A tough weekend in Koroška region for just over two hundred participants, steep climbs and descents, slippery too. The locals have it down. Now it’s on to the National Championships.
The SloEnduro Perkmandlc in Mežica, organised by ŠKK Pendalna, returned with a second edition. The rain has finally stopped, and a beautiful weekend awaited the participants under the Peca/Petzen mountain. But hey, it wasn’t any easier than last year in the all-day downpour.
220 participants faced just over 1300 vertical metres of climbing each day, followed by descents on steep forest trails. Sunday morning’s downpour made sure that they didn’t all get too dry after weeks of rain. The first stage on the long course and on the U17 category course, the Lost Goat, a legacy of the 2018 Enduro World Series race here, was responsible for most of the question marks over the helmets. Steep turns, slippery mud and roots smeared with it. As long as you attack, you might be able to get away with it, but once you defend yourself, you don’t stand a chance. A combination of technical difficulty, tough climbs, and crashes and mechanicals in training caused several participants not to start on Sunday.
The Koroška riders dominated
The locals, of course, have been learning about mountain biking on such terrain, so they came out on top in a number of categories.
On men’s long course, Vid Peršak (Unior – Sinter Factory Racing) won all four stages and won the Perkmandlc for the second year in a row. His main rival this time was not Miha Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh), as he was out of the competition due to a combination of circumstances. During the week he crashed into a tree during a training in Maribor and decided to skip the race due to pain in his ribs, so he did not take part in Saturday’s training. On Sunday he felt much better, but without having done the training the commissaires could not make an exception. So he went on the course, but was not placed in the results.
Surprisingly, Peršak was followed by the juniors all day. From the first stage of the Lost Goat, Prevalje’s Tian Pečnik (KK Ravne) was in second place. While his older brother Teo was pedalling in the last stage of the Tour of Slovenia, Tian, who also comes from a cross-country background, had two second places, a 4th and a 3rd, and stayed the second fastest on the long course to the end, winning the junior category, in which he is competing for the first time this year. Last year he had three attempts in U17 and only once broke into the top ten, so he made a huge leap!
Tian had a close battle with Hungarian peer Áron Babó (FRO Racing), the junior winner of Kamplc. Babó was second fastest in the third stage of the day, just two seconds behind Peršak, and third in the end, 11 seconds behind Pečnik.
Fourth place went to the evergreen Tilen Leban (Deš Fleš), who was only 29 hundredths of a second behind Babó, and fifth to Jernej Kavčič (MBK Črni Vrh).
The top ten was filled by Israeli Omer Hutman in 6th, last year’s junior series winner, local Jan Polovšak (ŠKK Pendalna) in 7th, another fast junior Maks Struna (KK Završnica), who started with fourth places in the first two races and finished in 8th, then Austria’s Philipp Döller (Radlager Racing Division) in 9th and former Austrian champion Matthias Stonig (Radwerker) in 10th.
Austria and Lucia
In the women’s race, Austria’s Alexandra Eckert (Bikeclub Giant Stattegg) remained undefeated on the long course, winning by a good minute ahead of local Lucija Mlinar (KK Ravne), who rode consistently throughout the day, finishing second once and third three times. Third place went to the second Austrian Sabrina Eberhard (Radlager Racing Division). The overall leader, Borovci winner Maša Komel (KK Črn trn), finished 5th.
In the long course categories
The podium in the elite category went to Peršak, Leban and Kavčič, while the top three juniors were Pečnik, Babó and Struna.
The fastest veteran was Austrian Tino Huber (Team Dorrong) from master 1 category, his compatriot and teammate Cri Maierhofer was fastest in master 2, and only Martin Brus (Kamplc Racing Team) “survived” in master 3. Jaša Šonc (KD Brez zavor) won the amateur category for the first time, while in the e-bike category with an additional “power stage” stage up the mountain, the fastest was the local e-matador Vid Planko, who only let himself be overtaken on the Lost Goat.
On the shorter courses
In the three-stage U17 male category race, Ian Laharnar (Kamplc Racing Team) took his third consecutive win, with Izak Štrubelj (Bikehanic Lumar) in second and Sven Podvornik (427 Savage Squad) in third. Laharnar had a poor start with a 4th place on the Lost Sheep, the stage was won by Matija Lačen (KK Črn trn), who retired after a crash on the second stage. Laharnar did not take the lead even after winning the second stage, Podvornik was still on top.
In the U17 girls, Nežka Libnik (KK Ravne) won all three stages, with Eva Zala Stergar (DGK Pohorje – Spank Team) the only other rider making it to the finish line. In her first enduro race, cross-country rider Eva Terpin (Rajd Ljubljana) got off to a great start, finishing just three seconds behind Nežka in the first stage, but later her cross-country bike was no longer able to cope with the abuse and Eva was forced to retire.
In the U15 category, which competed on two stages, local Jakob Pristovnik (KK Ravne) beat the serial winner Jakob Praček (Kamplc) by 18 seconds, with Žiga Munih (Pedal Racing Team) in third place. In the U15 girls, Slovakia’s Maria Vyhlidalova (Medvedica) and Eva Podvornik (427 Savage Squad) came in first and second place respectively.
In the youngest U13 category, Tjaž Stres (Kamplc) took his second win of the season, followed by the winner of Borovci, his clubmate Rene Kovač, and Max Sliško (427 Savage Squad) on the third step.
Shimano SuperStage
For the Shimano SuperStage, the organisers have chosen the renovated Kanal stage, the last stage of the long course and the U17 course and the longest stage of the race.
Vid Peršak was the fastest in the men’s race, while in the women’s race the rider from the shorter course, the U17 category rider Nežka Libnik, won with quite a gap. For the third time this year!
All SloEnduro Perkmandlc results
Series standings
Vid Peršak remains in the lead in the men’s overall standings, but his lead over Miha Smrdel has jumped from 50 points to 450 points. Smrdel is followed by Kavčič, Babó and Leban, with small gaps. Pečnik is in 6th place.
Maša Komel defended her first place in the women’s competition, Lucija Mlinar is now second and Sabrina Eberhard remains third.
Babó, Pečnik and Struna are the top three juniors, Laharnar and Libnik are firmly on top of the U15 with maximum points, while Praček and Podvornik lead the U15.
All SloEnduro Series standings
Next in SloEnduro
No time to rest. This weekend, 22-23 June, it’s time for round four, the SloEnduro Gorjanci near Novo mesto, also this year’s national championship and a World Series Qualifier.
Entries close tonight at midnight.
Photos by Matej Lovrič
