by Christian Camilo

Barão de Cocais – Rigor Rico, rider of the Beta Racing team, won for the third consecutive time the victory of Barãomaniacs in a stage marked by exciting disputes and a wide domain of the pilots of Minas Gerais in all categories of the modality. The tension generated by the risk of breaking the Gongo Soco Mine Barrier did not disturb the Barão de Cocais event, which had a record number of participants and a large public participation in the city during the two days of the opening season of HEBS ( Hard Enduro Brasil Series).

Rigor Rico flying at the prologue

Racing at home, Rigor Rico faced a great performance challenge in the prologue of the first day of the stage, in a circuit of Super Enduro armed in the center of Baron de Cocais. Ronald Santi, who in 2017 was a Hard Enduro (silver) champion, set a strong rhythm for the Gold category riders. Despite four months away from training, Ronald won support from 3R Motos for the race. Racing with Beta bike and a track that favors his style of riding, Ronald was able to make Rigor Rico a great duel, taking moments of great emotion, and even distress to the home crowd’s fans. In spite of the effort of the talented pilot of Belo Horizonte, Rigor Rico brought joy to the fans of the city winning thethe prologue and thus guaranteeing the first position for the trails of the second day. Completed the podium of the first day Ronald Santi (2) and Gustavo Furlaneto (3).

Rigor Rico chasing Ronald Santi at prologue.

On the second day, the great Hard Enduro trails in Barão de Cocais mountains were finally challenged. Rigor Rico confirmed his favoritism with great victory after four hours and twenty minutes of stone, gravel, clay and a great visual in the mining landscape.

“It was the most exciting event I’ve ever had in my city. On the first day I believe that my start in fifth place brought great excitement to the public. It was very contagious victory in the prologue with the help of my audience. On the second day, Sunday, I had no idea what the challenges would be like. And despite knowing the majority of the trails of the region, I was surprised with the amount of unpublished excerpts. I think 30 percent of the race was unheard of for me and it even made me feel like I was running out of town. The stage had impeccable organization! “- declared the winner of the Baranomaniacs

In the “second platoon” of GOLD great stories came to the surface. In a great moment of consolidation of his potential, the young rising star Gustavo Furlaneto faced problems with the current of his bike and this almost cost him the “long awaited” second place finish in Barãomaniacs. The Rio Grande do Sul rider Tobata, who in 2018 had only achieved the ninth position in  the Silver riders classification in Barãomanics, showed a high level of competitiveness. Even facing engine warm-up problems, Tobata managed to finish the race in third place. And the result of the gaucho was not the most surprising because, in the fourth place, São Paulo’s Benê Coser, a former bronze rider, got it all the attention of Hard Enduro fans:

“It was a unique experience to be among the top 5 in Brazil, between Rigor Rico and Renan Tonon. For about 5 minutes I was able to stay second in GOLD. But in Sibil I lost the pedal, the clutch was also gone in that place. I ended up crawling until the end of the race. But it was really cool. I was very impressed that I was happey when I saw on the trail signs alerts written “GOLD, SILVER and Bronze”, and prayed for everything that is holy when I saw signs written only “Gold” – says Benê Coser.

Benê Coser: A fantastic rising and a great personal victory.

Completed the podium at fifth place another great young rider, Renan Tonon, also a rookie in the elite. Ronald Santi unfortunately succumbed to exhaustion. The time lost without training limited his result. The rider failed to complete the race.

In the support categories, the riders of Minas Gerais dominated the highest place on the podium. The highlights were: The victories of Mayonne Santos, from Santa Bárbara (MG) in the category Silver, by Bruno Furtado from Barão de Cocais leading a victory in the Bronze category. Pedro Brito from Belo Horizonte won the National category and Carlos Souza from Ouro Preto  won on in Iron. In the women’s classification Isa Oliveira of Japaraiba-MG led to the victory and conquest of Barão de Cocais stage.

One of the biggest challenges of Gold and Silver trails.

Inside the amaizing forest in Barão de Cocais.

Rigor Rico, on second day.

one of the amaizing views leaving the Bad Wolf trails

again, one of the amaizing views leaving the Bad Wolf trails

Gustavo Furlaneto leaving the “Bad Wolf” trails.

Rigor Rico winning the prologue on day 1,

The amaizing trails on the mountain rocks of Barãomaniacs

Rigor Rico riding alone at first place of second day of Barãomaniacs

More photos and official results:

Official results:

Gold Category

1 Rigor Rico

2 Gustavo Furlaneto

3 Tiago Lume

4 Benedito Coser

5 Renan Tonon

6 Rogério Zortéa

7 Daniel Quintao

8 Ronald Santi

Silver Category

1 Mayonne Santos

2 Marco Túlio Faria

3 Bruno Domiciano

4 Erasmo Schwanz

5 Lucas Rocha

6 Gustavo Pinheiro Abijaude

7 Leonardo Preato De Luca

8 Rodrigo Zuccon

9 Fabrício Da Conceição Xavier Tibum

10 Willians Kauffmann

11 Marcelo Dom Quicoli Barbosa

12 Emanuel Brighenti

13 Luis Felipe Brunatto Dalabona

14 Jonathan Dutra

15 Valdeci Duarte

16 Erick Rangel

17 Joao Ruiz B Neto

18 Gabriel Guimarães Cordeiro

19 Joao Batista Da Silva

20 Ricardo Campos Luiz

21 Luiz Henrique Antunes

22 Bruno Monteiro de Barros

23 Anderson Souza Gomes

24 Samuel Figueredo Araujo

25 Borges Júnior

26 Nuno Dos Santos Souza

27 Eder Ribeiro Brandão

Bronze Category

1 Eduardo Furtado

2  Washington Silva

3  Rodrigo Furtado

4  Lucas Torres

5  Vitor Peão

6  Pedro Cota

7  João Paulo Mozelli

8  Kaio Prochnow

9 Marcus Aurélio De Barros Silvério

10 Anderson Rigo Lopes

11 Wilter Sena

12 Allan Silva

13 Cleocelio Buback

14 Marcio Henrique De Queiroz Silva

15 Fabio Manoel De Pontes

16 Rodrigo Weber Camello Santos

17 Guilherme Augusto

18 Maycon Augusto Da Silva

19 José Roberto Santos

20 Jirios

21 Pedro Henrique Sérgio De Souza

22 Pedro Henrique Montanher

23 Pierluigi Clini

24 Kalliman Fonseca Apolinario

25 Alexandre Magno de Andrade

26 Arthur Araujo

27 Adriano Huguet

28 Sidney Elias

29 Ygor Meneghini

30 Andre Cosmo Barbon

31 Rodrigo Sakai Zaroni

National Category

1 Pedro Brito

2 Raphael Couto

3 Wesley Da Conceicao

4 Eduardo Mourão

5 Marcelo Ernesto

6 Rodrigo Lima

7 Fernando Junior Ferreira

8 Edson Neves

9 Pedro Lana

10 Rodolfo Felipe Fernandes Messias

Iron Category

1 Carlos Souza

2 Janderson Silva

3 Gilson Henrique Costa Silva

4 Neuber Alves

5 Joao Paulo Moreira De Sousa

6 Ewerson Luiz Silva

7 José Renato Câmara 0

8 Marcio Pontes

9 Rodrigo Campos Álvares

10 Caio Becker

11 Moacir Natal

12 Arlisson

Women category

1 Isa Oliveira

2 Barbara Neves Gonzaga

3 Marilsa das Graças de Souza Magalhães