The fourth race of the season and this year’s Slovenian national enduro championship welcomed 220 participants with an excellent course at the Pohorje Maribor Bike Park. National championship titles were awarded in thirteen categories.
Just because an enduro race makes use of a cable car doesn’t mean there’s significantly less climbing on the bikes. At the SloEnduro Pohorje Maribor race, held at the Pohorje Maribor Bike Park for the second year running, the long course still featured just over 1,100 metres of elevation gain across six special stages. On the stages, however, the riders clocked up around 1,600 metres of descent on both old and new trails and sections, where the park team and organisers from the Grabit Sports Club had taken care of every detail. Only for the fastest two riders, this meant less than twenty minutes of racing. A race worthy of the 14th Slovenian Enduro National Championship!
Vid Peršak Claims his Tenth Title
The rider from Koroška, who turned 30 this year, won his first elite national title in 2015 in Cerkno during his first season in the elite ranks. To date, he has relinquished the title only twice – once due to injury and the second time because he was competing abroad. He was the clear favourite again this year: he competed twice in SloEnduro this year, finishing as the fastest Slovenian in Nova Gorica and winning at Dobrna; in the World Cup, he enjoyed his best season in recent years, once again securing a place among the world’s top fifteen riders.
But Vid’s rivals also gave it their all on the special stages, including international riders led by last year’s SloEnduro champion, the Hungarian Áron Babó. Maks Struna (KK Završnica), Slovenia’s fastest ‘combination rider’ – who combines enduro with downhill racing – and runner-up behind Peršak two weeks ago at Dobrna, won the first stage of the day with a lead of just under half a second over Peršak. The defending champion then took the initiative and was the fastest in the next four stages. He secured a lead of a good eight seconds over Struna, whilst Struna’s club-mate Anže Kofjač surprisingly followed in third place, though he was already almost 20 seconds behind.
All that remained was the final stage – the longest of the day and one of the longest in the series’ history – the Shimano SuperStage on a 3.8 km course featuring a 700-metre descent along the Bolfenk trail and an adapted lower section of the Downhill World Cup track. Struna struck back with a stage win, but was less than a second faster than Peršak, so he failed to significantly reduce the gap. With the third-fastest time in the final stage, the fastest junior, Blaž Stres (Kamplc Racing Team), moved up to third place overall, thereby also confirming his title as junior national champion. Ahead of Kofjač, Babó also moved up to fourth place, but Anže was nevertheless pleased – he had won the bronze medal at the national championships.
Peršak took the lead in the series standings ahead of the final, with Stres now second and Struna third.
Vid Peršak
“A really lovely race, and once again, superbly organised. As for my riding, I’m pleased with that too. I feel I rode well and smoothly, without any major mistakes. When I checked the times and saw it was going to be a close call, I had to push a bit harder. I rode in a controlled manner in the final stage too. A tenth title is certainly a milestone; I’m proud to have kept it year after year – no year was a foregone conclusion. Every year you have to give it your all to wear this jersey. And I wear it with great pride.”
Junior Rider Nežka Libnik Now Has Two Titles
Nežka Libnik (KK Ravne na Koroškem) is competing in her second and final year as a junior, which places her in the united women’s category in the SloEnduro series as well as the national championships. During this time, she has won every race, so in the women’s competition she enjoys a status similar to that of Peršak among the men; if anything, she seems even more unbeatable.
Her closest rival was once again the Austrian Alexandra Eckert (Bikeclub Giant Stattegg), who had already managed to snatch one stage from her earlier this year in Ajdovščina. She managed it again this time, overtaking Nežka by one and a half seconds in the fourth stage of the day. She went into the marathon-length final stage trailing by less than twenty seconds, but lost a good half a minute there and ultimately finished second overall, 55 seconds behind. Third place also went to a guest, the Italian Gaia Asaro (ASD Natione Bike Park), who had been finishing third all day and was already three minutes behind Nežka.
Next came the two Slovenian riders who won medals at the national championships: Maja Vojska (MBK Črni Vrh) took silver, whilst Darja Kodrič (MTB Trbovlje) took bronze.
Nežka Libnik
“The course was superb – really good trails, great for riding, and well organised! In the fourth stage, I got a bit scared of the roots, stopped and put my foot down; that was probably why I lost that stage, but otherwise everything was excellent.”
Overall Results Long Course
Men
- Vid Peršak (AON Racing) 19:52.04
- Maks Struna (KK Završnica) +7.52
- Blaž Stres (Kamplc Racing Team) +28.35
- Árono Babó (Hun, Rad Company Racing Team) +30.90
- Anže Kofjač (KK Završnica) +45.09
Women
- Nežka Libnik (KK Ravne na Koroškem) 23:30.38
- Alexandra Eckert (Aut, Bikeclub Giant Stattegg) +55.73
- Gaia Asaro (Ita, ASD Natisone Bikelab) +3:00.59
- Maja Vojska (MBK Črni Vrh) +4:15.63
- Darja Kodrič (MTB Trbovlje) +4:27.64
In Long Course Categories
Blaž Stres went into the final stage of the day as the fastest junior, with a ten-second lead over his club-mate Ian Laharnar. In the final stage, he extended his lead to 18 seconds. Both riders had held these positions in the category throughout the race. Third Kamplc team rider Aljaž Prosen had been third after the first four stages. After the fifth stage, he was replaced in third place by the Italian Jacopo Sabatino (Rad! Bikappa), and in the battle for the bronze medal in the national championship, he was overtaken in the final stage by Lenart Sever (KK Črn trn), who clocked the second-fastest time on the queen stage.
The fastest masters rider was once again Nejc Huth (Golovec Trails), who thus claimed yet another title in the Master 1 category. In Master 2, Primož Štrancar (MBK Črni Vrh) was crowned champion, whilst in Master 3 the title went to Branko Maček (ŠKK Pendalna).
In the e-bike category, the riders competed for a full 26 minutes with and additional stage; only the winner, Germany’s Dominik Berghoff, went slightly under 16 minutes. No national championship title is awarded in this category, but the fastest Slovenian was Jan Pirnovar, who finished third.
On Shorter Courses
Among the U17 men, 39 competitors tackled the five special stages. The victory came as a bit of a surprise from local rider Maks Fošnarič (DGK Pohorje – Spank Team), who focuses much more on downhill racing and was competing in SloEnduro for only the second time this year. Maks won four stages, whilst one was claimed by Erik Žgavc (Črn trn), winner of two races this year, who has already secured the cup title ahead of the final. Tine Furlan (Črn trn) came third.
Among the U17 women, Maša Gregorc (SD Strahovica) took the win, capitalising on a poor day for Eva Podvornik (ŠD Grabit) on her home turf and allowing her just a single stage victory. Eva took silver, whilst bronze went to another Strahovica rider, Živa Majcen, a debutant in enduro.
In the men’s amateur category, Jaša Šonc (KD Brez zavor) took the win.
In the U15 boys’ category, Gal Novak (Rajd Ljubljana) won for the second time in a row, ahead of his club-mate Jaka Vujasin in second place and Jaka Sever (Črn trn) in third. Tjaž Stres (Kamplc) remained at the top of the standings with a ninth-place finish.
In the U15 girls’ category, only Klara Pregl (Calcit Bike Team) took part.
In the 4Fun category, designed for beginners, 19 competitors took part on the same three-stage course, with local rider Matevž Vremec taking the win.
In the youngest U13 category, Anja Burkeljca (SD Strahovica) was the only girl to compete in the two stages, whilst in the boys’ race Jakob Matija Koren (MTB Goša Gravity) won for the second time in a row; Nejc Sever (Črn trn) came second and still leads the overall standings.
Full results at sloenduro.com
Standings in the SloEnduro series after four races
Just the Final in Istria to Go
At least three of the new (or re-crowned) national champions will compete at the Enduro World Championships in mid-October in Italy. But first comes the SloEnduro series final, which will once again take place in Grožnjan, in Istria, Croatia, on 3 and 4 October. The propositions and registration are due any moment now!
Fotografije Matej Lovrič. Da, kup podelitev je – zgoraj za dirko s tujci vred, spodaj za državno prvenstvo.
