A sunny October weekend on the hills of Istria and close to 300 riders from nine countries for the sixth and last race of the year. The twelfth season of the SloEnduro series could hardly have ended better.
After some rain fell on Istria during the week, the trails of the six special stages (including the power stage for the e-bike category) between Šaltarija and Sveti Juraj, next to the ancient town of Grožnjan in the hilly terrain in the north of the Croatia’s Istria peninsula, not far from the border with Slovenia, dried out nicely. During Sunday’s race, the riders found few parts where it was still a bit slippery and where they got their bikes a bit dirty.
On the long course, Hungarian Áron Babó (Rad Company Racing Team), competing in his first year among the juniors, and Slovenian Nežka Libnik (KK Ravne na Koroškem), a year younger than Babó, who is finishing her competition in the U17 category, scored their first overall wins in SloEnduro.
This was the tenth edition of the Istrian enduro classic, the eighth final round at this venue. Big ups to Manuel Vigini and Grožnjan Mountain Bike Club, see you next season!
Men: Young Hungarian Vs. MBK Tag Team and Ivartnik
Áron Babó, who has competed in all the rounds of the series this year, had already three wins among the juniors and after finishing second overall in Kočevje he was also in third place in the overall standings. In the absence of Vid Peršak (Unior – Sinter), already the overall winner of the series, Babó was also the first favourite of the race, together with Miha Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh). Babó started with wins in the first three stages and built up a good 7 seconds lead over last year’s winner of Grožnjan, David Ivartnik (Golovec trails). David had a nasty crash a week earlier at the pump track race and raced with some pain. Nejc Huth (Energijateam.com), the 2019 Grozni winner, had a great start and was in third position after two stages, but dropped out of the race on third with a broken chain stay.
In the last two stages, the MBK Črni Vrh team took over – Jernej Kavčič won stage 4, the longest stage of the day and Shimano SuperStage, while Miha Smrdel was the fastest on the fifth and final stage, overtaking Ivartnik in the day’s standings. Which was all the more important in the end…
With a total time of 16 minutes and 19 seconds, Babó won his first overall race victory, with Smrdel in second place 9 seconds behind and Ivartnik in third place 12 and a half seconds behind. Kavčič followed in fourth place, and the next junior, Juš Ažman (KK Završnica), in fifth place, hist highest ever.
As mentioned, Peršak won his fifth overall SloEnduro title, while second place was defended by Smrdel, the series champion of the last three seasons, who could not afford to finish third in the face of Babó’s attack, as he ended up with only a 15-point advantage over the Hungarian, who finished third overall!
Áron Babó:
“I didn’t have a special plan for today, just to have a relaxed race. It is my first time in Grožnjan, the race was a bit quicker than usual, also with some tight trails, but not as rocky as some other races on the calendar. I have another junior season in front of me, I would like to return to SloEnduro next year, but I probably won’t be able to race the complete series because I would also like to try my hand in some World Cup races.”
Women: Nežka Keeps Crushing
16-year-old Nežka Libnik, who has dominated the U17 women’s ranks all season on courses that are usually one stage short of the long course, has decided to take on the long course to end her season and also her U17 days. She got the approval of the SloEnduro, but was not entitled to any points, because otherwise she could have just mixed up the top positions.
Nežka confirmed her talent on the long course as well, staying undefeated all day and building up a nice lead by the end. Second place went to Maša Komel (KK Črn trn), who also became the overall winner of the series. Third place this time went to Austria’s Lisa Leeb (Do-Biker Bruck).
In the final ranking of the series, Maša Komel is followed by Maja Vojska (MBK Črni Vrh) in second and Austria’s Sandra Eberhard (Radlager Racing Division) in third. But watch out, next year Nežka Libnik is also coming for points as a junior.
Nežka Libnik:
“At the beginning of the season I decided to go and see what it was like on a long course. There are more climbs and more kilometres, but I had no problems with it, it went well. Maybe next year I’ll try a World Cup race.”
In Long Course Categories
The fastest juniors, Babó and Ažman, were mixed among the fastest five men. Right behind Ažman was his Završnica teammate Maks Struna, who was faster than Juš on two stages, but could not put together a perfect day.
Struna is the second junior of the season behind Babó, while Tian Pečnik (KK Ravne na Koroškem), who this time lost too much time in the first stage and finished 6th, remained in third place.
The fastest veteran this time was Primož Štrancar (MBK Črni Vrh) from the master 2 category, who, with a gap of one minute and 13 seconds behind Babó, still caught the fastest ten overall. In the younger master 1 category, the Austrian Tino Huber (Team Dorrong) won, and in master 3 it was Martin Brus (Kamplc Racing Team). Among the amateurs, Jakob Kokole (Deš Fleš) won his first victory. In the e-bike category, a record number of fifteen riders competed, and it was very close at the top: David Ropotar (Calje trails) beat an interesting international bunch, 7 hundredths of a second faster than Sebastian Prinčič (MTB club Boshk) and 65 hundredths faster than Germany’s Valentin Schleicher (Radon Bikes). Each of them won two stages. There is no series ranking for this category.
On Shorter Courses
In the U17 male category, Ian Laharnar (Kamplc Racing Team), unbeaten all season, retired on the second stage with a derailleur failure after winning the first one. However, the victory remained with Kamplc thanks to Blaž Stres, followed by Matija Lačen (KK Črn trn) in second and Izak Štrubelj (Bikehanic Lumar) in third.
Laharnar didn’t take the overall win with a perfect score, but he is still far ahead. Tine Gračner (Golovec Trails) is second and Aljaž Prosen (Kamplc) third. There are 66 riders ranked in this category.
In the absence of Nežka Libnik, Neža Štern (MTB club Kranj Scott Team) won the U17 women’s race ahead of Ajdovščina’s Lana Kuzma and Tina Božič (both KK Črn trn). The overall title is of course Nežka’s, with Neža second and Lana third.
In the boys U15 category, Žiga Munih (Pedal Racing Team) did the best over three special stages and celebrated his second victory in this category, the first one this year and also the last one before moving to the U17. He was the fastest in the first stage, while Maks Fošnarič (DGK Pohorje – Spank Team) was faster than him in the second, and the winner of Kočevje, Nejc Mozetič (KK Črn trn), in the third, but he was only fifth overall. Jakob Pristovnik (KK Ravne na Koroškem) took the third place.
The overall winner among U15 boys is Jakob Praček (Kamplc), who did not participate in the final, followed by Munih and Pristovnik.
In the U15 girls, Arianna Planiscig (UC Caprivesi) of Italy won ahead of Eva Podvornik (427 Savage Squad) and Gaja Šuštar (Golovec Trails).
The 4Fun category on the same course also saw a record turnout of 55 riders, with Austria’s Manuel Preuhs (Muddyteambikers) the fastest.
The youngest: in the U13 boys category, Rene Kovač (Kamplc) won the race on a course that combined the last two stages of the course, ahead of his clubmate Tjaž Stres and Gal Novak (Rajd Ljubljana). Kovač is also the overall winner with three wins ahead of Stres, with Max Sliško (427 Savage Squad) third.
Shimano SuperStage
As already stated above, Nežka Libnik and Jernej Kavčič were the fastest in the 4th stage of the day from St. Juraj. Throughout the season, Libnik and Vid Peršak scored the most points on the blue-coloured stages. The two Koroška riders will receive nice prizes from the sponsor Shimano at the event after the season.
All SloEnduro Grozni Results
Final SloEnduro 2024 Series Standings (club standings still to be finalised)
2025 In Mind
After a final like this, we all have a lot of willpower, the SloEnduro management and staff, clubs and riders alike, to lay the foundations for next season. As usual, look out for the calendar in December, but before that the top point scorers will receive their trophies at the closing event of the Mountain Biking and BMX Committee of the Slovenian Cycling Federation.
Fotografije Matej Lovrič
