At this year’s second round of the series, the Hungarian-Slovak-Italian trio topped the podium in the men’s category with four juniors in top five, while in the women’s category, apparently only bad luck or a high visit from abroad could stop Nežka this year.
Two weeks after the season opener in Nova Gorica, the SloEnduro racing crowd gathered in Ilirska Bistrica in South-Western Slovenia right on the border with Croatia. The participation in the fourth edition of SloEnduro Borovci, organised by GKD Borovci, was once again large and very international: 260 participants came from ten countries, almost all the fastest from Nova Gorica also turned up. The strongest race ever held in Ilirska Bistrica is one of the biggest sporting events in the Ilirska Bistrica region, where the international hill climb car race reigns supreme.
After a wet week, the conditions on the special stages were still slippery during Saturday’s practice, but for Sunday’s race on the seven stages, including the ‘powerstage’ stage for the e-bike category, the conditions were excellent, with only a few wetter sections to be found. On the long course 1300 vertical meters of climbing on each of the two days and almost 18 minutes of ‘net’ racing for the fastest on Sunday.
Men’s Long Course
The best start was made by Slovenian favourite Miha Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh), SloEnduro champion from 2022 and 2023. Miha won the first special stage but then lost too much in the second and third, so even with a win in the fifth he could not get back into the fight for the top places, finishing sixth.
The initiative was taken by the two fastest riders from Nova Gorica, Hungarian junior Áron Babó (Rad Company Racing Team) and Slovak national champion Luboš Staňo (MTBiker). The latter took the lead with a win in the second stage, then Babó took the lead with wins in the next two, and in the end he was 2.63 seconds faster than the Slovak in the overall standings.
The third-placed Italian junior Simone Leo was 12.3 seconds behind the winner. Two more juniors finished in 4th and 5th, so Staňo was the only elite rider of the top five! Maks Struna and Anže Kofjač from KK Završnica battled it out throughout the race, with Struna finally taking 4th place. For the first time in SloEnduro, the five men podium was occupied by four juniors. Kofjač, who missed the first round, even missed out on the junior podium, while Smrdel, who finished 6th overall, was also the second fastest elite rider.
Women
Nežka Libnik (KK Ravne na Koroškem) won five of the six special stages and won by a big margin. Maša Komel (427 Savage Squad), fourth from Nova Gorica, this time challenged Slovak Valentina Grendova (MTBiker), second from Nova Gorica, with two second places on the stages. In the end, Grendova, who won the fifth stage of the day, was still a good two seconds faster and Maša settled for third place. Neža Štern (MTB club Kranj Scott) was 4th and Damjana Kacafura (MBK Črni Vrh) 5th.
What The Winners Said …
Áron Babó: “This time I didn’t mess it up in the first stage like I did in Nova Gorica, so I had more confidence to continue. The first stage didn’t suit me so well, but the second stage suited me much better and from there I did great. After the World Cup races I intend to return to SloEnduro in Mežica.”
Nežka Libnik: “It was good. I liked the first stage the best because it was the smoothest. It’s interesting to hear that it didn’t suit Aron. Otherwise, I think that my biggest reserves at the moment, apart from technique, are also in endurance, because I am still a junior. After the World Cup and the SloEnduro Cilenca I will probably try to do some downhill at my home race in Poseka.”
In Other Long Course Categories
The fastest master was Nejc Huth (Energijateam.com) from the master 1 category in 9th place overall. The master 2 category was won by Austrian Walter Zeidler (Do-Biker Bruck) and the master 3 by Branko Maček (ŠKK Pendalna). In the amateurs category, the victory went to local rider Miha Dovgan (GKD Borovci). In the e-bike category, Jaša Vodopivec won.
On Shorter Courses
The U17 women’s battle of three was won by Italy’s Arianna Planischig (UC Caprivesi) ahead of Romania’s Irina Marie and Slovenia’s Lana Kuzma (KK Črn trn).
Men’s U17 race had 51 finisheres (and four non-finishers). Lenart Sever (KK Črn trn) won again with a 16 seconds advantage over Hungary’s Matyas Csizmazi (Vesc Cycling Team), who won the first of the five stages. Third place went to Aljaž Prosen (Kamplc Racing Team).
On the three-stage U15 course, Eva Podvornik (ŠD Grabit) beat Gaja Šuštar (Golovec trails) in the girls’ category, while Tjaž Stres (Kamplc Racing Team) repeated his victory from Nova Gorica in the boys’ category, followed by Matic Kranjc (KK Črn trn) and Nikolaj Vukojevič (Golovec trails).
In the 4Fun category, which was once again large in numbers, the fastest was Milan Czerovszki from Hungary.
Lija Leber (427 Savage Squad) was the only girl on the two-stage course for under 13 riders, while Maj Franinovič (Golovec trails) was the best in the boys’ category.
All SloEnduro Borovci results
Series Standings
Two of the seven rounds are in the books, so we have the first standings of the season. Áron Babó and Luboš Staňo are tied at the top of men’s leaderboard with one win and one second place each, with Simone Leo third. Miha Smrdel and Ian Laharnar follow.
Smrdel is second in men’s elite standings behind Staňo, with Austria’s Valentin Frey third.
In the women’s standings, Nežka Libnik has the maximum 800 points, followed by Valentina Grendova and Maša Komel.
Babó leads the junior men, followed by Leo and Laharnar. In the U17 men, the order is Lenart Sever, Matyas Csizmazia and Žiga Munih, with 63 names already on the list. Lana Kuzma is leading in the U17 women, Nejc Muha in the amateurs, in the veteran categories Najec Huth has all 800 points in master 1, Walter Zeidler is leading in master 2 and Branko Maček in master 3.
Tjaž Stres has two wins and all the points in the U15 boys, Eva Podvornik leads the girls, Lija Leber is leading in the U13 girls and Vasilij Lavrenčič and Maj Franinovič are sharin the first spot in boys.
For the first time our registration and standings service partners at prijavim.se will be taking care of the teams standings throughout the season. Kamplc Racing Team, KK Črn and Golovec trails had the best start, these three teams have each already collected over 3000 points. There are already 60 teams on the leaderboard.
The rankings are here
See You at Cilenca Trails
The next race of the SloEnduro series will be the SloEnduro Cilenca on 24-25 May in Zagorje ob Savi, Slovenia, organised by the Zagorska dolina Cycling Club. Propositions dropping here any time now, registration opens on 2nd May.
Before that, we’ll send some of the fastest riders to fight it out at the first two Enduro World Cup races: 9-11 May in Petra Ligure, Italy and 16-18 May in Bielsko-Biala, Poland!
All photos by Matej Lovrič / Obalna bike scena
