Sometimes two years of an event are enough to establish a tradition. A short course, no uplift, mostly enduro bikes and open helmets, no number plates even, since it is “not a race”. It’s a “test day”.
Just like last year’s first edition, the DH Golovec Trails Test Day 2024 was held on a new combination of trails with some fresh sections within the Golovec Trails trail system not far from downtown Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. The elevation drop is just over a 100 meters and times for the fastest of just over a hundred riders are under a minute and a half.
It is a popular way to test the speed before the start of 20chocolate Downhill Cup, the Slovenian national downhill series. Participants completed an unlimited number of runs within five hours, up to twelve. The ranking was based on a combined time from two fastest runs by each rider.
Last year, we watched a duel between Luka Berginc and Jure Žabjek, a Golovec hill local, two of the most successful Slovenian downhill racers of the last decade. In the last two runs, the eighth and the ninth, Berginc turned the “no-race” in his favour. This year’s national champion Luka, in the jersey of his new German team HolyMoly’s Development Racing Team, came to the start as the first favourite, while Jure was not among the participants. Berginc was challenged the most by David Ivartnik, an enduro rider from the home team of Golovec Trails, who managed to complete seven rides despite his organisational duties. A wave of young riders followed with the U17 rider Ažbe Kalinšek representing his new team MTB Trbovlje for the first time.
The raindrops held back until the end of the timed runs, but with some parts of the course slippery even before Luka kept pushing his performance. In his sixth and seventh out of eight runs, he set a combined time that no one else came close to: two minutes and 42 seconds (and 53 hundredths), with 1:20.94 in his penultimate run, which was also the best time of the day. He was 29 hundredths faster than last year with the track having a few more turns.
Ivartnik was fastest in the third and penultimate run, finishing second just under 10 seconds behind Berginc. That means Berginc was in a class of his own in a run of about three minutes, which would make a solid downhill track.
A good second behind Ivartnik was Kalinšek, who did best in his second and fourth runs, but could not improve his time towards the end of the day.
The U17 were a fast category, with Tine Gračner (Golovec Trails) boasting the fourth best overall result and Izak Štrubelj (Bikehanic Lumar) the sixth. In between, Martin Mark Milar (Rajd Ljubljana) was the fastest U19 junior of the day in fifth place. Oskar Hozjan followed in seventh place, taking third in the elite category. A guest from Italy, elite rider Simone Leo (Team Bike O’Clock) followed in 8th, and in 9th and 10th place the next two U19 juniors Matej Osolin (Calcit Bike Team) and Anže Kofjač (KK Završnica).
Boštjan Volf (Wolf Racing Team) in 11th place could have been the winner of the masters category, but encouraged by last year’s times he is returning to the elites this year, so the fastest master was local Iztok Slapnik (Golovec trails).
Kaja Berginc (Rajd Ljubljana, not related to the men’s winner) was the fastest among the women, while in the youngest categories Kostja Matijevec Jerman (Golovec trails) in the U15 category and Gal Novak (Rajd Ljubljana) in the U13 category finished at the top of the standings.
All the results
“Great course, I was flying,” said Berginc when it was all over. “The sprints came in handy, I haven’t trained them for a while. My lungs had to puff a bit, every run was better. Great. Even if it’s not a real race, you try harder than if you’d trained alone. There’s a bit of pressure from the other riders.”
“I was expecting better results, but I’m still happy,” says Kalinšek, who is returning after breaking his wrist in the last days of last year. “It will probably be even better on the downhill bike I’ve got now, and I’m in a new team with new sponsors. I think it will be great.”
To Pohorje for the first points
The first race for points in the 20chocolate Downhill Cup series will be Downhill Pohorje on 4 May at the Pohorje Bike Park in Maribor. The race will also open the auner Austrian Gravity Series, so a large and quality turnout is expected.
Before Maribor, Berginc, Kalinšek and some of the fastest Slovenian downhill riders will take part in the first round of the iXS European Downhill Cup in Lošinj at the end of April. For Ivartnik and the enduro bunch the first round of the SloEnduro series, the Kamplc in Ajdovščina, will take place on the first weekend of April.
Jumping and more
The day at Golovec was enlivened by the Red Bull Long Jump competition, in which Naj Janežič won both prizes – for the longest jump with a good 11 metres and for the best trick with a superman.
Visitors could try out Specialized e-bikes from the Extreme Vital shop fleet for free, and as part of the Ljubljana City Council’s programme, instructors from the Golovec Trails Association offered free tune-ups and advice on riding technique.
The DH Golovec Trails Test Day was sponsored by 20chocolate, Continental Tyres, Zavarovalnica Triglav and the Extreme Vital shop. Prizes were donated by Continental Tyres, Ion (Surf Shop Ljubljana), 20chocolate, FuramZase, Rooster Brewery, Extreme Vital, Red Bull, Zavarovalnica Triglav and Golovec trails.
Photos by Anže Furlan