Marco Fernandes was the big winner of the Algarve International Mountain Bike Marathon (MIBA), which took place this Sunday, in S. Bartolomeu de Messines, municipality of Silves.
The athlete won in the Elite category (Men), after Luís Pinto was disqualified. The second and third places were won by Tiago Dias and Gonçalo Brito.
The same category (Women) was won by Celina Carpinteiro from BTT Loulé, followed by Rute Costa and Joana Patrício from Ovibike/Oriquense.
Sportzone athlete Nuno Silva won in the Veterans A category. The second and third places were achieved by Valério Ferreira (BTT Loulé) and Rui Matias (Grupo Desportivo Santa Cruz).
Adelino Cruz won in the Veterans B category and Carlos Cabrita (BTT Loulé) won the Veterans C award.
The Concelho de Silves Trophy, which is now in its fifth edition, distinguished Rita Esteves (Female) and Tiago Silva (Men) as the first classified in the 100 km route.
Despite the good national performance, Ricardo Rodrigues, president of the ExtremoSul Association, laments “the weak participation of Portuguese athletes, in a competition that points to the UCI Ranking”.
A highlight was the performance of athletes Aderio Guerreiro, Rafael Lourenço and Bruno Guerreiro, from the JMQ Cozinha/ExtremoSul team, who qualified in the first three places of the 25-kilometre route.
Also on the 50-kilometre route, ExtremoSul athletes Ricardo Pires, João Martins and David Martins were highlighted.
Already thinking about the next edition, Ricardo Rodrigues emphasizes that the competition has “an organization that is up to the events and with the capacity to embrace and organize the National Championship, which is already scheduled for the next year of 2012”. The championship is expected to take place in early October.
In all, about a thousand athletes participated in the marathon, in an organization that had the help of one hundred volunteers, two dozen firefighters and GNR.
For the first time in the history of this MTB marathon – now in its seventh edition – the intervention of the firefighters was not necessary, as there were no incidents.
The classification can be found on the website www.bttalgarve.com.
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