An exciting race ahead, the fifth and final of 2018 SloEnduro series. Sunday’s five special stages for men’s overall title between Huth, Jež, Kacin, Mihalkovits, Maderegger and Peršak!
Sixth season in SloEnduro, the international mountain bike enduro series, end this weekend in Grožnjan, Istria, Croatia, with the Enduro Grozni race. Grožnjan first hosted the final in 2014 when the organizers from BBK Grožnjan first entered the series, and then the following three years. Only in 2017 the season was turned upside down with Grožnjan opening the season.
The venue in the picturesque artistic town above the river Mirna is a classic for the riders from Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Italy who are mainly filling up the SloEnduro start lists. They are all eager to be at the final race in Grožnjan and to race on the trails with views all the way to the sea and even some cobbled street sections.
The fifth and final race of the season will consist of five special stages on Sunday, October 14. With all the transfer stages the rider will complete 33km and 1100 elevation meters. As always, they will start the day in the town square. The stages will be published on Thursday October 11th when it will also be known which stage will be named the Kenda SuperStage.
The course will be open for practice on Saturday and in the evening the organizers will also hold the Grožnjan by night street race.
On Sunday, the first riders take off at 10am and the riders will be finishing after 4pm.
The 2018 Enduro Grozni is also a race of the Croatian ENDCro series and an Enduro World Series Qualifier event.
Kenda SuperStage start at Enduro Grozni 2017
Hot Istrian fall – 6 for the title
After this year’s four rounds – the Kamplc in Ajdovščina in March, Krokar at Dobrna in May, Merjasec in Ruše in June and Krvavec in August – the overall titles are not decided yet in at least one discipline.
In overall category there are two riders on top of the ranking with same amount of points: Nejc Huth (Energijateam.com) and Tim Jež (Kamplc Racing Team). Then there are two riders tied for third: Davor Kacin (Kamplc) and Peter Mihalkovits (Radwelt MK Factory Racing). And then there are two in fifth! It is Vid Peršak and Kevin Maderegger (both Sunbikers Mondraker Enduro Racing). They are all still in the position to win the title.
Peršak and Maderegger both only have two appearances in the series this year, and both won both races they entered. Both national champions will be favourites in Grožnjan, but to take the title, they need to win and have both Huth and Jež finish in third or lower. Or you could see it like this: Vid and Kevin will be trying to take the overall title for their team by finishing 1st and 2nd and have their own duel at the same time. Vid could become the overall winner for fourth year in a row.
No drama in women’s category since Yana Dobnig (RLM Mondraker Racing Team) already secured the overall title. Her closes rival Petra Bernhard (Friesis-Bikery Racing Team), winner of two races, is still taking care of her injury.
I men’s junior category Matic Berginc (Rajd Ljubljana) is closest to the title. In master 1 it’s Tino Huber (Radlager) on top, followed by another Austrian Bernd Dorrong (Team Dorrong). In master 2 Cri Maierhofer (Team Dorrong) is leading with Grega Nagode (Energijateam.com) in second. It could be tight in hobi class if the top three show up: Austrians David Guttmann, David Gruber and Reiner Glanz.
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