Race Report: SloEnduro Round 3, Mežica

200 wet riders at successful SloEnduro Perkmandeljc premiere in Mežica. Wet but predominantly smiling. Tina Smrdel and Vid Peršak take round three of the series.

After record numbers of riders in Ajdovščina and Ilirska Bistrica, over 200 riders showed up on a rainy weekend in Mežica, Koroška, Slovenia as well. After we lost some during Saturday’s training, 194 riders representing seven countries came on start on Sunday morning.

Mežica is just up the valley from Jamnica and on other side of Petzen mountain, the venues of two EWS races in the past. No other enduro race ever started from this town. But this does not mean that the trails above it didn’t see any enduro racing! In 2018 the Petzen-Jamnica EWS race course made a turn to these parts and last year some EWS-E stages were held here as well.

Training day above the town of Mežica.

Courses Shortened

The decision to adapt the courses because of wet condition proved to be good. The number of special stages on long and short course remained the same, four and three respectively, but will less climbing and descending. The youngest riders of U13 category were left with just one special stage this time. Most of the shorter stages remained well rideable under the rain. The organizing crew of the inaugural SloEnduro Perkmandeljc proved themselves just as well and were rewarded with smiles and praise.

Return of Vid Peršak

Vid Peršak rode his bike for the first time after Tasmania World Cups.

The Slovenian champion Vid Peršak (Orbea Fox Enduro Team) sat on his bike on the training day after taking a break of almost a month and a half after the World Cup races in Tasmania because of Achilles tendon problems. The local from Koroška couldn’t afford to miss this race even if the start list looked anything but easy.

Tarmo Ryynänen (Specialized Nordic) of Finland, the second placed from last year’s race in Grožnjan, took the lead after SS1 by just under 1.5 seconds in front of Peršak. Nejc Huth (Energijateam.com) was third. Peršak hit back in SS2 and took the lead in front of Ryynänen. The series leader Miha Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh) moved into third.

Tarmo Ryynänen

Miha Smrdel

The top three remained the same all the way to the finish with the gaps growing. After just over 10 minutes of racing time Peršak took the win 39 seconds ahead of Ryynänen in second and 1:16 from Smrdel in third. Peršak also took the win in SS4, the Spar Online SuperStage, the longest of the day.

Huth finished fourth and the Austrian Timmy Fockenberger (Radwerker) fifth after taking 3rd place in SS2. Miha Jerkič (KK Črn trn) was the fastest junior of the day in 6th place overall.

The race is in Koroška but I have not been riding these trails for a couple of years now. I wished to race here without knowing the trails and do my best. It’s nice to be back on the bike after a month and a half and it’s great to see that I can still ride like this.—Vid Peršak

It was a bit wet today, but actually not too bad, I was expecting worse, the trails were still pretty rideable. It was raining all the time, but I had a good jacket and spare gloves and goggles so it wasn’t too big of a problem. I had some problems on stage three, I lost some time there, but otherwise it was a pretty clean race for me. It’s my first race this season, I have a lot of thing to improve, but it was a solid performance and now I’m ready for the big races.—Tarmo Ryynänen

This was Peršak’s first SloEnduro appearance this year so his win didn’t have an effect on the top of the series standings. Smrdel remains in the lead with 1050 points for two wins and a third place, Huth is second with 690 and Jerkič third with 630 points.

Tina Smrdel keeps the win at home this time

The defending SloEnduro champion Tina Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh) who had to settle for second place in first two rounds behind Simona Kuchyňková of Slovakia, made sure the victory remained in Slovenia this time. She won all four special stages including the Spar Online SuperStage and won with a gap of over a minute ahead of second placed Austrian Alexandra Eckert (Bikeclub Giant Stattegg). Maša Komel (KK Črn trn) was happy with third, her first ever SloEnduro podium.

Tina Smrdel

“It was a great race, I enjoyed it very much. I made some mistakes, bigger ones too, even a crash here or there. The trails were perfect, congratulations to the organizers.” – Tina Smrdel

Tina Smrdel also took the series lead from Kuchyňková
who is now in second place and Tamara Homar (Energijateam.com) is third.

Another drama filled short course race

Just like Moto2 vs. MotoGP, he youngsters on the short course provided another exciting race. In his first appearance of the season Ažbe Kalinšek (Wolf Racing by Wheelbase) beat the Hungarian Áron Babó (FRO Racing) for the win in U17 category by 1.37 seconds and Maks Struna (KK Završnica) finished third. Ian Laharnar (Kamplc) who finished in 9th keeps the series lead. The winner of round one Matija Ferjančič (Kamplc) is injured, winner of round two dirke Anže Kofjač (Završnica) won SS1 and finished back in 14th place… It’s an interesting category!

Top five men.

Top three women.

Coming up next…

Round four is knocking on the door. The registration for SloEnduro Cilenca, taking place in Zagorje ob Savi, Slovenia, on May 27/28, is open. Propositions and registration on www.sloenduro.com

Some more action from Saturday’s training lap

This was the 2022 EWS-E Power Stage.

The Austrian Peter Mihalkovits dropped out after three solid stage finishes.

A nasty rooted turn.

The young riders didn’t mind a bit of rain.