Brazilian DHI National Championship 2017 - Race Recap

The Brazilian DHI National Championship was held on the 21-23 of July in a beautiful country hotel by an amazing Rock formation in Simão Pereira, Minas Gerais in the Brazilian southeast.


The National title for the DH was decided in a single event, attracting more than 300 riders to the race.


The schedule started on Friday with official training, followed by qualifying, the amateurs race on Saturday, and the big final on Sunday.


Some big stone slab with some fractures in the middle of the track favored the riders who like to jump some sneak lines but also brought some flat tires for the not so precise riders.


The terrain was dry, dusty and hard packed with an unusually warm weather in the middle of the winter, resulting in lots of thin dust forming a vision that was almost magical.


We had 14 categories with titles up for grabs. We had an interesting field with riders from 12 to 60 years old.


The entire track was high speed, with some roots over the rocks and a final stretch that was called “the ghost tunnel” as the riders get through a natural tunnel of bamboos at the exit of the woods to the open field full of jumps and some table tops in the finish zone.


Lucas Bertol, the National Champion last season could not repeat the title as the track didn’t favor the technical riders placing him ninth in the elites.


Bruna Ulrich showed what she does the best by schooling the rest of the field with a 20-second margin over second place.


The juniors are always one of the hardest categories, it was a tight race with Matheus Neitzke confirming his favoritism.


The elite category had 30 entries. Gabriel Giovannini got the bronze medal.


Lucas de Borba who got the fastest time in qualifying and ended up with the silver medal.


The whip guy, Bernardo Cruz showed he knew to ride straight and steadily getting his fifth National Title in elite men.


When two generations of champions meet.


Elite Men:

1 - Bernardo Cruz: 2:05:003
2 - Lucas Alves: 2:05:814
3 - Gabriel Giovannini: 2:06:438

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