3600 Brazilian cyclists participated in the eighth edition of L’Etape Brazil by Tour de France, but it was 20 year-old Vicente Rojas from Chile who claimed the winner’s yellow jersey after an exciting sprint finish.

With 107 kilometers of racing completed, including a final 10km Category 1 climb up Rainha da Montanha, four riders arrived at the finish in Campos do Jordão, where the young Chilean rider achieved his best ever result – winning L’Etape Brazil. Wearing blazing fast florescent orange shoes he outsprinted Brazilians Euller Magno, Caio Godoy and Bruno Lemes in a photo-finish with a winning time of 2:54:47.

”It was a very tough test! I’ve been thinking about winning L’Étape Brasil for two months. I trained a lot to get this victory. I changed the strategy when I couldn’t attack in the Serra Velha, I held on well and used my peak speed to attack in the end. The sprint was very hard. Just mind and heart,” Vicente Rojas told website pedal.com.br afterwards.

In the women’s event, Fernanda Maceira Martello won her second L’Etape race this season after winning L’Etape Rio in June. She completed the gran fondo route in 3:23:03 to add another yellow L’Etape champion’s jersey to her collection. Cristiane Pereira da Silva took the second step on the podium in 3:25:43, with Victoria Martins Remaili in third place at 3:29.14

In the 66km medio fondo Pedro Fonseca (1:46:40) won for the men and Camila Angulo (2:03:58) for the women.

The ninth L’Etape Brazil gran fondo race will take place 24 September 2023.

Results L’Etape Brazil HERE.

Photos: @onboardsports360