Borrego Springs, will be the World Championships 24h TT venue for the third year in a row. Marko already won the title in year 2002 (Ohio), 2012 (Coachella Valley) and last year in Borrego Springs. Marko says: »The World Championships 24h TT has always been one of my main goals for the season. After having great races at Sebring 24h in Florida in February and SLO24ULTRA in Slovenia in July, I found myself in the position to win the World Cup Ultracycling 24h for the first time in my career. That gave me enough motivation for hard work in the otherwise late months in the season. I think I did a great job and I can be optimistic before the race. Nothing better could have happened than for on of my biggest opponents Christoph Strasser to announce his participation in the race in the last minute. It is going to be an awesome race, whoever wins it at the end!«

24hours on the bike in the desert
November might be a bit late in the season for such an important race, but the Borrego desert is simply too hot for such a hard race during the summer. In November, days can still be hot (last year 25°), but the nights can be very cold (last year 2°C). Being so late, the night part of the race is longer than the day. We will start at 6PM Friday evening in night time and the sun raises around 7AM Saturday morning. The racers will take the long loop of 18 miles for 23 hours and in the last hour they will finish the race off on the small loop of 7 miles. Whoever does more laps is the winner. The course record is held by Marko from 2015, with 808km (505 miles).

Challengers

Marko's strongest challenger will be aformentioned Strasser, who wanted to break Marko's indoor track 24h record in October, but had to cancel because of a light cold he caught a couple of the days before. This means the first 24h show-down of the ultra-cycling illuminaries after long nine years, At Kaniachtal trophy 24h Race in 2007 Marko won with 1 loop of advantage over Strasser. Of course, the Austrian is not the only strong race in the 50+ strong field. Strong RAAM finishers Alberto Blanco (USA) and Juan Sainz Garcia (Spain) are among challengers who will surely do their best to upset the favorites.

Follow the race

You will be able to follow the race here on www.markobaloh.com and on Marko's FB page and Twiter. The 24-hour Live-Ticker will be updated during the race on organizer's website: www.24hrworlds.com