Country: Croatia
Mountain: Ćićarija/Žbevnica peak
Length: 31 km
Elevation gain: 1238m
Maximum elevation: 1014 m
Technical difficulty: 3/5
Download GPS Track: MTB Ćićarija_Žbevnica_Cyclotrail
Date of ride: 22.06.2019.
Suitable for E-bike: Yes
Žbevnica is highlighted peak on western side of Ćićarija mountain, and also the last peak in west of Croatia higher than 1000 meters. I visited Ćićarija for the first time in 2016 with my friend Petar who run 100 miles of Istria few times and knows this region very well (and he is from Istria). Even though we cycled then mostly on unpaved road with very few singletrack trails I liked Žbevnica peak because of its long grass and opened sights in all directions. It reminds me on Hahlić in so many ways.
This year I decided to go back to Ćićarija, but I wanted to include more singletrack in the route. I asked local guys for some insights and I’ve got gpx track from Goran who helped me with some advices and gave me few pointers. He warned us that track could be overgrown with vegetation on some parts, and it was, but not enough to change our mind not to ride it.
We rode this track two days after Stol, which is very hard route, the kind of route that you enjoy to ride, and like to remeber it, but also kind of ride that makes you hate your bike for at least two days.
Usually, I don’t like ascents on paved road, but this time I couldn’t complain, ride from two days before took its toll so I was glad that we had easy access to the peak. Only few hundred meters near the top where on steep macadam, the rest of ascent is mostly on paved road and some singletrack at the beginning.
Descent part is combination of everything, unpaved road, rocky singletrack, dirt singletrack, overgrown parts, slow technical parts with switchbacks and fast sections. We were very lucky considering the weather. When we came in Buzet heavy rain started. We waited in car for 20 minutes for rain to stop, and just after we finished our ride heavy rain started again. At the end we didn’t have any encounters with the rain except slippery stones and roots, but that was the bargain we could accept…
Hi,
This was a beautiful Mtb trail. Had a nice autumn weather and dry trail all the way down. I really like your reports!!!
Thanks a lot
Milano, Austria
Hi, thanks for your feedback. Hope you’ll ride another routes from my website 😉