 8+ hours on Saturday, during the long transfer from Salvador westward to Mucuge]

Ride Time: Last year’s overall winners, the Czech duo of Robert Novotny and Kristian Hynek, logged 24 hours, 27 minutes and 59 seconds. The slowest cumulative times in 2010 were in excess of 44 hours over six days. Those numbers will almost certainly rise this year, as the race is one day longer, with the addition of a 35km cross-country stage on day three. And thus the event’s slightly ominous tagline, “More than a race… a stage in your life.”

Sights and Scenes: Check out the photo gallery for a look back at some of 2010′s visual highlights. Stay tuned to Singletrack.com all week for race reports and more stunning photos from this year’s race.