We are starting late winter/spring medio fondo series with the easiest course in entire series. Starting in Ljubljana (latin Emona), the capital of Slovenia, and finishing in Ljubljana a top of the Ljubljana castlle hill.
This is probably one of two opportunities in this series where sprinter/fast finisher can win. All the other courses are much harder and contain at least some serious climbing challenges.
The route starts in the city, then heads into Polhograjski dolomiti hills where first two climbs awaits, but they are easy to survive with the group. First Zaklanec climb is realy gentle one, while the 2nd Žažar climb is ~2km @5% drag. No particular fireworks is expected here, since what follow next is simply too long to be on someones own. After cresting second hill, we will be traveling for almost 40km in counter clockwise direction on the southern edge of Barje basin (Barje=swamp in english). A pan flat land with long straight roads, which are a bit boring to ride alone, so it’s very advisable to find nice working group and share the workload through this almost one hour long section of route. The last part of fondo becomes much more interesting. Aprox. 20k’s to go the road does one short but sharp 5-8min long Repče climb to cross from Barje flats to the other side of Ljubljana basin. This is the place where race will almost certainly explode. Climbers must take the advantage here, if they want to contest for the win, since final Ljubljana castle climb is not enough long to dislodge the punchier riders. But even if they manage to crest over the with a split, they will have to push very hard for some 10km of flat roads, before finishing climb to castle starts. Once on the Castlle climb, it’s all on pure power and how much juice has anyone left in the tank. It’s a big ring 2-3min long standing juice squeezer. If going for the win, expect some painfull sensations in your legs.