Finally we started it, the 2018 enduro racing season. At the same place as last year, on the ondulating trails at the base of Collio hills where team Caprivesi of Gorizia, Italy put on the GoEnduro, round one of SloEnduro 4Fun series.
It doesn’t happen very often in any kind of a cycling race that three brothers take over the podium. This time the Braidot brothers pulled it off. Luca won with a total time 15 seconds faster than second placed Daniele (both CS Carabinieri) and Stefano (UC Caprivesi) finished third 44 seconds behind.
Last year’s winner Stefano probably wasn’t very sorry he lured his two older brothers to take part this year. The Braidot twins are among the best in the world in cross-country – Luca is currently in 28th and Daniele in 49th place of the UCI ranking. Luca won Italian national champion title in 2014 and Daniele in 2016. They both just returned from World Cup round 1 in South Africa.
The Braidots call the town of Mossa their home, also the start location for GoEnduro. Luca already has some enduro racing experience, he finished third in 2016 SloEnduro final in Grožnjan, and this time he won all five special stages to take the GoEnduro win.
“This is my first enduro vistory. It was nice to race and win in my home town and take all the top spots with my brothers,” said the 26-year old after the race. “The course was great and managed the conditions well, so all good.”
A hundred riders from four countries were met by partly cloudy weather with some sun while the trails remained muddy with some dry sections. In difficult conditions slower riders had a hard time making it to the start of the stages on time.
Categories
The Braidots all raced in men’s open category and this is what the podium looked like in other categories:
Three women were split in two categories, masters and open. But if we dare to put them all into one ranking, it was Giulia Albanese (Ita, UC Caprivesi) on top in front of Ruth Kalthaus (Aut, ASKÖ Dr. Auer BMX Team Mühlen) and Maja Lobnik (Slo, Ganesha Team).
Lorenzo Terlicher won men’s junior class in front of Manuel Felice and Davide De Sabbata (all Ita, ASD Team Granzon).
In masters M1-M2 the winner was Francesco Remoto (Ita, ASD Fun Bike) from Manuel Albanese (Ita, UC Caprivesi) and Stefan Gassner (Aut, Bernis Bikeshop).
In masters M3-M4 Ruggiero Iob was fastest, Lorenzo Cargnelutti (both Ita, ASD Maglia Nera) second and David Taucer (Ita, ASD Federclub Trst) third.
In masters M5-M6 vistory for Claudio Remoto (Ita, ASD Fun Bike), second for Grega Nagode (Slo, Energijateam.com) and third for Bruno Corda (Ita, Trivium – Froggy Team).
Race for the youngest
Under 17 and under 15 riders had a race over three special stages. Giacomo Zof won the U17 category from Morgan Zucco (both Ita, ASD Team Granzon) and Peter Vovk (Slo, Calcit Bike Team). Rene Ciuha Mrak (Slo, Rajd Ljubljana) won the U15 and Zeno Gregorio (Ita, ASD 360 MTB) finished second.
To be continued right away
The next 4Fun series race takes place on April 8th, the Enduro 3 Camini in Trieste by ASD 360 MTB. But before that, this coming Sunday March 25th, the “big league” SloEnduro opens with Enduro Kamplc in Ajdovščina.
Find all the results here
Photos by Ma_Tej
Plus a photo gallery by Treviso MTB at www.trevisomtb.it
