![\"2013Zakelj.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-2-0-55037500-1375442355.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nSlovenian Tanja \u017dakelj comes to South Africa for a third time hoping to collect her first UCI World MTB and Trials World Championship when she takes to the Cascades MTB Cross country course.<\/em> <\/p>\n Photo: Supplied\/Gameplan Media<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The Unior Tools Team rider has had a stellar season with two wins from the four UCI MTB World Cup events that have been staged so far in the season with a still solid fifth position in the last leg in Andorra being her worst result of the year thus far. <\/p>\n \u201cSo far my season has gone amazingly well,\u201d the 24-year-old said. \u201cIn the first World Cup in Albstadt I managed to finish fourth – that was my first podium in the World Cup. <\/p>\n \u201cThen the event at Nov\u00e9 Mesto was even better because I won my first World Cup and in Val di Sole I managed to defend the World Cup leader\u2019s jersey with another win so I\u2019ve been very happy so far.\u201d <\/p>\n To add to her two World Cup wins, the Slovenian went one better by grabbing the continental title in Switzerland. <\/p>\n \u201cI also managed to take the European Championship in Bern this year. <\/p>\n \u201cThese results have been fantastic for me and I want to continue to carry my form through to the World Champs.\u201d<\/p>\n Being world champion is not a foreign concept to the Slovenian; she has a couple of age group world championship crowns, but is still in hot pursuit of that special elite crown. <\/p>\n \u201cI have won the world championship twice \u2013 once as a junior in 2006 and then in the U23 category in 2008. My biggest wish is to win the rainbow jersey in the elite cross country category though and I\u2019ll have the opportunity to try do that in Pietermaritzburg so I\u2019m very excited,\u201d mentioned \u017dakelj. <\/p>\n The World Championships will be the pinnacle of the mountain biking calendar for the year and being at the top of her game will be imperative for \u017dakelj with a number of equally inspired girls coming to Pietermaritzburg with the same goal in mind. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are a number of highly motivated girls and a lot of them have the ability to take the title.<\/p>\n \u201cOne can\u2019t count out defending champion Julie Bresset as well as experienced Gunn-Rita Dahle, Maja Wloszczowska and Eva Lechner,\u201d the European national champion mentioned.<\/p>\n Having been involved in two previous events at the Cascades MTB Park, \u017dakelj should have an idea of what to expect from the course as well as have a good idea of the lay out of the track. <\/p>\n \u201cI have been to Pietermaritzburg twice \u2013 in 2011 and 2012 \u2013 and I really enjoyed myself. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is a fantastic course to ride with good organisation and delicious food! <\/p>\n \u201cHaving such friendly people around me made my stay in South Africa very comfortable on both occasions.<\/p>\n \u201cI do expect the track to be fast and technically demanding with some drops and doubles to jump and other obstacles as it also was for the World Cups in previous years,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n The current European champion heads into the World Championships with a number of titles under her belt already this year and will be one of the riders to watch when the show comes to town at the end of August. <\/p>\n Being able to embrace the surrounding environment and use it in one\u2019s favour will be important for all the riders but \u017dakelj feels she can handle this. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is an interesting course with a good crowd and the loud and enthusiastic spectators always give me a special feeling. <\/p>\n \u201cTo compete in a race with that kind of atmosphere makes it much easier to race past your limits.\u201d<\/p>\n The UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships takes place at Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg from 26 August to 1 September 2013, and will be preceded by the UCI MTB Masters World Championships from21 to 25 August. More information can be found at www.mtbworldchamps.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Current women\u2019s cross country world number one Tanja \u017dakelj has her eyes firmly set on claiming a maiden rainbow striped jersey at the UCI MTB and Trials World Championships at the Cascades MTB Park starting on 26 August in Pietermaritzburg. Slovenian Tanja \u017dakelj comes to South Africa for a third time hoping to collect her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":53183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2551,2435,975,5265,4954],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-cross-country","tag-ladies","tag-mtb-world-champs","tag-tanja-zakelj","tag-xc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21680"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}