After a successful start of this year’s Slovenian series 20chocolate Downhill Cup in Dolenjska, another new venue will follow just two weeks later, on Sunday 1 June: the Poseka Bike Park, Ravne na Koroškem.
The venue and the terrain are not as unfamiliar as the Gorjanci were. Many people have ridden in the park, which opened in 2018 and is constantly being upgraded and modernised, set practically in the town of Ravne na Koroškem in Northern Slovenia. A ski lift, adapted for cyclists with the EasyLoop system, takes care of uplift. The trails have 160 vertical metres of drop.
The downhill course in the park is called Divja jaga, and for the race it will have an addition at the top with a start just behind the top of the lift and another one at the bottom, leading all the way to the finish in the Ravne Sports Park. The core of the course remains, where the features are roots, open or bermed turns and some jumps. There will also be some line picking, says course chief Matej Kodrin, a former racer.
The riders will, however, be on the track for a much shorter time than on DH Planina. The 1030 m long course is expected to take about one and a half minutes, but more precise times are not yet known.
A Koroška Tradition
Lest anyone think that the Koroška only has enduro, as they have Vid Peršak and Nežka Libnik and all the other enduro stars, and the history of the Black Hole Enduro with the Enduro World Series. The first downhill race in Koroška was held in 1995 in Črna na Koroškem, called Divja jaga, so the name of the trail in Poseka is a kind of tribute to this legacy. The last Divja jaga was held in 2007, the national championship, and the year before that the race was also held in Mežica. Even closer to Ravne, the race with the finish on Lake Ivarčko was held from 2001 to 2004 and from 2009 to 2011.
Poseka also has its own history. Since 2005, members of the Ravne Cycling Club have held cross-country races here, including a UCI international first category race and two national championships, and the 2019 National Championship was also the last cross-country race held here. In 2018 and 2019, they also hosted SloEnduro 4Fun series events.
The Field
Entries close on Monday 25 May, so we can only speculate on participation. In addition to the fastest from Planina, the slower, more technical course promises more challengers on enduro bikes. Among the registered riders are two-time overall SloEnduro winner Miha Smrdel, last year’s fastest Slovenian in Lienz downhill, and local junior Nežka Libnik, last weekend’s World Cup winner in enduro, who tried downhill for the first time last year at Kope – and won.
Many more enduro riders from Koroška will appear on the list. Vid Peršak, unfortunately, probably won’t, unless he is not getting any rest after the World Cup in France, where the enduro race will be held on Friday.
Entries and entry list at prijavim.se
Schedule
Saturday’s track riding from 9am to 5pm will be relaxed on a short course and with an almost unlimited number of laps alongside a lift with a capacity of 450 riders per hour. There will also be plenty of time for training on Sunday, between 9am and 1pm. As usual, the seeding run starts at 13:30 and the final at 16:00.
Please note the slight change in the time for collecting the number plates: from 17:00 to 19:00 on Saturday and from 07:30 to 08:30 on Sunday.
Besides the Race
On Saturday evening there will be a social gathering at the Poseka House at the bottom of the lift. Perhaps the downhillers will be tired enough after their training to even watch the football Champions League final on the screen.