A quick trip to Uberlândia and beyond (namely Araxá)

Uberlândia, here we come!

If you think that I made up this name, Uberlândia, well, you're mightily wrong. It does exist, and no, it's not where they have a big hatchery of Uber drivers. The story, so my driver Felipe told me, is that the former town in this very locale was small and unimportant, and in an attempt to put it on the map, city leaders decided to give it an Uberish name, and thus Uberlândia was born. And now, apart from having about half a million inhabitants, it also has an airport that connects it to both Brasilia and Sao Paulo. Who would have thunk!

Uberlândia from atop ...

... and from ground level

This was my third trip south of the equator for 2018, and as you may have guessed, it once again was cycling related. I traveled altogether four days for a three-day mountain bike stage race. Yep, that's a lot of traveling: Lubbock to Dallas, onward to Miami, a hop to Brasilia, and finally the thunderstormy vomit-comet to Uberlândia--and then another 200 kilometers of car transfer. Add to that the fact that I had a 10-hour layover in Brasilia and you will understand that I was glad to finally arrive in Araxá. This town, smack-dab in the middle of the huge province of Minas Gerais in the even huger country of Brazil, is in the center of the world's second largest and Brazil's most important niobium reserves.

The first glimpse from my window after a late-night arrival

I love the fruit down south!!!!

But I wouldn't learn about all that until later. When I woke up on Friday morning after traveling for the better part of 48 hours I looked outside upon a tropical paradise of palm trees, verdant hills, and lush forests. The Taua Grande Hotel and Termas de Araxá is a monstrously large edifice that was built as a casino but was shortly after opening closed down because the government thought that gambling was not such a good thing after all. For a while the Taua lay fallow until it was revived and now is an RCI crown resort, or something like that. And it was the host hotel for the CIMTB race, part of a four-event series for the coveted Copa Internacional.

Resort on one side ...

... and race venue on the other

My room looked directly upon the start/finish area, the huge podium, and part of the 35+ vendor expo area that was part of this event. The organizer, a friendly and sincere man by the name of Rogerio Bernardes, estimated that about 1,200 amateur racers participated in this largest of all cup events. I don't doubt it. The elevators and hallways were clogged with riders young and old, male and female; spectators were everywhere; and during mealtime in the spacious hotel dining area it was tough to get a table. Looking at the infrastructure of this event it could rival any World Cup that I have seen in the Americas. Again, who would have thunk.

The finest color guard I've seen in a long time

The UCI Elite men take off for their cross-country race

Once again I was lucky in that I was granted the privilege to work with a crew of extremely capable and friendly locals. I already mentioned Felipe; his stunningly beautiful and even more inquisitive and intelligent wife, Maritza, has been working as the organizer's right-hand confidante, and whenever there was something that I needed to have taken care of, Maritza got it done, with a smile. Working ever-so-closely with me was Camilo, whom I had briefly met at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Even though he was supposed to be my "assistant," his help in translating and organizing our workplace made him an equal. And then, of course, there were old friends: My Argentinian compadre Leandro Carpinelli, with whom I performed the first "buddy exercise" in my International Commissaire training in Switzerland back in, what?, 2005, I believe. I hadn't seen him since the World Cup in Windham, and he hasn't changed much--he still has a keen eye for a beautiful woman!

With Camilo and Carol, another local assistant

Leandro and I go back more than a decade

Another surprise came with the smiling, gentle face of Regina Barbieri, an IC from Brazil whom I had met at the Olympic velodrome two years ago. Regina acted as the chief for the local amateur races while Leandro was the chief for the UCI events. But let's not kid ourselves: Regardless of our assigned jobs, we all work as a team, and that's why I simply LOVE what I do. We are an international tribe, we speak a mixture of English and Spanish and the occasional French and a smidgen of Portuguese, and sometimes there are the Germanic ICs and DCOs, and we try to give back to the sport as much as we can and allow racers to do their jobs knowing that the playing field is level from all sides.

The Taua Grande at dusk

The very civilized billiard room

The opulent reception area

Inside the thermal baths

The warm-water pool

Between those times when I was busy doing what I do there was a little time to explore. One night, Camilo and I went to downtown Araxá to listen to some samba and knock back a few beers. Well, the samba was more like a top-ten hitparade, so we left and ended up in the aptly called My Beers, a fine taproom with a few artisanal draft beers and a solid collection of bottled ones. Yep, I had a Weihenstephan Vitus here. Who would have thunk!

On Saturday afternoon I found myself with a couple of free hours and decide to escape the lovely compound and take a hike beyond the race track. That's when I found out about the niobium and the rape of the land that is happening just on the other side of paradise. I've seen stripmines in New Mexico, and they are stunningly awful. What I saw here was much worse. As far as you can see, the landscape has been terraced, and it will be a long, long time before mother nature reclaims this part of the world. (Incidentally, after sending Sabine a few pics of the mines she sent me an interesting German news report about how soy bean plantations in this area are responsible for deforestation and pollution.) I'm not judging here; I am simply reporting. We all make our living somehow, and if you want to throw big old rocks, make sure you're not living in a glass house.

Walking back from my excursion I crossed through parts of the race course, and it was just amazing to see the excitement and engagement of the thousands of fans. I passed through while the amateurs were racing--imagining the party during the Pro race was difficult. However, the next day, while working after the conclusion of the UCI event, I had a chance to talk to a racer from the US about how it all stacked up. I was told by this individual, whom I highly respect, that there were boos and worse whenever this foreign athlete passed through certain sections--but it was also clear that these boos were not meant in disrespect of the rider but simply as an extra boost for the local athletes. You need to realize that all this still gives me goosebumps.

So, what's my take-away from this, my second-ever trip to Brazil? Let me tell you, I enjoyed Araxá much more than Rio. The people I met were so giving, so genuine, so warm and helpful. Rogerio was the perfect ambassador for all that is good about Brazil, letting me know not to listen to the news reports of the ubiquitous graft and corruption but rather open up to the hearts of the people. I did. The friendly faces in the termas who helped me figure out the "sparkling bubble bath" were so gentle in understanding the fact that I could not communicate in Portuguese (while I couldn't really figure out why they couldn't understand my Spanish--but few Brazilians speak Spanish, as I was told time and again). Locals that I met in town and other social situations were eager to talk to me about their country. Brazilians are a very proud people--proud of themselves, proud of their country. Nothing wrong with that, and it didn't come as a surprise. I should have thunked that!

This was a great trip. I wish I could have spent more time. I also wish my Portuguese consisted of more than the obrigado that I continue to mix up with the automatic gracias. I wish I could meet a few more of those absolutely stunning women who epitomize everything beautiful about the world's 51%. And I wish I could spend more time with these wonderful new friends who opened their arms and hearts to this gringo. Obrigado!

Jürgen