GFNY Bento Gonçalves

May 04, 2025 - Bento Gonçalves Brazil

About Bento Gonçalves

Located in the center of Brazil’s wine region, Bento Gonçalves, offers you fantastic roads for cycling, beautiful views of vineyard-covered hills and great food and wine. 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 Goncalves is home to Vale dos Vinhedos, named after the region's valleys covered with vineyards. It’s made up of small farms, family and internationally renowned wineries, hotels, restaurants, art galleries and gourmet food shops. The route starts on BR-470, south of Bento Gonçalves, and continues west on RS-444 through the valley towards Santa Tereza. Vale dos Vinhedos wines are the only wines in Brazil to hold the Designation of Origin (DO).

You will be enchanted 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, extending a warm welcome to you while you come to race GFNY Bento Goncalves.

THE COURSE

Bento Gonçalves has the largest and most equipped expo center in Rio Grande do Sul, the Fundaparque, which hosts international events like Movelsul, Fimma, Fiema, ExpoBento, and is also your host for GFNY Bento Goncalves race week activities. Get ready for fun activities like photo walls, beer garden, group rides, information sessions, music and the pre-race expo.

The race starts and finishes next to the Fundaparque and makes a 75km loop to the east and south. You’ll start with a 3km descent and then start 10km of climbing, which is a gradual climb, but also has steep sections of 8-10%. You’ll descend 3km again, and then have a 3km climb into the village of Caravaggio.

From Caravaggio, you will ride along a 40km stretch of rolling hills, which will be quick and fun with your peloton. You’ll be traveling on tranquil countryside roads along this loop, but also pass through cities like Farroupilha, Carlos Barbosa and Garibaldi. After Garibaldi, the rolling hills continue, but they become longer and stepper, 2-4km climbs followed by similar descents. Here is where the groups will start to splinter.

As the loop comes to an end, you will have to make your decision to continue cycling the long course by turning left for a loop through the stunning Vale dos Vinhedos or head to the finish line of the medium route.

The loop to the west is is 60km and travels through the heart of the Bento Goncalves wine region, with vineyard-covered hills, Mediterranean-style buildings, small shops, historic cobble sections and breathtaking scenery. The loop covers the entire length of the famous Vale dos Vinhedos. But with great beauty also comes great challenge. The loop has many steep climbs of 8-16% which are 1-4km long. When you reach the western-most part of the loop, you’ll navigate a steep descent into Santa Tereza and then take on the longest climb of the day: 12km and 4% average. A few more steep climbs will await you to close this challenging loop.

Once you complete the loop, it’s a fast, flat final 5km to the finish line where the day started. Come to Fundaparque to receive your medal, post-race meal and celebrate your finish and the special achievement with your cycling group, friends and family.

GFNY Bento Gonçalves

Routes: 47, 85 miles

Difficulty of Greatest Route: D - Difficult terrain with longer, steeper hills

Entry Limit: 2000

Time Zone: Alaskan Standard Time (AKST)

What's Included?

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 3x2022 GFNY medal or the 10x medal. Go to gfny.com/medals for more information on GFNY’s multi-finisher medals.

GOODIE BAG

FULL COURSE SUPPORT

POST-RACE MEAL

Packet Pickups

FUNDAPARQUE: Alameda Fenavinho, 481 95700-000 - Bento Gonçalves - RS - Brasil

Prize / Race Categories

Individual Competition

An age group exists as a competitive category if there is at least one athlete of that age and gender taking place in the race.

Overall m/f
18-34 m/f
35-39 m/f
40-44 m/f
45-49 m/f
50-54 m/f
55-59 m/f
60-64 m/f
65-69 m/f
70-74 m/f
75-79 m/f
80+ m/f
Individuals can also register as members of a team to take part in the GFNY Team Competition.

Team Competition

Individual GFNY riders can register as members of a team to take part in the Team Competition. Simply enter your Team Name in your registration and all riders with the same team name will be ranked together.
There is no maximum number of participants per team.
The 4 best times of a team will be combined and ranked along with other teams.
Each subsequent team of 4 with the same team name will be grouped into their respective team result, plus a letter designation. E.g., Team Go Fast A, Team Go Fast B, Team Go Fast C, etc.
All members of a cycling team are eligible for individual prizes in their age group.
The three fastest Teams-of-4 will be called to the podium and will receive prizes.
You can add or edit your team name at the time of registration, or anytime until 21 days before the race by logging into your gfny.cc account and editing your ticket. If you miss the 21-day changes cutoff, no problem - come to Registrations & Data Changes booth at the expo and we will change your team name onsite.

If your team would like to line up in the start corrals together, you can line up in the corral of the group member with the highest race number. Group members cannot move forward to a start corral allocated to lower start numbers.
Him & Her

Him & Her is a two-person competition that requires teamwork to get through the race. Him & Her is a separate category from the Individual competition. Him & Her competitors are not eligible for Individual category rankings and also not eligible for the 4-person Team competition.

Because it’s tough to find two cyclists of the same ability and fitness, pushing, pulling, drafting, dragging, laughing, cheering, shouting and any other means of working together is allowed. Because assistance is allowed, a time in Him & Her cannot be compared with or ranked among Individual competition times.

The male and female team members have to finish within 30 seconds of each other. If they do not, they will be disqualified from the race for not meeting the category requirement. Because assistance is allowed, changing to Individual category on race day is not permitted.

All Him & Her teams are assigned to start together from the dedicated Him & Her start corral, except for VIP ticket holders who want to compete in Him & Her - all VIP ticket holders start from the VIP corral. Qualifier status does not affect start corral assignment if racing in the Him & Her category.

Finishers in the Him & Her category are not classified in Qualifier rankings. Qualification is only for athletes in the Individual competition. If you want to compete for Qualification status, you have to race in the Individual category.

The Him & Her team competition consists of two age groups: sub-90 and 90&over. Your racing age is calculated based on your age on December 31 of the race year. The two ages as of Dec 31 are added. If the total is 89 or less, the riders will be part of the Sub-90 Him & Her age group. If the ages are 90 or over 90, the athletes will be part of the 90&Over Him & Her age group.

Him & Her competitors are assigned similar numbers. Usually the numbers are A&B of the same number. If there is an unexpected number of changes to Him & Her category at the last minute and all A&B numbers are already allocated, the race organizer may also allocate similar or consecutive numbers. Similar numbers could be 95&195 or 280&380 or etc, or any consecutive set of numbers like 801&802. The numbering for Him & Her is established so the couple can be identified in the peloton as Him & Her and have it be obvious that their in-team assistance is permitted under the race rules.

Facilities

Toilets / Changing Rooms

Pre-Packet Pickups

Support for Participants

Route Signposted

Route Card

First Aid

Emergency Contact No

SAG Wagon

Outriders

Marshalls

Escort / Police Escort

Roving Mechanical Support

Mechanical Support at Rest Stops

Closed Roads (Super Prestige)

Features

Electronic Start/Finish Timing

Strava KOM

Category / Race Prizes

Finishing Medals

Results Within 24 Hours

Photos

Personalised Bib (Name and QR Code)

Kids Fondo

Downloadable GPS files

Free Training Rides

Finish Line Chute

Nutrition

Feed / Aid Stations

Pre Event Meal(s) Provided As Part of Entry

Post Event Meal(s) Provided As Part of Entry

Number of Timed Hill Climbs

Event Links

Website

Facebook

Instagram