Brazil’s Avancini commits to tackling Eastern Cape’s Gravel Burn

The two-time UCI Mountain Bike marathon world champion and Brazil’s first UCI World Cup winner has confirmed he will race Nedbank Gravel Burn from October 25 to 31. It will be his first time on gravel in the Great Karoo. The Red Bull athlete is not arriving cold.

In March he won UCI Gravel Brazil. In July he took the inaugural Campeonato Brasileiro de Gravel in Rio Acima, Minas Gerais, a 96km course with 3,000 metres of climbing through the Serra do Gandarela. That level of performance comes from a mountain biking career spent at the pinnacle of the sport.

He spent more than a decade at the sharp end of the international cross-country circuit as one of the defining South American riders of his generation. At 36, he is racing gravel and honouring that résumé. Many of Avancini top results listed in his impressive palmarès come from SA, as a multiple Cape Epic podium finisher and stage winner.

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Avancini rides Swift bikes. Headquartered in Belo Horizonte, and Brazil-owned, there remains a thread that connects with SA. Swift was founded by a South African, with many bikes in the range designed in SA with South African conditions in mind.

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