Join RaceQuest and Tour Leader Markus van Niekerk as we take you through the daily itinerary and trip details for the Slovenia Cycling Tour. Cycle the most scenic routes, enjoy fine dining and premium accommodation, receive a VIP Entry package into the L’Etape Slovenia event with your choice of cycling distances, visit the Team Bahrain Victorious warehouse for some cool swag, and have dinner with pro cyclist and multiple stage winner, Matej Mohoric. Two sets of premium Italian-made cycling kit and a tour apparel pack are also included. Experienced cycling guides, bike mechanic, rental road or e-road bikes and all in-country transfers make this a dream cycling tour. Visit race-quest.com to make your booking into this 9-day, 8-night September event.
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Uh welcome everyone to the Slovenia ultimate cycling tour which is nine days and eight nights uh in Slovenia um with a lot of really nice VIP uh extras included for you so this is a dream trip to Slovenia and uh we’re going to show you the best of the best
So we have uh on the line with us today I’m Kelly Eldridge I’m with race Quest and you’ve got uh Christa Baker who is my business partner and uh the other uh half of race quest uh and then our presenter is our tour leader today and uh the man who conceptualized the trip
Uh Marcus Fen nerk joining us uh live from uh his home in South Africa so without any further Ado Christa would you like to say a few words absolutely um real quick we’ve been working together with Marcus for over five years under the umbrella organization of Tri
Travel and it’s been absolute just a pleasure in working with him and not only is he an amazing tour leader he kind of hides the fact that he’s a pretty incredible coach as well so it’s a it’s on our honor to be working with him and and to introduce him to to you
Right now so Marcus take the take the floor Jeep as well with an intro like that um I should have had speech CLS ni no perfect thank you so much for the opportunity um definitely with regards to all the different tours that we organize this one’s pretty special
And I think it could also be purely because of the fact that I’ve never really known Slovenia as a country but more importantly when I went there to do the whole tour REI and see all the different riding routes that we’ll do be doing um the different hotels we’ll be
Staying at restaurants we’ll be visiting it really yeah it just it just crept into my heart so the people are amazing the country is beautiful and all the just the different cultures and the sights and sounds that we that I got to experience and that our guests will also be experiencing is um
Is second to none and um so I’m really excited about the the tour itself uh location definitely 100% um location based but as well as the fact that you know we’ve got some really incredible inclusions in this tour something that money can’t necessarily by uh if you
Were to just visit the the country as a as a tourist I was just going to mention some of the highlights that that we found so attractive with this program is that it’s really very allinclusive it’s it’s everything is really very taken care of
For you you get to see the most Psy you know Scenic cycling routes you have VIP dinners lunches at some very um fine dining establishments you have daily breakfast premium accommodation uh and then we’re going to make uh some special visits to places that you would not want to miss if
You’re going to go to Slovenia so um and then not to mention all the great uh cycling routes where you’ll get to see a lot as well but there’s also a lot to do for the non cyclist uh we’re all of us are going to be uh taking a very uh fun
Visit to the Brin Jin experience which is an awardwinning um sort of Boutique Distillery um also the VIP race entry package is included for your choice of distances into the into the race um and that comes with some benefits of its own and probably the real highlight here
Would be the meet and greet and the dinner with our uh World gravel champion and tdf Stage winner who won everybody’s Hearts uh last summer with his courageous win uh matd mahic so that’s that’s just a scratching the surface here that is definitely the case so the the
Idea behind building this tour which will be uh the first tour as part of a series was that we really want to offer a topend product um there are many tours around the world and there are many different companies organizing toour us around the world but we really wanted to
Set the bar really high um and I mean you guys are living testimony of the attention to detail that we usually execute on our so um it goes without saying that we really want guests to come on this tour experience everything and more that they that they thought
They would um and uh from there you know just it the our attention to detail on this tour should be as clear as daylight so the the capital of of Slovenia is a town called uh lublana and um that’s where we will be or that’s where our guest will be flying
Into they as they arrive uh we’ll have a team at the airport to welcome them um just so that there’s no uh that there’s no confusion they need to know that we’re in control of the process we will then uh escort them to the to the buses where they’ll be transferred to the
Hotels the the hotel for the first night’s pretty impressive um it’s called the Austria Trend hotel and um it’s a incredible hotel in the sense of they cater for sportsmen and sports teams um or Sports men and women and sport teams and uh it very clear when you walk into
The restaurant um uh you know very confidently named Winners Cafe um and they specifically brought in a chef that specifically uses healthy food and premium products uh in their dishes and uh just to add some uh some more excitement to the to the restaurant they’ve got a signed yellow Jersey um
From uh uh t Pacha as he’s also from Slovenia so um so yeah so that’s the first day guests get to arrive after um and after they’ve arrived we transfer them to the hotel they can build their bikes just settle in relax and then we’ll have a nice early dinner so the
Guys can get into bed and then obviously to get up on Monday and yeah so the so the the main aim of of of the first day or first full day on tour um is just to purely you know shake out the legs
Get to see a bit more of of the the the city of Liana and we plan we’ve planned an incredible ride which will form part of the uh well small part of Sunday’s uh race route but more importantly we’ll go up to the little church in the background there called setty Thomas
Which is the most photographed Church in uh Europe and um it’s really an incredible uh uh you know just experience the the the amount of cyclist on the road from young to old um you know some just going on easy rides some are training hard cycling is really uh
Become such a such a strong force or such a strong sport in the country with you know Superstars like rage uh Pacha and then um say um Matthew yeah mate moric so it it uh the first day is purely just to to get to see the area
After the ride they’ll make their way back to the hotel everybody will have a chance to freshen up have lunch and then uh the late afternoon we’ll make our way to the Vrain Victorious pro team um to their warehouse where we’ll have an exclusive tour just our guests just have
A a decent run through of how the team Works how the team behind the team the actual Riders work um you know just get to see how they operate you know how they deal with certain situations their stock and everything um to to make sure that their Riders can can operate as as
Hard and as as comp competent as they can and then uh from there we’ll make our way to the lovely lub honor castle where we’ll be uh enjoying a fine dining experience um once again when we were there in April uh we we visited all the
Restaurants and uh this was one of the one of the best you know experiences I’ve ever had in a restaurant amazing food the architecture of the actual building is just incredible so um it it’s it’s yeah it’s just an amazing experience the Tuesday Morning uh the
Second day on tour you will or not you well hopefully you and some guests uh they’ll get up do their thing uh have breakfast while they have breakfast we will be loading everyone’s bikes and and and and Luggage into our trucks we’ll make our way to the to the Lita hotel
And um it’s about a 40-minute drive from from the from the Austria Trend hotel or from lublana I’ll get gu will finish their breakfast get onto the bus they’ll make their way to the to the hotel by the time they get there their bikes will be
Ready for them they only put in their bottles clipping the helmets and then we’ll do our our first ride in in in um the pizza what’s uh amazing about this uh establishment is that there’s about well firstly it’s it’s the name comes from the lipana horses and there’s about
380 400 of these horses just roaming the property and it is incredible so um you know I’m not I’m not the I’m not an expert when it comes to you know anything to do with horses or equestrian but um it is it’s quite something to see and it is an amazing experience the
Hotel is based on horse stables so it’s very rustic it’s but it’s super modern um just just an amazing experience and once again the attention to detail in the rooms is as I mean as you can see it is it is really incredible so once again
We’ll do the ride come back in the afternoon people have an an opportunity to freshen up and uh you know get themselves comfortable we’ll have a evening dinner after lunch needless to say um and then uh you know get ready for the Wednesday which will be our
First rest day but before we go to that slide this is a an amazing picture of the area that we’ll be riding in so um this is known as the cast region uh which refers to a certain kind of stone and um it’s very as you can see there
There’s Vineyards there’s Rolling Hills it’s as green as it can get and it’s just an amazingly beautiful um area and we’ll also have on every single ride we’ll have special stops um on this day in particular we will be uh we will be stopping at an amazing old church making
Our way inside um and there’s a nice quaint little restaurant where we’ll be um organizing lunch for our guests and uh before we we take uh the ride back to the hotel but an amazing amazing scenery on this ride it’s an amazing story uh the guy that started the bringen um so
BR in uh their local language is a juniper and uh so that’s the main like ingredient for the for the Brin for the for the Jin sorry um and uh this guy was uh he I think his name is Eric if I’m not mistaken but he was uh into
Construction and he heard uh that his grandfather was a um was quite big into distilling JY and uh it inspired him to the extent that he just decided well he’s going to quit his job and he’s going to do some research and that’s how he’s going to start this business of his
And in well as it started growing and as it went on he got a very uh well-known artist to help design his packaging for him and uh I don’t want to give away too much of the story but basically what it comes down to is a day before the the uh
Submissions closed to enter your product into this competition they uh they just sent it off and didn’t really think much of it and then the third bottle for from the left there the one with a with a paper wrapping um as you said earlier uh Kelly it actually won the Golden Globe
Award for the best packaging in the world but the Jin itself got a score of 97 out of 100 so it’s uh it looks good it tastes good and too much of it obviously uh is uh optional but um but it’s an amazing experience it’s almost like his his um Distillery is carved
Into like a bit of a rock face but it’s very small it’s very personal and um the fact that that he’s involved there and it’s it’s a oneman operation so he does everything from beginning to end and uh when we visit his uh uh disy we’ll also
Be uh treated to him while he’s doing his talk he’s also going to be distilling a batch um of his of this gin and then just to add to this experience every single guest of ours will be getting a bottle like this and on the
Back it’ll have a tour logo um a tour date as well as a little QR code and then when they do take this gin back home and serve it to their mates they then uh they can just scan the back of the bottle and it’ll take them uh to a
Media file where they’ll be able to access pictures videos and uh just some good memories of of their trip to Slovenia there we go so um yeah so undoubtedly the biggest day uh of the tour and there will be two big climbs as it says there um the the first big climb
Um comes about halfway into the ride where we’ll be making our way up to uh which is the mountain in the background um it’s called um n mountain and uh it’s once again it’s super Scenic um you can see forever in a day you can see the
Coast from there which is about 43 km um but super Clear View you can see or be it very small from here um you can see it in the the distance the the Italian Dolomite mountains um but you can see the Mediterranean Coastline as I said
And once we get to the top uh we’ll be serving some traditional Slovenian dishes at the Nanos Ecco house which is an amazing little family um you know operated restaurant and it is just once again it’s so unique to the to the whole experience which um I’m 110% sure guests
Would absolutely love and then we’ll make our way down the mountain we’ll do our second line making our way back to the hotel and needless to say I think the people will be quite tired but excited to to also get back to the hotel and just relax for the rest of the
Afternoon so um this is really amazing and the reason I say that is it is incredibly beautiful from start to finish this ride is simply amazing so this little picture here is H is a town called copper and uh we’ll be making our way down to this well we’ll be riding
Down to the uh to this uh Marina uh we’ll be having lunch here before we make our way back but it is such a Scenic ride once again you get to see some of the Vineyards um you get to see the Italian dolomites on your far right
Hand side Croatia on your left hand side um it is really such a feast for the eyes and um we’ll uh we’ll make our way down here and uh after that we’ll return back on that day the the the guests will uh well when when we return to the hotel
We’ll make our way back um and we’ll start loading up everyone’s uh equipment and and suitcases after they’ve freshened up and then we’ll make our way to the to the last Hotel um which is called Hotel Elegance um it is a government-owned um uh hotel and it is
Spectacular I’ve never in my entire life slept in a bed more comfortable than that the corridors of the hotel is wide enough to put up uh uh what you will call it pickle ball courts it is it is really really nice I cannot I cannot like elaborate enough um it is it is
Such a nice place and uh just to really add something amazing to this tour is the fact that we’ll be having dinner with this uh absolute Beast of a cyclist and um I haven’t met him in person but um if what I’m hearing from people that
Work with him almost on a daily basis is anything to go by he is the most humblest and uh most approachable human being and the fact that he’s so successful and as a you know multiple grants Grant to a stage winner in fact I think he’s one of the only 104 cyclists
In the history of the sport that’s one a stage on every single Grand to a um a race and then needless to say he’s also sporting World gravel bike Champion colors um for the next season and I’ll tell you what he is um I cannot wait for
This dinner because I’ll be like a little Fanboy um I might just to keep chick well speaking of the estate where we’re going to be based uh in is it Berto yes the Berto estate as you mentioned just spectacular I mean these are the so this house this house um as
You see here that was built for the president at the time and um this this estate I mean that’s pretty much what it looks like and as you drive in you’ve got the hotel on your far right hand side and then on your left as you enter
The estate uh this is what you’ll see immaculately um moded Lawns and Gardens and trees it is like postcard stuff it really is really really nice I noticed they also have a great wellness program at this point everyone would probably like to book a massage or treatment and
They have they have a extensive list of of things you can do there as well as equestrian programs if you want to go and they have 10 lipaz on or horses on their estate if you want to go and uh meet them you can do that um there’s a
Lot to do on the estate it’s very um athlete friendly and active traveler minded I would say 100% 100% And um you know besides what can happen Outdoors just like want to emphasize again on the the picture on screen here their rooms are incredibly spacious the bathrooms
Are everything is topnotch and um you know as you step out of your room on The Veranda it is the views that you have is incredible so to the one side you’ll have more of a like a city landscape um View and then on the other side um you
Or the opposite side you you’ll have mountains in the distance um not too sure if they’ll still be snow cap but um really spectacular views and then as you said as well they’ve got an incredible wellness program um as well as some other activities but you can also take a
Tour of the estate and then uh just hop onto the back of a golf cart and uh and off you go so um it really is a a a worthwhile final stop for our tour and this is what everyone probably thinks of when they think of slovania
It’s a very iconic shot of famous famous uh place that we will be going yeah and this is a lake bled um just toh put things into perspective so on the Saturday morning guests will wake up we’ll do um an optional short ride for those who wishes to do that and then um
For those that haven’t registered yet we’ll make sure that they go that they go and get their stuff done we might very possibly pre-register everyone and um have their goodie bags for them in their room by the time they check in although I think some people would like
To go and check out the race area which is 100% um and then after that we will be making our way to this incredible spot here so uh as you can see this is Lake bled and then um just if I can just use an example on the screen um well
There we go just on the far left hand side right right in the middle of the picture um there’s a yeah that is bled castle and that’s where we will be having our dinner um it’s also owned by the same uh three brothers that owns Liana Castle well they don’t own the
Castle they’ve got the rights to have their restaurants there and um I’ll tell you what it is it’s an amazing picture it’s about a good you know 60 70 meter drop from from where you’re standing on the on the edge of the castle and then you get to see this wonderful little
Church on this island and it is just buzzing with you know people and um it it really is an amazing picture to see stunning so now we come into race day and uh we’ve got some pretty incredible inclusions uh with the VIP race package for everyone that wants to partake in this
100% so um so needless to say when when we make our way back from the from the castle the night before people will obviously want to get up their feet and just uh relax and then on the Sunday morning we’ll make our way as a group to
The race start area um they’ve actually uh for next year’s event and that was confirmed in the last week they’ve actually added a third distance so there’ll be a 70 uh just over 100 kilm and then the 138 which will be the full distance race um and we’ll definitely
Each and every single one of our guests on the full 8 night tour they will make their way to uh to their starting Block they’ll have VIP Hospitality post race so whether it’s a massage or just a Chill Zone uh with food and drinks and and just everything to to almost just
Round off this amazing week in know an amazing country um we really uh well want to try and you know end it off on a high note um the race itself is becoming more and more popular needless to say the fact that it’s a tour to France
Inspire and own event um means that there’s a yellow Jersey a green jersey poka Dot and a white jersey to be one on the day and it’s the actual T of France leaders jerseys so there’s there’s a there’s a bit of bragging rice available
There um but uh just a a very soft and uh I don’t really want to say this too loud but uh the Europeans are strong cyclists but I I hope they’re not on juice but um but they are incredibly strong so you need to bring your aame if
You want to end up in one of those color jerseys but um it is an amazing amazing experience um we work very closely with the race organizers um in fact I spoke with the race director again yesterday and they are Beyond thrilled that we are bringing International people to their
Country um and I must say if there’s one thing about um an event that really gets me excited is if if the local community also Embraces it and they do it 110% the fact that they’ve got three world class cyclist um obviously adds to that uh to that excitement and that
Enthusiasm but um as a whole it is you know it’s just an amazing experience and and the race itself um is is so nice so I’ll I’ll uh I’ll get the most recent um highlights video for you as soon as it’s released and then uh you can just send
It out in your database or you know on your social media but it is it’s incredible awesome and then for our finale we have something special planned uh at Duck Island right that’s correct that’s correct so we’ll be we’ll be having our farewell at Duck Island um
That is on their state as you can see the the backdrop there um it is incredibly beautiful um we uh as things stand now duck island is 100% our venue um there has been some suggestions from people that has booked to maybe go back to to bled castle and uh because we’re
There the day before the race and everybody needs to behave themselves maybe they can go back there and misbehave for a change so but but we’ll definitely um we’ll definitely confirm that with our guest before before it happens um but if whether it’s there or at Duck Island it is both two
Incredible settings super tranquil and um once again it’s just a it’s just a small thing that we want to do to uh really end off this uh amazing week on a high note we’ll have some music entertainment live music going and uh some some amazing food served and um
Just you know reminisce about what’s been going down the week leading up to this day um and you know sharing War Stories of what happened on the road earlier that day before everybody makes their way back to to the hotel room and uh sadly needs to start packing their
Stuff to leave uh the next day for air well transfers back to the airport um we will be doing multiple transports transfers as we would be uh on the days that the guests arrive um so different transfer times different uh well different transfers for different departure times and um it really uh yeah
I think it’s going to be an amazing experience one thing that I didn’t mention earlier oh here we go um that’s good that you brought that up and um so thank you for that kitty so uh yeah just briefly just few of the things that we
Um you know just want to reiterate is that um you do get that race entry to the to the lit up by T fron Slovenia daily breakfast and dinner included so um you know that is that is very important to keep in mind as well as your OnCourse nutrition and snacks we
Actually get the same uh nutrition supplier um as they use as the pro Bahrain Victoria pro team uses so same jail same uh iser drink Etc um there are well needless to say there are two options when it comes to this tour so for um people coming from Far um the
Eight night to it definitely makes more sense of the three night uh there is a three night option available but once again it makes more sense for your neighboring countries if there is anyone that would uh watch this um this recording and um all transfers all trans support um support vehicles on every
Single ride um we’ll have our own exclusive tour bus um and once again you know if we just look at the the um standard that we set on on our current tours that we do together um it’s always you know really exclusive uh tours uh or
Tour buses at least um we’ll have a dedicated bike mechanic on on call um for the well as part of theour group moving with us for the whole duration of that week uh we’ll have support staff some on bikes some in cars but there will be someone present whenever you
Need them so we won’t make a nuisance of ourselves but we just want guests to know that whenever they need to uh to just push our button and just ask for something we will be there to assist them um and then uh obviously we’ll have a our itinery closer to the time we’ll
Communicate with our guest they’ll get a detailed itinerary they’ll get a little strawber link for every single ride that we are going to do um so almost like a bit of an inter active itinery for them it just makes it a bit more exciting and then we are getting well everybody that
Comes on our tour we’ll be getting two sets of cycling kits uh cap socks and a t-shirt um and then needless to say we’ve we’ve already briefly mentioned what you get as part of your VIP um entry to the race um and uh I think that
Is it oh there we go there’s one of the kits yes there we go so we’ll be making it um or getting it made by um uh a company in Italy it’s the same it’s the same brand as it is um well that that supplies the the actual Bahrain
Victorious team with their kit um so it’s an Italian brand called Al and um so yeah needless to say if if it’s good enough for a world Pro to a team then it’s good enough for for our to to a guest as well so um we’re really looking
Forward to um you know to to to getting some people on in our kit um the the one thing that I just also want to mention is that for the first 30 guests that sign up for the eight night tour they will get an official team bar rain Victoria’s
Jersey uh team jersey signed by m morid as well as for the first 30 guests that sign up for the three night tour they’ll get an official L up by T France Slovenia race shirt um also signed by matoid so um once again it’s an amazing amazing little uh motivator if I can
Call it that um but um super Keen to get guests on this tour um we have people committed on the tour already and uh we we don’t want to make the numbers or get the numbers up too much because at the end of the day um we yeah we just want
To make sure that the that the experience in itself is is um you know really really high standards and uh you know for people also to uh to feel valued when they are on tour um there’s nothing worse than paying paying top dollar for what supposed to be a top
Experience and then just almost like disappearing into the crowd so we really um really want to make everyone on this tour feeli like they uh you know that they belong there and that they they really matter to us and they that they’ll have the week of well time of
Their lives during during the week in uh Slovenia absolutely and um if you want to learn more and see a bit more details there’s pricing there’s booking everything that you need to know to join the tour you can find that at our website at race- quest.com you can give
Us a call with any questions or give us an email um we’re happy to uh go through every detail with you on that and help you uh make the booking process very easy uh and I also wanted to take this opportunity um uh that to let everyone
Know that we are going to be doing some additional trips uh with Marcus and uh doing some things coming up that we’ll be announcing soon uh that involve uh Africa and South Africa so I say get ready and uh Kristen did you have anything you’d like to add about that
Well absolutely like as I mentioned in the beginning we’ve been working with Marcus for over five years and as you can see in this presentation here he’s um meticulous at detail and just a phenomenal tour guide and so we’re again so honored and excited uh for South
Africa we’ve been talking about this for years now and excited that uh we’re going to be able to make it happen and and present it to our our clients yeah for sure um so just uh while we’re busy talking about that um I see old Pier um
My colleague uh in building these tours um if you think I’m meticulous he’s Swiss so he’s like 10 times should I say better or worse than me but um but no he’s a he’s a phenomenal um you know hand to have in as part of the process
And uh we’ve been working really hard on a potential gravel Bike Tour as well as a mountain bike experience which will include some of the best scenes in South Africa but uh as soon as they are they are done we’ll be sharing all the news and the information with you ladies and
You guys can do your thing but thank you so much for the opportunity I really appreciate it