Right in the middle of the series points chase the 11th edition of Enduro Nationals cuts in at a completely new enduro venue.
The tradition of gravity mountain bike racing in the town of Trbovlje, just a short drive east from Zagorje ob Savi, the site of SloEnduro Cilenca, round 4 of the series in Central Slovenia. But the number one discipline by far with MTB Trbovlje club is downhill racing. They held the first Downhill Javor here back in 1999 and later this crew also took up the organization of downhill races on the island of Lošinj in Croatia where they held a World Cup race in 2018.
But Trbovlje or the village of Sveta Planina above the town never hosted an enduro race. Nevertheless the SloEnduro family didn’t give it much thought when they bid to host the 2023 Slovenian Enduro Championships race. Along with all the cred they have in downhill they also opened the Javor Trails in 2021.
Just for the titles (and Qualifier points)
This year SloEnduro has enough good races in the calendar to exclude the National Champs from the points system for the first time in 11-year history of SloEnduro and the Championships. So the riders will try to have their best runs on given day without any thoughts about the points won or lost One goal only – to be the fastest on the single most important day of the season.
Besides the points everything you know from SloEnduro races will be there. And more: Enduro Trbovlje will be the only Enduro World Cup Qualifier race in Slovenia in 2023.
Different number plates as well
The competition
Of course there will be some points hungry international riders on the start list, maybe some of them will race for the top honours with the locals. But who will be the top contenders for the titles? For sure the title defenders will be there, the winners of last year’s SloEnduro Kope, Tina Smrdel in women’s and Vid Peršak in men’s field. For the first time this year we’ll see Jan Markič, the 2019 champion, who is racing in Italy this year.
The entries are filling up slowly, as usually they will close Thursday night. Here’s the registration link along with the list of registered riders at prijavim.se.
Interesting enough, MTB Trbovlje’s top downhiller Jan Cimperman registered in the e-bike category!
The course
The course is set on the Javor hill, partly on Javor Trails and partly on newly built trails in the wider area. »This will be a real enduro race, no bike park trails,« says the event director Matej Drnovšek, a former Slovenia DH Cup champion and national team rider, also the Lošinj World Cup course chief.
As seen in the propositions, the long course with four special stages will have a distance of 30 km and 1300 vertical meters of climbing and descending. The 17 km short course with 800 vertical meters has three special stages and the U13 course (5 km, 270 v.m.) has two special stages.
It’s wet week ahead with showers and storms but the special stages should not be too prone to that. Neither should the transfers which are on gravel and asphalt roads.
The course will be published on Friday.
The venue
The event base with race office, start/finish, timing readout and award ceremony will be at Sveta Planina mountain hut, less than 20 minute drive from downtown Trbovlje and just a bit more from Zagorje.
All the details on Enduro Trbovlje in the propositions
Live timing at timing.sportident.com
Facebook event
All Slovenian Enduro Championps – women, men elite
- 2013 – Kamplc Enduro, Javornik: Ana Zupan (Energijateam.com), Kristjan Medvešček (KK Črn trn)
- 2014 – Black Hole Enduro, Jamnica: Tanja Žakelj (Unior Tools Team), Peter Mlinar (KK Črn trn)
- 2015 – Enduro Cerkno, Bike park Cerkno: Nina Rupnik (MBK Črni Vrh), Vid Peršak (Orbea Enduro Crew)
- 2016 – Enduro Kamnik, Kamnik: Tadej Razpet (Pedal Racing Team)
- 2017 – Kamplc Enduro, Ajdovščina: Vid Peršak (Team Dorrong)
- 2018 – Enduro Krvavec, Bike park Krvavec: Ana Tancik (Energijateam.com), Vid Peršak (Sunbikers Mondraker Racing)
- 2019 – Enduro Krvavec, Bike park Krvavec: Tina Perše (Calcit bike team), Jan Markič (ŠKTD Avče)
- 2020 – Enduro Kočevje, MTB trail center Kočevje: Tina Perše (Calcit bike team), Vid Peršak (Orbea Fox Enduro Team)
- 2021 – Kamplc Enduro, Ajdovščina: Gaja Kravanja (KK Črn trn), Vid Peršak (Orbea Fox Enduro Team)
- 2022 – SloEnduro Kope: Tina Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh), Vid Peršak (Orbea Fox Enduro Team)
@sloenduro @sloveniacyclingfederation @mtb_trbowle @trbowle_trails
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