Bianca Garcia driven by her athlete guide, Nicolle Borges, on the Chilean roads. Photo: Instagram/ @nicolleborgees

There’s no better way to start road cycling competitions in Parapan than by winning gold. Imagine how happy Bianca Garcia and her guide athlete, Nicolle Borges, were when they crossed the finish line and knew they had the fastest time. The Brazilians are certainly in the lead by winning gold in the time trial for the visually impaired.

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Road cycling is a sport of contrasts, as athletes pass through magnificent landscapes. However, they are so focused on testing and strategy that they can barely enjoy these scenarios. And let’s face it, cycling with the Andes in the background isn’t a bad thing. But Bianca’s goal was none other than to pedal very hard to take first place on the podium this Sunday (19) in Santiago.

Thus, his determination and will, combined with the equally hard work of “his eyes”, the cyclist Nicolle, achieved maximum glory. They covered the 21.6 km two-lap course in 33:14:22 and won gold for Brazil. In the other places on the podium, Argentina doubles, with Maria José Quiroga with silver and Maria Agustina Cruceño with bronze. Respectively, they achieved 1min02s and 1min41s more than the Brazilian’s time.

More Brazilian medals

In addition to Bianca’s gold, Brazil also won silver with Lauro Chaman, in the C1-5 class time trial. Unlike the Cycling World Cup, Parapan American competitions only reward overall winners and not for each class. So, for example, Carlos Alberto Gomes, first in C-1, does not receive a medal, since he was 11th in the general classification.

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Lauro finished first in C5 with a time of 27:06.06 and was 44.92 behind Canadian champion Alexandre Hayward, who is in C3. Bronze also went to Canada’s C3 cyclist, Michael Sametz, with 27min25s14.

Carlos achieved a time of 29min27s21 and was the best in his category. Then, Victor de Oliveira finished 12th overall and second in C2, with 29min31s88. At the end of this race, André Grizando was the Brazilian competing for the C4, being second in his category and 14th overall.

The second silver of the day and the third medal came from Jady Malavazzi (H3), in the H1-5 class time trial. With a time of 17min44s59, the Brazilian was only behind the American Katerina Brim (H2), who finished in 15min14s83. Jenna Rollman (H3), also from the United States, won bronze. The race also featured two other national athletes, Mariana Garcia (H3) finished fourth and Josiane Nowacki (H4) fifth.

Other results

In the women’s C1-5 race, Amanda de Paiva (C3) finished 11th overall with 17min37s33, with Sabrina Custódia (C2) 12th and Victória de Camargo (C2) 14th.

In the men’s H1-5 race, Ulisses Freitas (H4) finished fifth overall and first in his category, with 32min42s69. While Ronan Fonseca (H5) was tenth in the general classification and second in his category.

In the mixed race of classes T1-2, Adriano Matunaga (T2) finished seventh overall and fourth in his class.

A journalist who graduated in 2013, I have been working since 2008, when I joined P. Mackenzie University. I worked for six years at Diário Lance!. I went through Punteiro Izquierdo, Surto Olímpico, Torcedores and the Municipal Secretariat of Sports and Leisure of São Paulo. I joined OTD in April 2023.