Race Report: SloEnduro 2022 Round 1, Grožnjan

Apr 17, 2022
by SloEnduro  
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Winners Simona Kuchynkova and Vid Peršak
Top three women at 2022 SloEnduro Grozni in Gro njan.
Top three women


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Top five men


Vid Peršak and Simona Kuchynkova win the opening round of the 10th season of SloEnduro series in Grožnjan, Croatia.

Back to Grožnjan

After the almost completely lost 2020 season and 2021 still heavily compromised by the epidemics, everyone deserved a great start to the 2022 racing season. And what a better place to do it than Grožnjan on Istria peninsula in Croatia. It is where the series ended 6 times since its start in 2013, and started once before this year. It is also one of the most scenic locations you can imagine for a mountain bike enduro race with the medieval town and views of the Adriatic Sea.

For close to 200 riders representing 7 nations, the hosts of Grožnjan Mountain Bike Club (BBK Grožnjan) prepared five trails as special stages with a total length of the loop with transfers around 32 km with elevation gain and drop of approximately 1200 m. The youngest categories (U15 and U17) and the newly formed 4Fun category rode three of these special stages.

Two-day events are back in SloEnduro, 5 out of 8 organizers chose this format and Grožnjan was one of them. This means training on special stages (according to the schedule) on Saturday and a relaxed racing timetable on Sunday. In Grožnjan everyone enjoyed Saturday's training ride, socialising on the trails, catching up after the winter and making new friends. Even the weather held up all the way to the evening when some strong winds came in along with some raindrops. But nothing to turn the trails into mud, just enough to make the conditions perfect for Sunday.

King Vid is back

Reigning Slovenian champion and four-time SloEnduro overall champion Vid Peršak (Orbea Fox Enduro Team) was the only one to finish with a total time of five special stages under 14 minutes. Tarmo Ryynänen of Finland (Specialized Nordics), a rider with top 5 finishes in U21 category in Enduro World Series last year, finished in second place just over 5 seconds down, and Slovenian David Ivartnik (Golovec Trails, +15.99). Two more Slovenians earned their places on the five-man overall podium: the former National Champ Jan Markič (ŠKTD Avče) in fourth place (+18.63) and 2021 SloEnduro champion Miha Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh) in fifth (+19.87).

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Tarmo Ryynänen

Peršak won three out of five stages, Markič was fastest in SS3 and Ryynänen was fastest in SS4.

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Vid Peršak
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Simona Kuchynkova

Simona Kuchynkova (OKӨ EVERYWHERE Racing), a junior rider from Slovakia, on the other hand, won all five special stages in the women's race. Croatian rider Gorana Težak (BK Buzet) finished second and young Slovenian rider Tina Smrdel (MBK Črni Vrh) in her first junior year. Kuhynkova already has an EWS U21 win and a 4th from the downhill World Championships from last year!

Miha Smrdel was the fastest male junior rider in front of Austrian Valentin Frey (Team Dorrong) and teammate Jernej Kavčič. Sebastjan Stres (Kamplc Racing Team) was the fastest masters categories rider and Nace Krivonog of the revived Bosch Black Hole Enduro Team won the men's amateur category.

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Miha Smrdel

On the short course, Ažbe Kalinšek (Bikehanic - 20 Chocolate) set the best time of all the participants by winning the U15 category which attracted 36 riders. Patrik Trošt (Kamplc Racing Team) won the U17 category.

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The future - Under 15 boys

Results
Men

1st. Vid PERŠAK (SLO, Orbea Fox Ensduro Team) — 13:57.19
2nd. Tamo RYYNÄNEN (FIN, Specialized Nordics) — +05.13
3rd. David IVARTNIK (SLO, Golovec Trails) — +15.99
4th.Jan MARKIČ (SLO, ŠKTD Avče) — +18.63
5th. Miha SMRDEL (SLO, MBK Črni Vrh) — +19.87
Women

1st. Simona KUCHYŇKOVÁ (SVK, OKOEVERYWHERE RACING) — 1:33:14
2nd. Gorana Težak (CRO, BK Buzet) — +44.81
3rd. Tina SMRDEL (SLO, MBK Črni Vrh) — +57.14
4th. Tamara HOMAR (SLO, Energijateam.com) — +2:11.40
5th. Maja VOJSKA (SLO, MBK Črni Vrh) — +4:12.17

Complete results

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David Ivartnik
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Jan Markič

The winners

Vid Peršak: "Back into race pace after a long time for me. I started well, then I made some major mistakes on 3rd and 4th special stage. But I would say this is a good start of the season for me since it was the first race on the new bike and new suspension. I'm really happy for the great turnout and a wonderful event."

Simona Kuchynkova: "My weekend was great, the weather, the trails, the location... all so cool. My goal was to find my race pace and I found it and I couldn't be more stoked. It wasn't that technical, more physical, great to kick off the season. It would be nice to come back to SloEnduro if I find the time. I will do four rounds of EWS this year."

Round two follows in just over a month - see on May 14 and 15 for SloEnduro Borovci in Ilirska Bistrica, Slovenia!

Complete calendar at www.sloenduro.com

Photos by Faber Video Making/Luana Sinčić/Igor Pekić

Author Info:
SloEnduroSeries avatar

Member since Apr 20, 2015
50 articles

6 Comments
  • 3 1
 I been waiting for this new format , slowest rider wins ,we all just need to chill out and take it easy, good work everybody congrats
  • 5 1
 Every enduro I do is a slo enduro
  • 1 1
 story of my life, I ride the high speed sections as if they were slow tech moves
  • 2 0
 We wait you all in italy at the EWS Qualifier Aviano Enduro next 24 April guys!
  • 2 0
 Congrats Simona!
  • 1 0
 Mladi gamsi!







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