Race Report | SloEnduro #1 – Enduro 3 Camini

Enduro 3 Camini was the first stop of this year’s SloEnduro season. The race took place in San Dorligo della Vale, near Trieste in Italy, almost on the border with neighboring Slovenia. It was for the first time that race was held in two full days of racing.


On Saturday riders had to face four special stages with a little bit more than 1000m of altitude, while on Sunday there were another four special stages on schedule, with another 1000m of climbing and descending. A wide selection of the trails was true success for the event, as the riders were really excited about them, including the multiple 4X World Champion Michal Prokop (Specialized, CZE) himself who decided to come to race to start his season. »I decided to come for a race to start the season and to do a good training with racing against other fast riders. It seemed to be a good start of the season. It is hard to compete with fast local riders, but I enjoyed the weekend here. I really like the trails and the venue,« is a short summary of our conversation with Michal.

Vid Persak was once again the fastest rider in Trieste
Last year’s winner of Enduro 3 Camini, Vid Peršak (Orbea Enduro Crew, SLO), had to skip almost entire 2014 season due to injury in Punta Ala race, but got back stronger than ever. On first stage of the race he took the lead of 12 seconds overPeter Mlinar (KK Črn Trn, SLO) and later just made the gap bigger and bigger until the last stage of the day when he crashed and lost some of it. Mlinar finished the day in second, while master rider Robert Kordež (Black Hole Enduro Team, SLO) took the third spot ahead of Prokop.


On Sunday the race outcome was not much different. Peršak continued with good rides on all four stages and brought home a nice lead which was more than enough for a new victory. Peter Mlinar managed to hold the second spot, while Kordež lost the third spot on stage seven with a few »surprise« meters of the stage seven and had to leave the last spot on the podium to Prokop. Max Leitsberger(Mountainbiker.at, AUT) rounded out the top five in overall ranking.


Giulia Alabanese tooks the women’s victory
In women’s category a strong rival for a win, Birgit Braumann (Trek Gravity Girls, AUT) had to face some problems with a flat tire already on the first stage, so Giulia Albanese (Caprivesi, ITA) took a lead in the race. By the end of the day things didn’t get any better for Birgit, as she had a bad crash in stage 4, which forced her to retire from the race with a broken arm, so Giulia got a lead after first day, but not far from Nina Rupnik (MBK SportR.si, SLO) behind her.

On Sunday the race was not changed much, similar to the race in men’s category. Nina was trying hard, but Giulia had enough speed to stay in front of her and celebrate her first victory on this race. Last spot on the podium was won by Denise Tremul (A.S.D. Gravity Project, ITA)

Juniors race was won by Slovenian 4X Champion Mitja Ergaver (KK Crn Trn) in front of Grega Žvan (MBK SportR.si, SLO) and Giacomo Lodolo (Sps Team Maglia Nera, ITA).

Fastest rider in master1 category was Michal Prokop in front of Robert Kordež andSebastjan Stres (Kamplc Racing, SLO), while the master2 category race was won byPrimož Štrancar (Orbea Enduro Crew, SLO) in front of David Taucer (A.S.D. Federclub Trieste, ITA) and Marco Pergoraro (Scavezzon Squadra Corse, ITA).


Maxxis SuperStage: For the first time we saw a Maxxis SuperStage on the Enduro 3 Camini. It was held on the most challenging and wildest trail of the race, second stage of Saturday. It was won by the winner of the race, Vid Peršak who got a nice pair of High Rollers for better grip.

SloEnduro series continues with Enduro Cerkno on 16th and 17th of May, but before that riders will have a chance to fight for lowered bag of points on two SloEnduro 4Fun races. The first one is on schedule already this Saturday in Kamnik and the next one, Enduro Krokar, on 2nd of May in Dobrna.

Photo: Nejc Bole

Full results here.

JakaT