220 riders of which a hundred young riders on the short courses. Also a successful premiere of U13 category. Great job, Borovci!
Tina Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh) and Vid Peršak (Orbea Fox Enduro Team) are the winners of round two of 2022 SloEnduro series, held in Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia. They were the fastest female and male rider on the long course of SloEnduro Borovci, the five special stages with around 1000 vertical meters of climbing and descending.
The special stages, prepared by the hosts of Borovci Mountain Bike Club, were not very demanding in most part. It got tougher towards the end on stages 4 and 5 which were not used by the younger categories. The freshly built final stage Draga made some riders worry a bit. The heat on relatively long climbs also didn’t make the race any easier.
The massive participation in SloEnduro terms is what made everyone happy: over 220 riders including guests from Austria, Croatia, Italy even even Bulgaria, and almost 100 riders im U15, U17 and the new U13 category!
On top on the long course
Peršak, also the winner at round 1 in Grožnjan and last year in Ilirska Bistrica, plus a four time SloEnduro champion, set the fastest time on all five special stages. Including the SS2 which was chosen as Kenda SuperStage for extra prizes.
Finally David Ivartnik (Golovec trails) grabbed second place, also second on the Kenda SuperStage and 3rd on the rest of the stages. He was 34.92 seconds behind Peršak at the end of the day. The 2021 SloEnduro champion, junior rider Miha Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh), finished third 8 seconds behind Ivartnik.
Jan Štucin (Pedal Racing Team) in fourth and Jakob Smolnikar (MBK Črni Vrh) in fifth place completed the five men overall podium.
Like Peršak, the junior female rider Tina Smrdel, who was winning in U17 category on short courses for the last two seasons, also dominated throughout the day and won her first SloEnduro in women’s overall category which includes elite, masters and amateur riders.
Smrdel won by a large margin, 2 minutes and 26 seconds ahead of Tamara Homar (Energijateam.com) in second and Maja Vojska (MBK Črni Vrh) some 17 additional seconds behind.
Vid Peršak
»It was a great race, the last one for me as I prepare for the first rounds of EWS. My form is rising, the testing in Scotland was worth it and I’m really laid back waiting for the first EWS races. I had no major problems in today’s race, my stages went great so I’m very happy with my performance.«
Categories
So Peršak was the fastest in men’s elite and Miha Smrdel in junior men. Austrian Simon Sachse (Altis The Bike Team) was second in junior men and Jernej Kavčič (MBK Črni Vrh) third.
In masters categories Sebastjan Stres (Kamplc Racing Team) won in masters 1 and finished 8th overall, Luka Peskar (Golovec trails) won in masters 2 and Martin Brus (Kamplc Racing Team) in masters 3. Local riders Matej Gombač (GKD Borovci) won the amateur category by placing 11th overall.
Short course
The U15 rider Ažbe Kalinšek (Bikehanic – 20 Chocolate) was again the fastest on the short course (special stages 1-3). Lovro Kojzek (KK Ravne) won the U17 category. Nežka Libnik (Bosch Black Hole Enduro Team) was the fastest U15 girl and Lucija Mlinar (KK Ravne) the fastest U17 girl.
For the first time the U13 riders raced in their own category on a course of their own (special stages 2 and 3). Jakob Praček (Kamplc Racing Team) won this race.
Results
Series ranking after two rounds
SloEnduro Krokar at Dobrna, Slovenia, will follow as round three of the series on May 28. It has been changed from a two day event to a single day event. Proposition and registration coming any time now!
Photos by Tadej Morano, GKD Borovci and prijavim.se
