Good turnout at the race above Ilirska Bistrica. It ended too soon because the third and last special stage was cancelled because of a crash.
We only have two 4Fun races in SloEnduro calendar this year. Too bad because the turnout of riders seems to be good! The Bike & Beer Fest Enduro (the Beer Fest part follows later this month) above the town of Ilirska Bistrica and later in September the Golovec trails in Ljubljana.
Just over a hundred riders came to Črne njive (Black Fields) where GKD Borovci club has been building the trails and putting on the enduro race. It looked even better in pre-registration and without the weather forecast looking so grim there would have been around 130 riders at the start.
Many trained on the track on Saturday, a luxury not possible in the “big league” according to the new rules. The three special stages were dry but they were already wet on Sunday morning practice. Especially the second special stage was very slippery so the organizers decided to send the youngest category U15 from 1st straight to 3rd stage.
But until 11, when the first riders took off to the course for their race runs, the sun was out. The conditions got getter even if some parts of the track never dried out.
Bad news on SS3 – a U15 rider crashed hard and had to be taken to a far away hospital in ambulance. The wait for the ambulance would have been too long and SS3 couldn’t be started without it. So the decision was made to cancel SS3. The order of SS1 was final for U15 and the first two special stages decided the results for the other categories.
It was the third year for Bike & Beer Fest Enduro in the SloEnduro calendar. The first year they were extremely unlucky with the weather, but they ran the race with only 45 riders. Last year it was cancelled due to the epidemics. So putting the injury aside (a broken collarbone – nobody’s happy about an injury) they were happy with this year’s edition.
Among the fastest
SloEnduro’s number one Vid Peršak (Orbea Fox Enduro Team) is a rare sight at 4Fun races but he likes this part of the world and has family in the area. He was the fastest in both special stages and won by a 7 second gap from 2nd placed David Ivartnik (Energijateam.com) and 14 seconds from 3rd placed Jan Markič (ŠKTD Avče).
There were six riders in women’s category. Tjaša Fifer (Grabit) took first, Teja Cerar (MTB Trbovlje) second and Neja Pavlica third place.
Categories
Ivartnik won the 19-24 category win from Markič, Peršak was fastest in 25-29, Matjaž Bolčina in 30-34, Andrej Holc (Wolf Racing Team) in 35-39, Iztok Slapnik (Golovec trails) in 40-44, Boris Kozamurnik (Enduro Ravne) in 45-49 and Uroš Ogris (MTB klub Kranj) in 50+.
Blaž Kavčič (KK Završnica) was the fastest in U17 male category, Tina Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh) in U17 female and Matic Dovgan (GKD Borovci) in U19 male in front of the only foreign rider, the Austrian Valentin Frey (Im.Puls Sport Union Klagenfurt).
Ažbe Kalinšek (Bikehanic – 20 Chocolate) was the fastest U15 rider from Juš Ažman (KK Završnica) in second and Mark Ravbar in third place. There were 18 riders in this class.
Find all results here
Next in SloEnduro…
See you on June 20 at Enduro Gorjanci in Novo mesto, Slovenia. Or the day before at the non-obligatory promotial prologue downtown. Propositions and registration for Enduro Gorjanci
Photos by Tadej Morano @tadejmorano
