This Ride Had The Scariest Feature I’ve Ever Done! | Slovenian Backcountry Enduro Tour

Ever since racing the good old EWS in Slovenia back in 2018, Rich Payne has had a big love for the riding that is on offer in this area. Slovenians aren’t afraid of building some long, rowdy descents with a huge amount of vertical descent on offer. Rocks, roots, ziplines… these trails have it all! We’re exploring some of the coolest trails around the Black Hole with the help of local athlete Vid Persak and Bikenomad’s Anej Štrucl.

⏱ Timestamps ⏱
00:00 – Intro
01:01 – Some Slovenia Knowledge From Anej
03:05 – Let’s Get Riding!
06:08 – Vid Persak Joins Us For A Ride
10:16 – Exploring Vid’s Home Trails
14:17 – Reflecting On The Day
14:42 – Day 2 Of Riding Begins
16:53 – Trail Riding
19:24 – Olimpline Surprise!
23:52 – Final Loam Trail Of The Trip

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Slovenia known for its stunning lakes, beautiful mountains, crazy cave systems, and rich culture and history. But it’s also known for something else. Unbelievable mountain biking. I’m heading out for an off-piece, offgrid, backcountry adventure. And I’ve been promised the trail riding is going to be amazing. Yes, I’ve been to Slovenia before back in 2018 to race an EWS. And although I only rode the racetracks, it was amazing. So, I feel very lucky to be back and able to go check out more of what there is to offer. Now, normally for a 2-day adventure like this, I’d happily wander into the unknown and explore for myself. But I want to find the best trails and maximize my time here in Slovenia. So I’ve enlisted the help of a local expert. Go on then, tell us. Welcome then to Slovenia and to our region of Korska where we’ll be riding in the next days. Uh maybe when we have a good view like this, I can explain you what’s specialtity or what’s so different about our region. Yeah. Uh especially geologically speaking. Uh so in the world, you know, there are three different types of rocks existing, right? metamorphic, sedimental and magmatic. Okay, that’s the only tree that are existing and you can see all of this tree here. Really? Yes. So actually behind that mountain, the last one, the last ridges, this is a mount of smeates which used to be underwater volcano. So there are magnetic rocks in between this Ursla and Pagora here are sedimental rocks and where we are standing it’s metamorphic rocks. That’s why also the trail surface we’ll be doing it’s going to be every day a little bit different. So nothing the same. We going to be exploring this end of the area. So here in the yamit and stroina area we are now on in the peak of stroina and then we’ll be going to petson as well and the left side of pa mountain. This is the big mountain over in the background. This is the big mountain. Exactly where the MTBone bike park is. And then on the left side of Petson this bottom hills in the middle not the back ones. Uh this is where the mine is and where more than 1,000 of kilometers of tunnels lie. And we’re going to explore those. We’re going to do the black hole trail there. And we’re going to do is the zip line that way as well. The zip line is the zip line over there. Wow. Well, I think on that we should probably get riding. There’s a lot to explore. Hey, high five. as we get on with our day. Then Annie’s given us a great kind of description of the mountains that we’ll be tackling, the different terrains, and it’s fascinating that there’s so much variation in such a sort of compact area in the grand scheme of things. But this is a two-day adventure. We do have a very special sort of elite guest, if you like, of pro racer joining us this afternoon, a good friend of mine. I’m looking forward to that. And then tomorrow, he’s promised us ridge lines and zip lines. Some of Slovenia’s finest to kick things off. And it’s a beauty. Oh, straight through the middle. Yo. Oh my god. It’s a great start to the day. [Applause] Fresh cut grass smell too. [Applause] And over with the pace. Oh, it’s loose. Really loose. Oh, I like that high line. Bringing back some 2018 memories to me. Some EWS memories. Real good natural trails. And we’re on to a place called Scottish Bomb, it’s called. Yes, we call it the Scottish Bomb. And why is that? So in the second world war, allies who were bombing the the Germany, they flew flew back and dropping the bomb bombs here. So emptying them actually the planes. Okay. And one of the bomb creators is further down. And why Scottish? Because Scottish boys boys helped me build this trail. Perfect. Scottish. Scottish bomb. One Polish. Look at that. Because they do. You know what bomb it was? Huh? Do you know what kind of bomb? No. At least I don’t know. Just a big bomb. No clue. Big bomb. Big bomb. Big bomb. Yeah, boy. Let’s go. Nice. Oh, good high line. Oh, that’ be ruthless in the wet. Oh, so fast. Exploring new places is quite literally the best thing ever. Yeah, I didn’t realize it was so tight at the end there. That’s really good. Okay, so that’s the the morning done. And we’re heading now back to the farm for a bit of lunch, right? And to go meet our special guest. Exactly. Uh which is pretty cool. Yeah. So far so good this morning. Really fun. Proper middle of nowhere. Oh, look, a robot mower. I mean, I say middle of nowhere. There’s a robot mower right there going back to his little house. That’s pretty cool. Yeah, we’re going to go grab some lunch. Then we got someone joining us. Going to go ride some more cool stuff. We have some nice uphill trail to get to the park. Some nice nice uphill trail to get back to the farm. Sick. Let’s do it. I told you there was a mystery guest. Vid Persac Aon Racing should be hopefully inside. Going to come join us for the afternoon. Show us some more off piece. We’re going to have a quick bite to eat. But uh yeah, I’m looking forward to hanging out with Vid. It’s been a while. Vid Slovenian born and bred and lives just a matter of miles away from where we’re riding. A pro enduro racer currently racing for AON Racing and always at the sharp end. He’s the perfect riding buddy for today’s shred. Here he is. Oh, here he is. Here he is. How you buddy? Good to see you. Sorry. I’m a bit hot and sweaty. Don’t worry. Hey, that’s a good that’s a good sign. You made us ride up from the bottom. Yeah. Nice. Good. You wanted some fitness training. I did want some fitness training. here the last time there was in 18. I raced in 18, not 22. Yeah, it’s cool, man. How are you? Yeah, good. I’m still a bit tired, I bet. Just got home yesterday. Big Le gang day. Was five weeks in a row. Yeah. Where was the first one? Fat Petra Back home. Home race in Lville. Yeah. Yeah. And then here, how long have we gap now you got? It’s this week. 14 days. One day. One week. One week and then next week is nationals and then it’s uh you can say and then it’s Yeah. Hey, the good thing is at least it’s all mainland Europe. Yeah, it’s cool. You literally just driving to Yeah, we drive one of them. That’s easy in a way. Like kind of easier. Well, I say easy. It’s a lot of driving. But you I mean it’s not like Yeah. It’s not like Chile, then Colombia, then America. No, it’s good. We This year we have this tour camper. Yes. So, so they hooked you up. Loving it. So, you sleep in the camper as well? You can stop and rest. It’s pretty easy to drive. That’s the best way. Are you going to show us around this afternoon? Yeah, mate. Just get some food first. Yeah, I’m starving. I could drink. I need like a cold Coke or something. Okay, Vid, thank you for sort of showing us around. We’re in a different area this afternoon. You’ve taken us to your trails. That’s what Anna called them. He called them your trails. Finally, I have you all here, guys. Yeah, we are basically on the same hillside that Yamitsa in a town or village called Shentano. Is that further around sort of further around from Yamitsa? But yeah, me and Annie uh we tried to build kind of a together a bike point. And this here where we are now, it’s um these are your ones. Yeah, those are trails that me, my brother, and my friends built. So, I can tell these are your ones cuz I followed you down and you were flat out straight away. Yeah, bro. It’s a lot of turns. So, it’s quite sketchy to catch up with your And are you allowed to build here? Have you got permission? You’re sort of in the process, right, of turning into part of the the bike park? That’s right. We just uh got the permissions and everything so we could uh make them uh legal and also to mark them and to open up for the wider audience. That’s that’s the plan. and yeah expand the area and yeah just um offer a good riding for everyone that’s here so far so what kind of trails what we what we got sort of ahead of us this afternoon yeah like you see around here we have a lots of blueberries so a lot of blueberry trails we have a lot of turns uh yeah some good flow a lot of roots as well yeah I noticed yeah that’s why I got pretty good at riding roots and yeah um basically just single tracks pretty natural uh I think we don’t have much bike Turkey stuff and I think that’s what makes those trails pretty unique. Um like they are far away uh I mean like not far away from everywhere but like they are deep in the woods so you enjoy you feel like you’re in a good nature. It does feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere which is kind of the whole point. We’re supposed to be on this sort of backcountry expedition. Yeah. I think that’s all about mountain biking that you go out and you are deep in the woods and you enjoy the I mean saying that I rode past a house earlier that had a robot lawn mower so I was like oh we’re not that far from civilization. Yeah it’s true. There is there is farms and houses around everywhere, but um like I said um you still get a good experience in those woods. Should we hit some trails? Let’s go. [Music] And now it’s good. Oh, shut up. That’s just showing off. I was doing the same. You just couldn’t see. Whoa, that’s soft. So soft. Yeah, you’ve got to be so on it with those changes in direction. It’s just like you need to really work hard if you want to go faster. Like that really loose turn nearly just It’s quite grally. Yeah. Even better. It’s already in the wet, is it? Cuz it binds together. Stop and bind together. Yeah. Sticks together a bit. Come on. Big savage. Blind. Following this guy is wild. Oh, he’s blown that one out. You’re an animal. Vid inside. Sorry. This. Yes. So good. Oh, what the hell? Is this your house? No. We literally dropped into your house. Yeah. You want to get some water or drinks? This is how much their vids trails. It’s where he lives. Vid lives. That’s where I live. Oh my god. So you look Leo coming. So you literally just Yeah. Bike stands all set up. Yeah. That’s my pretty much most uh common trail that I do mostly. All right. Well, I’m going to put that down to why you’re leaving me behind. Yeah. No. Watch out. Next trail. Watch out. Yeah. Oh my god. Oh, cheeky. It’s uh all different from what we rode. Very different. Washed out. So this is it. The the the end of this stage just went down kind of and snaked through this creek. It was hard work, but come on. Different challenge. I think I think it’s a good track to practice your skill set. I think to see a different kind of Yeah, such a small area. Yeah, you can experience pretty much everything. It’s very varied, isn’t it? That’s the cool part of it. But I can imagine with a lot of rain, this part’s just washed out. But anyway, we’re getting towards the end of the jungle, I believe, and that’ll be the end of the first day. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh my lord. [Music] [Applause] [Music] m done. Day that was uh that was pretty wild. Quite an experience. It was, wasn’t it? No, thanks for showing us around today. This afternoon. I think we should probably get go get go get go get go get go get go get go get go get go get go get go get back and have a beer. I think so. Be rude not to deserve and then sort of save oursel for the next day. All right, dude. Cool. Right, let’s go grab a beer cuz ah there we go. There you go. Off we go. 32k today. There was a bit of uplift in that. Over 1,000 meters, plenty of runs. It’s a good day, right? Really good to explore some nice backcountry stuff. And obviously we got tomorrow coming where yeah, it’s going to get pretty wild. So, uh we just have to stay tuned and find out. [Music] Day two here in Slovenia. Backount epic. more going into the unknown. The bike nomad truck is just about to get load up with our bikes and then well yeah Anna, you can see just about to do our things down here. We’re going to shuttle our way up to a different peak. We’re going to be riding some different stuff today. Some real interesting stuff. He’s promised us some good ridge lines and a 700 m zip line. So roll on day two. [Music] What’s the plan today? Where have we just climbed up from? Where we where where are we now? So we just came up from town of Majita. We climbed to here to this spot. And this is where the crazy black hole trail and the crazy black hole is actually towards this direction underneath us. So actually here under we have more than thousand km of tunnels at this point. Yes. Today we are now crossing towards Chernosk. So sorry say that again. We are crossing to Chernro Chernos. Okay. Across some nice ridge lines. Stunning pronunciations by me. Towards the zip line. And with zip line we descend towards and then from the zip line we then do another trail. From the zip line we have a trail directly to the chanakoros where we have lunch. Wow. And after lunch we come back up here and do another. Oh. How far do you reckon we’re doing today? We’ll see. We’ll see how a long way. We’ll see how a long way. Wow. Okay. long descending. I’ve got my climbing legs on. Oh, and my descending legs then. Perfect. Both. First trail. Adro ad. Oh, Jesus, man. I’m struggling. I was in Poland the other day and I struggled there as well with names. This is not ideal. So, what what what we got on this trail then? So, first nice and flowy trail going in the forest. Then a little bit of technical sections with some canal riding or channel channel riding. No, I like canals as well. Canal riding. Is that your mind and your pronunciation? But it sounds like a good warm up trail. Going to be so bit of cross country up and down still before we get to the top of the trail riding. Yeah. All right. Ride it. Let’s go. [Music] Oh, big rocks. Oh, [Music] I like this. Well, [Music] Leo, it’s time for uh for some hiker bike. How are we feeling? Uh I go I go. You can’t go. See you later. You’re in the back country now, buddy. So, maybe I’ll help you out. I’ll take your packing. Are you you’re on the eve, so I reckon you might get up some of it. This is the kind of that does wonders for a guy post back surgery. I have no idea where we are. Ass end of nowhere. But it’s pretty cool. And if you want to ride the good stuff, you got to put the work in to get there, right? So, it’s hiker biking. [Music] [Music] [Music] I’m loving this low man. Yeah. [Music] You get my legs going. Get my legs going. That’s stunning, isn’t it? Wow. Look at that. So, we are now exactly above the mines. Okay. And if you look down in the valley at the bottom, it’s a separation factory. So, if you can see people, it’s Oh, way in the distance just there, though. And if you look to the left here, actually the black hole is going from that uh that toward those houses down there. So for those who haven’t seen it, the black hole trail is is the world’s only underground trail. Black graded enduro trail which Anna guided me down whilst I’ve been out here. If you want to watch that video, well, it’s on GMBBN now. Go watch it cuz it’s some of the craziest riding I think I and most people will ever do. But yeah, that’s that’s a good example of where we are. Oh my god, it’s way bigger than I was expecting. Like massive. What? So Oh my goodness me. What? So take off [Music] all the way across the That’s massive. So we had sort of claustrophobia like you know fear of that in in the black hole and now we’ve got is it agor I think it’s agorophobia where you’re fear of open spaces agrophobia whichever one it is. So and then uh obviously if you’re afraid of heights of heights oh my god I’m basically in Slovenia to like overcome overcome all the fears. Oh my god it’s massive. 100 km. Oh my god. There’s no speed control or no brake. Like it’s just go at the end. It’s a break. Oh, okay. At the end. At the end there’s a break. Snug. Make sure they’re nice and tight, man. Just relax. Just relax. It’s a relaxed fit harness. If you can bit much. I think this is okay. But you think I’m sure that’s cool. I’m not sure. Shut. I’m not sure. Anyone with with dress to distress written on their t-shirt should be doing harnesses. I do first time. I do feel safer now seeing how many cables there are. Cables and carabiners. The more you see those around here, the better, I reckon. [Applause] Oh my god. Look at I mean, the start looked the scariest. Once you’re in, you’re in, right? Once you go in, there’s no coming back. The start looked uh Go. But hey, let’s do this. And hold on to the bars. Yes. [Music] Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. 3. Oh my god. Holy fast. It’s so fast. Oh my god. I am actually flying. Oh my god. Oh, I don’t like it. The wind. Oh my days. Leo, if you can hear me. Oh, I’ve got arm pump. Yes. Oh, and relax a little. That’s amazing. It’s so good. I’m not going to lie. I [ __ ] myself at the beginning, I think. Ah, we got it. There we go. Beautiful. Thank you for fishing me out. Yeah, buddy. There we go. Uh, I don’t I actually don’t know what to say. survivors. Oh my god. Human life. So, we came from all the way up there as sort of we showed from the other. But to look at it from the other way, the height difference even from here to there is crazy. I uh I’ll be honest, I screamed off the top of that. That was a little shout. I couldn’t. No. Yeah. But it was wild. I mean, I think that’s a a thing that’s going to stay in my memory. Uh what an incredible morning so far. We’ve just had a lovely lunch. So now Anna, we’re sort of drawing towards the end of our our day, our second day. So we got a shuttle to the top, but we’re going to ride another trail. One more big trail. Yeah, big trail. One more big trail. 500 height. Yeah. Oh, so we’re going to drop 500 m. Yep. By Let’s make it count. [Music] Let’s go riding this way. Oh, this way. This is the last trail. Yep. What’s it called? It’s called Adro. Adro. A nice trail from the top all the way to the bottom of the valley. Okay. 500 m drop this. Around 500 m drop all the way to the bottom. Some technical sections in between. Some smooth ride. This is a good one to end on. Really good one. Oh man, I’m excited, but it’s kind of sad that it’s the last one. It’s another It’s another one. You never dude, you lead the way. Let’s go. Dropping in. [Music] Heat up [Music] here. [Music] Oh my god, Anna, I’m so sorry. I I don’t know where to go. Sorry. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Yeah, boy. Yes. Done another day. I hope you enjoyed it. Such a good couple of days. Like some new crazy stuff. Big like bucket list things, right? like things that don’t happen on normal rides and stuff. Like who gets a zipline across? We have some crazy stuff in our You do. You do. I mean, yeah. Huge thank you for showing us around and guiding us about and shutting us. And uh yeah, we’ve we finished obviously in Maja Mitt. Oh, come on. You’re so close. Maybe you’ll get it in the end. Maybe. Oh, dude. All right. Well, I think it’s probably time to uh get a cold beer. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s go for it. And just like that, I’m done. Two days of exploring well everything there is out there has been absolutely incredible. It’s been nice to explore somewhere and nowhere all at the same time and to see old friends and to make new ones. So a massive thank you to Anna from Mountain Bike Nomad for well guiding us to some of the best spots this region’s got to offer. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Things I’ve done I never thought I would do. That zip line is certainly uh one of the craziest things and well I’d probably do it again. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to come back, in fact. But, um, let me know what do you think in the comments down below. Slovenia now on the bucket list, that zipline, would you do it? I reckon you would. Thank you very much for watching, everyone. And cheers. [Music]