<\/p>\n
After a two month break \u2013 after the opening in Lo\u0161inj in April round two was in Kranjska Gora on May 14th \u2013 the Unior Downhill Cup<\/strong> continues this weekend in Cerkno<\/strong>, Slovenia. Downhill Cerkno<\/strong> will be the first ever race in Cerkno bike park after the organizers from Pedal Racing Team<\/strong> already organized the race under the same name lower down in the valley, closer to town, last time as Slovenia Cup final in 2012.<\/p>\n For the occasion they built a brand new track<\/strong> in Cerkno bike park, a 1700m track with an elevation drop of 340m<\/strong>. It is fast and wild, with a rock garden and some big jumps. It finishes at the base of Po\u010divalo chairlift.<\/p>\n Jure \u017dabjek<\/strong> (Unior Tools Team) will be defending his two consecutive men’s elite titles. During the series break he scored three World Cup top 15 spots, finally a historic 10th in Lenzerheide. A third title would tie him with Miran Vauh<\/strong> (2009, 2011, 2014) and Jan Cestnik<\/strong> (2006-2008) and next year he could challenge the all-time best Janez Gra\u0161i\u010d<\/strong> (1996, 1998-2000).<\/p>\n Jure is also the UDC leader after two races with two 2nd semifinal places and a 2nd and 1st from the final runs.<\/p>\n His main rivals will be the other two Slovenian World Cup regulars, Vauh (Blackthorn) and teammate \u017diga Pandur<\/strong>. Some iXS EDC races like Jan Cimperman<\/strong> (MTB Trbovlje), Miha Ivan\u010di\u010d<\/strong> (\u0160KTD Av\u010de) or Tilen Ferk<\/strong> (Batt Team) could also threat him. It will be interesting to follow top Slovenian enduro rider Vid Per\u0161ak<\/strong> (Team Dorrong) in his first ever DH race as he might even show up on an enduro bike.<\/p>\n In women’s race we will be remembering the late Zarja \u010cernilogar<\/strong> as she will pass on her 5th title. Of course the first candidate is Monika Hrastnik<\/strong> (Blackthorn) who is coming from two 10th places in the World Cup and was already the National Champion in 2015.<\/p>\n Rudi Pintar<\/strong> (Sinter Brakes Team) will be defending his junior title. He is currently only 7th in the standings while Matic Kokelj<\/strong> (Wolf Racing Team), kast year’s U17 champ, is in the lead. Marko Niemiz<\/strong> (Sinter Brakes Team) is the favourite in the U17.<\/p>\n Registration closes Wednesday night and there are riders from Austria, Croatia, Italy and Great Britain registered so far.<\/p>\n Free practice starts at 10am on Saturday and official training will be held from 2 to 6pm. On Sunday the semi-final run starts at noon and the final one at 2.30<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Pigs Parlament<\/strong>, a punk-ska-hardcore-metal band, will be playing at the DH Cerkno party Saturday night.<\/p>\n Photos by\u00a0Klemen Humar<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New track in Cerkno bike park to host 26th Slovenian Downhill Championships race this weekend as well as a round of Unior Downhill Cup and a UCI Class 2 race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"blocksy_meta":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1752,"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750\/revisions\/1752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slodhcup.pumptrack.si\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Eye watering track… because of the speed<\/h2>\n
International stars Monika and Jure and the rest<\/h2>\n
The timetable<\/h2>\n
<\/h2>\n