Henrique Avancini Rides Berd Spokes to Win the Mountain Bike Marathon World Championship in Glasgow

8/7/2023

Brazilian mountain bike racer, Olympian, and 2018 Cross Country Marathon World Champion Henrique Avancini rode to his second career World Championship victory in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday with a winning time of 4:14:42 on the 96 kilometer loop with 3,200 meters of elevation gain.

Born in Brazil in 1989, Avancini is not only a champion on the bike, but also Brazil’s greatest contributor to the growth of mountain biking the country has ever seen. Avancini’s popularity, and the legacy he has built in Brazil, is a result of the passion he puts into the sport.

When Avancini’s father built him his first bike from a cut down frame in the shop he ran in the late 1990s, no Brazilian riders were ranked in the top world rankings. With motivation from his father to train harder than anyone else, Avancini fell in love with the sport at the age of 18 and has gone on to become a 2-time UCI XC Marathon World Champion, 6-time UCI World Cup Champion, and to represent Brazil in the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games.

Avancini has become a hometown hero in Brazil inspiring young riders in a country that had no highly-ranked world cup riders. Now, five Brazilian men are ranked in the top 100 in World Cup rankings, and Brazil is seen as a top competitor on the circuit. Perhaps one of Avancini’s greatest achievements is when he helped bring a world-cup race to his hometown of Petrópolis in 2022 – the first time the country had seen a World Cup in 17 years and the first time Avancini didn’t have to travel by plane for a World Cup race.

The World Championship on Sunday was the first win on the international stage for Henrique’s team: Caloi Henrique Avancini Racing Team. Avancini founded the team in 2015 to support young racers, and the team is sponsored by one of Brazil’s largest bike brands, Caloi. It wasn’t until earlier this year that Avancini left Cannondale to begin racing as part of his own team. The recent win continues to propel the sport of cycling for Brazilian riders and companies.

Berd partnered with 9th Wave Cycling, Netherlands, to provide Berd spokes to the Caloi Henrique Avancini Racing Team for the 2023 season. 9th Wave assembles the wheels in the Netherlands with their proprietary Ninefold FLEX35/30 carbon rims and DT180 hubs. Fully assembled, the wheels weigh just over 1,000 grams and are built with red and blue spokes on either side of the valve hole to match the team colors.

The high strength, low weight, and vibration damping qualities of Berd spokes excel in cross country marathon racing. Avancini’s 4+ hour ride included 3,200 m (10,000 ft) of climbing, and countless accelerations made faster with the low-weight wheels. Fatigue, which is often a contributor to a slowing pace in long-distance races, was combated by the smooth, vibration damping qualities of Berd spokes and allowed Avancini to charge hard all the way to the line.

Berd is proud to support our first World Champion Avancini and his deeply-rooted passion for the sport of mountain biking.