Record turnout in SloEnduro history, great conditions on a demanding course after a bad forecast, great crowd and atmosphere on course and in Lavrič square.
That is how we started the 2023 in Ajdovščina, Slovenia with the classic race called SloEnduro Kamplc put on by the namesake local club. No less than 270 riders picked up their number plates which makes the new record in 11-year history of the series! They represented nine countries.
It was difficult to read the weather forecast for the weekend. In the end we got away with rain Friday night, so for Saturday’s training the trails were pretty muddy in some parts. The conditions improved by race day when the April sun gave it all to dry out the trails. The 1100 vertical meters lap with four special stages (and an additional one for the e-bike category) was not an easy task so early season endurance was a deciding factor in the race. Not just the transfers, the special stages also required some hard pedalling on soft trails.
In these conditions it was two riders who already proved themselves in SloEnduro before who reached the top spots in main categories on the long course.
Women
The 18-year old Simona Kuchyňková (okoeverywhere racing) from Slovakia who already won the 2022 SloEnduro opener in Grožnjan, Croatia, made a successful return to racing after last year’s knee injury. She was followed all day long by a year younger defending SloEnduro and Kamplc champion, the Slovenian Tina Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh), but the gap between just grew from stage to stage in the favour of Kuchyňková. At the end of around 24 minutes of racing Kuchyňková win by 49 seconds. They were 1 and 2 and all the stages while Teja Cerar (Golovec trails) was 3 all day long and also finished in third place.
Men
Last year’s SloEnduro champion and Kamplc winner Miha Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh) successfully defended his number 1 plate. But the development may need a longer explanation.
Local rider Tim Jež (Kamplc Racing Team), the 2020 Kamplc race winner, was the fastest on first stage Muzej (Museum). All in after a cold in the past week, but decided he could not continue after that. Smrdel only started with 7th time but took over on second stage (Kamplc) and took the lead with a convincing win with almost 8 seconds on Luboš Stano (MTBiker) of Slovakia. Local junior Miha Jerkič (KK Črn trn) won the third stage (Rajda) and moved closer to Smrdel in overall. But Smrdel won by a big marking on Kosa, the last and longest stage with close to 7 minutes for the fastest.
Miha Smrdel became the winner on SloEnduro Kamplc 11 seconds up on second placed Miha Jerkič. Kristjan Medvešček (ŠKTD Avče) who made a spectacular return to racing last year right here repeated his third place with second places on first and last stage. Stano in fourth and the fastest masters rider of the day Blaž Černigoj (Kamplc Racing Team) in fifth place rounded out the five man overall podium.
Simona Kuchyňková and Miha Smrdel also won the prizes for best times at the longest stage of the day. This year it is brought by the sponsor Spar Online so the Spar SuperStage prize will be awarded at each round.
In long course categories
Miha Jerkič made quite a gap on the rest of junior men. Second placed Maj Babačič (Calcit Bike Team) placed 10th overall and the third junior rider Jan Polovšak (Bosch Black Hole Enduro Team) finished 16th overall.
Apart from Blaž Černigoj, the winner in master 1 category, another master rider made it into top 10 overall, the master 2 winner Sebastjan Stres. Martin Brus won the master 3 category, all three are members of Kamplc Racing Team. Žiga Šemrov (ŠKD Super potencial) was fastest in amateur men and Iztok Slapnik (Golovec trails) won the inaugural e-bike race despite losing 7 seconds on the »power stage« lap.
Short course
Matija Ferjančič (Kamplc Racing Team) won the U17 male category race on the three special stages of the short course. His teammate Jakob Praček was the fastest in U15 boys and their team celebrated podium takeover in both categories.
It was a tight race in female U17 category with Nežka Libnik (Bosch Black Hole Enduro Team) winning in the end while Vita Vaner (DGK Pohorje – Spank team) was the lone U15 girl on course.
The »rookies« 4Fun race was also well attended with 25 riders, Balázs Ziskó (KKE Alpokcycles) of Hungary won that one.
U13
18 boys and two girls entered the youngest category with Nikolaj Vukojević (Golovec trails) and in Julia Kuchyňková (okoeverywhere racing) winning the top honours. And their mass start was the attraction of the morning at Lavrič square.
All results here
Follow this year’s rankings here
Coming up next…
It won’t take long before SloEnduro tribe meets again: round two takes place in Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia, on April 22/23, the SloEnduro Borovci by GKD Borovci. Propositions dropping any time now right here.
Photos by
Matej Lovrič @obalnabikescena
Marko Obid @b23mtb
