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Bento Gonçalves

Located in the heart of Brazil's wine region, Bento Gonçalves offers fantastic cycling roads, beautiful views of vineyard-covered hills and excellent gastronomy and wines. Italian immigration has played a big role in shaping the architecture, cuisine, viticulture and landscapes, resulting in a region that looks and feels like Italy with a Brazilian twist. The rolling hills serve up lots of cycling fun on twisty roads making your trip to Bento Goncalves a fantastic cycling vacation.

Bento Gonçalves is also home to the Vale dos Vinhedos, named after the region's valleys covered with vineyards. It's comprised of small farms, family-owned and internationally renowned wineries, hotels, restaurants, art galleries and gourmet food stores. The route starts on BR-470, south of Bento Gonçalves, and continues west on RS-444 through the valley towards Santa Tereza. The wines from Vale dos Vinhedos are the only wines from Brazil that have the Denomination of Origin (DO). 

You will be delighted by the hospitality of the locals combined with the high quality tourism infrastructure available. The state of Rio Grande do Sol is a major international tourist destination in Brazil, being the 2nd largest international traveler destination after Sao Paulo, with Rio de Janeiro being 3rd. Because of this national and international tourism appeal, you will find a large variety of hotels, inns and restaurants at every budget, welcoming you when you come to GFNY Bento Gonçalves.

Course

Bento Gonçalves has the largest and most equipped exhibition center in Rio Grande do Sul, Fundaparque, which hosts international events and will also host the activities of the GFNY Bento Gonçalves race week - Expo Global Sports GFNY Bento. A complete fair where you will find exhibitors of sports brands that will present the latest innovations in the market, several attractions such as lectures, technical congress, gastronomic festival, tasting of the region's wines, shows and presentations to entertain the whole family.

The race starts and ends near Fundaparque and makes a 75km loop to the east and south. You will start with a 3 km descent and then start 10 km of climbing, which is a gradual ascent but also has steep sections of 8 to 10%, crossing the Caminhos de Pedra.

You'll travel along quiet country roads along this circuit, but you'll also pass through important towns like Farroupilha, known as the capital of the mesh and the Pilgrimage of Caravaggio; Carlos Barbosa, known for being the land of the knife, cheese and futsal; and Garibaldi, the sparkling wine capital of Brazil. The hills continue but become longer and more staggered, with 2-4 km climbs followed by similar descents. Here is where the groups will start to split.

With the end of the loop, you will have to make the decision to continue pedaling the long route by turning left for a loop through the stunning Vale dos Vinhedos or heading to the finish line of the medium route.

The drive west is 60km and runs through the heart of the Bento Gonçalves wine region with vineyard-covered hills, Mediterranean-style buildings, small shops, historic cobbled sections and breathtaking landscapes. The loop runs along the entire length of the famous Vale dos Vinhedos. But with great beauty also comes great challenge. The loop has many steep climbs from 8 to 16%, 1 to 4 km long. Upon reaching the westernmost part of the loop, a challenging climb to Monte Belo do Sul, crossing this picturesque town where you have a 180º view of the Vale dos Vinhedos from the lookout. Continuing on, you will navigate a descent to Santa Tereza, a Historical Heritage city, and then make the longest climb of the day: 12 km and an average of 4%. A few more steep climbs await you to close this challenging circuit.

After completing the circuit, it's a final 5km fast and flat to the finish line where the day began. Come to Fundaparque to receive your medal, post-race meal and celebrate your arrival and special achievement with your cycling group, friends and family.

LONG COURSE IS A COMPETITION: Only the finishers of the long course are eligible for category rankings and Overall and Podium awards. If you want to race and be ranked in your category, you must complete the long course. Top 20% of finishers in each age group earn a spot in the Qualifier Corral at every GFNY World event.

 

MEDIUM COURSE IS NOT A COMPETITION: The riders of the medium course will be provided their start-to-finish time, but will not be ranked by finish time. All finish times will be listed in alphabetical order.

Perks included as part of GFNY Bento Gonçalves

THE JERSEY: All riders receive the official GFNY Bento Gonçalves race jersey, which is mandatory attire at the race. The jersey is designed in NYC and Made in Italy.

CHIP TIMING: GFNY Bento Gonçalves is a timed race. Each athlete has their own timing chip, which starts right after you cross the start line and stops when you cross the finish line. Timing results will be available at gfny.cc/results.

FINISHER MEDAL: Every Bento Gonçalves finisher receives a medal, no matter which distance they complete. All finishers also earn a “Finish” towards their 3x2024 GFNY medal or the 10x medal. Go to gfny.com/medals for more information on GFNY’s multi-finisher medals.

South American Championship


GFNY Bento Gonçalves serves as the GFNY South America Championship. 

The top 20% of finishers in each age group will start in the Qualifier Corral at all GFNYs for the next 380 days.

Overall Champions (man and woman) of the GFNY South America Championship win flights, hotel and entry to GFNY World Championship NYC 2025 to compete for the GFNY World Championship crown.

GFNY Kids

GFNY Bento is also offering GFNY Kids Bento. Open to children 2yo-14yo, now also GFNY Kids will Be a Pro For a Day. Each registration includes a GFNY Kids t-shirt, bike number and bib number, chip timing, finisher medal and post-race snack. Children start in heats divided by age. 

GFNY Gear

Train with GFNY to have your best race

Coaching.gfny.com is a platform to help you find your best GFNY performance through personalized training plans, performance analysis, online meetings and an extensive library of training content.
 
GFNY Coaching can help you prepare for all your GFNY World races. You can choose from one of three monthly plan options that provides you with a training plan by a GFNY coach to help you meet your goals in your next GFNY, whether the goal is #breaking10, #breaking6, or even #breaking4. All of our plans are customized for each athlete, and feedback and coach contact is always included. GFNY Coaching is available in English and Spanish.
 
No matter your goals or level of experience in cycling, whether you have a couple of months to tune-up, or half a year to change yourself completely as an athlete, you will be ready to hit that PB, get your highest placing ever, or just finish your first GFNY race.

GFNY Coaching

The personalized training plan written by your GFNY Coach is tailored to your schedule, cycling experience, fitness and goals. GFNY Coaches are qualified coaches with years of success in working with athletes of all fitness levels. 

No matter your goals or your cycling experience, with GFNY Coaching you get personalized training plans, advice, and guidance to focus on your target race. Whether you have a couple of months to tune-up, or half a year to change yourself completely as a rider, you will be ready to earn that PR, get your highest placing ever, or finish your first GFNY race.

Let the GFNY experts at GFNY Coaching prepare you. GFNY coaches have raced GFNYs and understand the demands of every race and course on the calendar.

Training Plans on TrainingPeaks

Benefit from training structure and work out smarter by following a GFNY training plan. The easy-to-follow GFNY training plans are designed to give you flexibility and control over your training process and adjust based on how you feel, the weather and your physical condition.

The plans are written by GFNY Coaches, with options based on your cycling experience, and are tailored for the type of GFNY race course you’ll be racing - flat-to-rolling, or mountains.

GFNY Training Center

The GFNY Training Center section of coaching.gfny.com provides you content focused on training topics like nutrition, cadence, and power, as well as course guides to GFNY races around the World. This training and course strategy content is free to every GFNY athlete. 

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