One route, 1,841 kilometres and virtually every face of Slovenia. Ultra-cyclist Adam Jordan has completed the Slovenian Mountain Bike Route (STKP) in record time, putting the decade-old trail firmly in the spotlight.
Slovenian ultra-cyclist Adam Jordan has completed the entire Slovenian Mountain Bike Route (STKP) in a record 6 days, 21 hours and 20 minutes, covering 1,841 kilometres and more than 52,000 metres of elevation gain. His achievement comes in the route’s 10th anniversary year and puts the spotlight on one of Europe’s most ambitious long-distance cycling adventures.
The 23-year-old from Kostanjevica na Krki, a former professional road cyclist who has since moved into ultra-cycling, set off on 5 August and reached the finish in the early hours of 12 August. Despite riding through a heatwave, Jordan averaged more than 250 kilometres and around 7,000 metres of climbing per day, while sleeping only minimally.
For Jordan, however, the challenge was as much mental as physical. The route includes long, steep climbs and sections where riders have to push their bikes. He singled out the ascent to the mountain hut on Uršlja Gora as one of the toughest parts of the journey.
A Cycling Journey Through Slovenia in Miniature
The Slovenian Mountain Bike Route is much more than an endurance test. Its circular course links many of Slovenia’s major mountain ranges and takes cyclists through an unusually varied sequence of landscapes.
From the Alpine north, the route crosses Pohorje, the Karavanke range, the Kamnik-Savinja Alps and Julian Alps before descending through the Karst and Brkini hills towards the Adriatic coast. It then turns inland through the Snežnik area, Kočevsko, Bela krajina and Dolenjska, before continuing across Kozjansko and the Slovenske gorice wine-growing hills back towards Pohorje.
The official route covers around 1,850 kilometres, more than 50,000 metres of elevation gain and 43 stages.
One of the features Jordan highlighted most strongly was Slovenia’s extraordinary geographical diversity: cyclists can move between dramatically different landscapes within the space of a single day, from the Alps to the Mediterranean or from forested uplands to vineyard-covered hills.
Jordan’s record ride is also being documented for a film scheduled to premiere at the Mountain Film Festival in February 2027.
Ten Years of Slovenia’s Great Cycling Loop
In 2026, the Slovenian Mountain Bike Route (STKP(open in a new window)) marks a decade since it was officially opened by the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia (PZS) in June 2016.
Inspired by the well-known Slovenian Mountain Trail for hikers, the STKP is regarded as the longest route of its kind in Europe.
Its highest points include the Poštarski dom mountain hut at Vršič Pass at 1,688 metres, Uršlja Gora at 1,680 metres, Peca at 1,665 metres and Porezen at 1,585 metres. At the other extreme, the trail descends almost to sea level at Piran and the Sečovlje Salt Pans.
Designed to take cyclists away from busy roads, the route follows quiet backroads, farm tracks, forest roads and trails, passing 52 mountain huts, cultural landmarks and some of Slovenia’s most popular destinations along the way.
The Mountaineering Association of Slovenia notes that mountain biking is now the second most popular mountaineering activity in the country. Although most individual sections of the STKP are not technically extreme, completing the entire route is a major endurance challenge because of its length and cumulative climbing. Many cyclists therefore tackle it over several seasons.
Almost 6,000 Route Passports Sold
The STKP includes 127 checkpoints, where cyclists can collect stamps in an official route passport. Almost 6,000 passports have been sold over the past decade, showing the growing interest in long-distance mountain biking in Slovenia.
Before Jordan’s record, the fastest known completion was by Katja Kegl Vencelj, who finished the route in just under 19 cycling days and also holds the women’s record on the Slovenian Mountain Trail.
Jordan completed his challenge largely self-supported, accompanied by a media crew consisting of Alan Bučar Vukšić, Nicolò Blasi and Lejla Hodžić, as well as a support team including his father, Jaka Jordan, and Jaka Magister.
To celebrate the route’s tenth anniversary, the Mountain Biking Commission of the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia is also organising a mountain-biking camp on the final weekend of September.
Source: Manca Ogrin for the Mountaineering Association