Racereport | Black Hole Enduro in Koroška, SVN

Black Hole Enduro in Koroška was held on the last weekend of July with three days of exciting racing, all counting towards the SloEnduro series. Sketchy roots and stages up to 11 minutes long in the dark woods made it a highly technical and physical race for all participants. Read on for the results and some exciting race action!

Prologue in the city center of Ravne

Fourth race of the SloEnduro season opened with a prologue in the cetnter of Ravne na Koroškem, which created a good introduction to the weekend and warmed up the competitors. Stage that led down the stairs with a final sprint turned out best for Peter Mlinar (KK Črn Trn), who announced a tough fight for the very top at his home stages.

Long stages with pedal-sections were pushing the riders to their limits.

International Saturday

Saturday’s trial extended also across the Slovenian border, as the competitors took first two stages on Peca in Austria. As expected, Vid Peršak (Orbea Enduro Crew) cought up after a mistake on Friday’s prologue, and took the lead after first two stages, followed by Mlinar and Kristijan Medvešček.
After returning from Peca, the competitors had to finish three more stages in Singletrail park Jamnica. Peršak swept away with all the rivals on all those three stages and increased his lead after the first day. Top three spot remained the same until the end of the day.

Gregor Ferk could not finish the secret stage.

From the top of Peca to the Peca underground

After Saturday’s trails on Peca, Sunday served with an underground trip through the heart of the mountain, as organizers prepared a special final 6th stage through the abandoned Mežica mine. Before entering the mine, competitors took the 5th trail, once more won by Peršak, and it was almost clear by then that hardly anyone can take over his victory. Only a huge mistake and abondoning the race could take his victory away, but he was unbeatable in this final stage, as well, and won it, as clearly as he did the whole race. Peter Mlinar followed as second and Kristijan Medvešček came thrid. Robert Kordež (Black Hole Enduro Team) ended on fourth place in overall, and Anže Žabjek (KD Rajd/Unior Tools Team) fifth with only 0,24 seconds before his rival Gerd Skant (RideTSG) who was in front of him after Saturday.

Top 10 result for Klemen Markuš (ENERGIJATEAM.COM).

Nina Rupnik the fastest in Women’s category

In Women’s category Nina Rupnik (MBK SportR.si) celebrated the victory . She took the lead in first two days already in front of Tina Rejc and Anja Rugelj (BTC City Ljubljana). On Sunday, same as Peršak, she left nothing to chance and managed to win the fifth stage , and sealed her victory. Girls didn’t take the underground stage, as only the top 25 got the ticket to the final round.
Junior’s category was won by Grega Žvan (MBK SportR.si), with Matjaž Istenič (Pedal Racing) on second place and Tomaž Šinigoj (KK Ravne) on third.
In Master 1 category Robert Kordež (Black Hole Enduro Team) came first, followed by Manuel Albanese (U.C. Caprivesi) and Iztok Slapnik (Energijateam.com), while in Master 2 Andrej Stroj (BK Opušteno), was the fastest with Janez Golmajer (MTB Klub Kranj) and Martin Brus (Kamplc Racing) behind him on second and third spot.
In Hobby category Kristijan Medvešček took the victory, followed by Cri Maierhofer (CMH Heliskiing) and Jiri Šimara.

Steep sections with a mess of roots made the stages even more technical.

Fair play and Miha Spruk

Special hero of the weekend was Miha Spruk (Calcit Bike Team), who showed us all the true meaning of a term »fair play«, and that the seconds are not always the most important. During the second stage on Peca he found another competitor who crashed hardly, immediately stopped and helped his friend. Because SloEnduro wants more such helpful people, there is a special part about »fair play« in the rules, so Miha got his stage time corrected, and therefore he didn’t lose anything with helping his friend. So let us use this opportunity to show you all that seconds are not the most important! It’s more important to help a friend in need, and if the result is worse because of that, it will be fixed afterwards. Congratulations Miha!

SloEnduro continues with a 4fun race this Saturday on Rogla, and »the big« series will continue at Enduro Kamplc on the first weekend of September.

Full Results: sloenduro.com/results

More Information: sloenduro.com/black-hole-enduro

Words: Jaka Tancik Photos: Manuela Lisjak

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