Organizers expect up to 7.000 cyclists of all generations to take part in the most attended sports-recreational cycling event in Slovenia, the 31st Marathon Franja BTC City Museeuw Classic, which will take place between the 8th and the 10th of June. The most significant novelty of this year’s event is the time trial race, which will be held on Friday, June 8th. The race will be attended by Slovenia’s best cyclists in all age categories, alongside many recreational cyclists. This year’s event will once again be part of the UCI World Cycling Tour, which means that there will also be lots of foreign cyclists taking part in the race, as this event is also very popular abroad.
The event will, for the first time, be spread across three days. This will be the first time since 2005 when the Franja Marathon Cycling Festival first extended to two days, that the races will start on Friday. Ahead of Saturday’s Family-school marathon and the children’s trial race as well as Sunday’s races over 156km and 97km the event will for the first time also host a time trial race, on Friday, June 8th. At 4pm on Friday amateur and professional cyclists will start Intersport’s time trial race, which will also count for the National championship title. Friday’s 18.6km long women’s time trial race and men’s 38km long time trial race are expected to have around 300 participants battling it out for the title.
On Saturday, June 8th, and on Sunday, June 9th, the programme of Marathon Franja BTC City Museeuw Classic will, as usual, start and end in BTC City Ljubljana. On Saturday at 4pm families will take part in a 25km Polet Club’s E. Leclerc Family-school marathon, followed by a Generali Trial for Children, a 1.450m long circular tour around BTC City at 4:30 pm. The youngest children will enjoy themselves on little Babadu balance bikes. Organizers expect around 2.500 participants on Saturday’s Family cycling day.
Sunday’s start of 31st BTC City Franja Marathon will be at 9am in front of the Crystal Palace in BTC City. The 156km long race will take place over the classic route starting in Ljubljana, going through Vrhnika, Logatec, Idrija, Cerkno, Kladje, Sovodenj, Škofja Loka, Vodice and Tacen back to the finish line in Ljubljana. At 10:30am cyclists will be joined by participants of the Small Marathon Franja BTC City on their 97km long race from Ljubljana, through Dobrova, Horjul, Vrzdenec, Lucina, Gorenja vas, Škofja Loka, Vodice, Tacen, finishing in Ljubljana. Organizers expect up to 4.500 cyclists to attend the event on Sunday.
President of the organizing committee of the cycling marathon Maraton Franja BTC City Museeuw Classic and president of the BTC Management Board Jože Mermal is convinced that this year’s celebration of cycling will once more live up to its renown. “I am sure that Slovenians will once again prove that we’re a nation of cyclists. It doesn’t matter what your motivation is – whether you simply want to enjoy the course and check your capabilities or win – Marathon Franja BTC City welcomes everybody”.
Additional information:
Maja Oven, Director of the Market Communication and Public Relations Sector
- T: 01 585 13 19
- E: maja.oven@btc.si
