When Red Bull told us about the possibility of a street race in a favela in Rhio de janero it sounded like madness, Everyone knows the reputation of the Rhio Favelas,not the sort of places you go alone.
However,what ever thoughts i had of 9mm’s and H+K Mp5’s were soon stubbed out by the feeling and reception we got when we entered the Santa Marta Favela.
As we rolled up in the truck,there where so many local people there just hanging around,helping where they could and so so excited and stoked to have something going down in there home.The first impression i had was that it was a crazy mess and so dirty,but then when you start to look closely and go into the houses you see how much pride they have in what they have,it is a mess but there is no money there,if you took money away from anywhere it would become a shit hole,but they work hard to make what they have count.
After a crazy day of practise on the course,dodging dogs,chickens and people,me and Gee went with a local guy to have food in his house,there was so many people there and the guy did not actually know how many kids he had.Huge pots of food were being cooked on just an open fire in the middle of the kitchen with no chimney,the smoke just went into the room and out the window. As we were standing there talking a woman came in from outside and handed me a baby,i thought she wanted to take a picture but she just walked off,i held it for so long before starting to think that she was not coming back for it.In the end i had to just hand it to another older kid and hope for the best!
Being there at that race and that house i really felt proud to be doing what we do.To be able to take something into there home and give them so much excitement,without them having to spend any money or travel anywhere,there are not many sports that can access people like that.Red Bull did an outstanding job with this race and Everyone was very impressed.
it must have been really cool to have experienced something like that, it looked packed.
i watched the filming of it and it looked gnarly as hell.
i recently started mountain biking and i have taken you as my inspiration so, well, thanks
good luck in the race season, especially bike radar live, i will hopefully be there so do well
thanks
James
Hi Dan, so when you and bros come to Brazil again please call me!!! We have a few good tracks and bike parks down here. If you can, add my msn at bielpilot@hotmail.com and we talk better. I´m fan of you guys! You and the others Athertons are the best!
I have 3 bycicles, 1 MirraCo bmx, 1 Kona Shonky DJ slopestyle and another Specialized FSR for Downhill.
I´m from Curitiba - PR, south of Brasil.
bye.
Biel #777.
Thanks very good for report, I follow your blog. this is a great article!