Photos speak louder than words, here is how our day with Ray went. We cycled across Independence Pass both ways (12.095 feet at the top). Beautiful!

When we learned that this year's Veterans World Championships will be held in Ljubljana, it was a huge news for us. And plans of assault on a medal were on! After the dates of all ultra races were published, it became clear that my preparation for the road race and time trial will not be optimal. One of the main objectives of my season, race around Switzerland / Tortour (1.009km long race with 14.000m of climbing) will end only two weeks prior to the World Championships.

Here, I have completed my sixth Tortour. Feelings are mixed. My goal was to win and the second place is anything but what I wanted. But I did come across a stronger competitor and Severin Zotterju certainly deserves all congratulations on a well deserved win. Acknowledgements go to my crew Irma, Matic Šmon and Borut Osojnik, you once again performed excellently. Thank you from my heart! Thank you also to all the sponsors who support me and my cycling endevours.

My report from the race:

Ljubljana, 13. avgust 2014 – Slovenski ultra-maratonski kolesar Marko Baloh, se po razočaranju na Dirki okoli Slovenije in nato prepričljivi zmagi na ultra-kolesarski dirki v ZDA Race across the West odpravlja nasproti novemu izzivu. Preko vikenda bo nastopil na Dirki okoli Švice bolj znani pod pomenljivim imenom Tortour. 

One month after Race around Slovenia it is time for the toughest race in the World - the Race across America. It is a race that gets into your heart and it is hard to stay away when this happens. Unfortunately it costs way too much for me to be able to pull it off every year. This year the plan was to see the race from the other side as a crew chief. Due to the circumstances the plan was postponed for a year and I was left wondering how to get close to RAAM. The answer was simple in the shape of RAAM's little "brother" called Race across the West or RAW. Just a 860 miles long race that starts simultaneously as RAAM and finishes in Durango, CO. After a quick search for a crew, we got Tanja and Chris to join Irma and me, so we were in! After one of our bags got lost on a way, we were left without our clothing, but the main items arrived - the bike and one piece of jersey&shorts, helmet and the shoes for the race, which are always in my backpack because of similar experiences in the past.