Marko Baloh, his crew and officials.

Marko: As an asthmatic I usually have a project on World Asthma Day which is the first Tuesday in May. Last year I set the Slovenia west-to-east record from Hodos to Debeli Rtic by riding 211.5 miles (340.4 km) in 9:34:28. This year I wanted to do something special and decided to start my campaign with an attempt to break the 12-hour road record held by Tom Nieman of 266.5 miles (425.8 km). The next step was finding officials. The first person I thought of was my British friend Chris Hopkinson (Hoppo) and two friends from Slovenia, Sergej Kaucevic and Mira Gasparic Petrovic. I also needed to find a way to pay for Hoppo's flight from the Great Britain to Slovenia and back. I asked John Hughes if he knew anyone to sponsor my record attempt and thus pay the Hoppo's plane ticket. John was so kind to offer his personal sponsorship to the event to purchase the ticket for theHoppo to be the chief official of the event.

Marko Baloh racing for the 12-hour road record.

Hoppo: Setting off after work on Monday I knew that this would be a meaningful trip and felt that my friend Marko was more than capable of beating the official record of 266.5 miles and the 269.93 miles (434.3 km) that I had achieved in the UK National Championships in 2006. Marko confirmed my feelings by setting off at a blistering 25 mph (40 kph) pace. I thought that this pace would relax as the attempt progressed but was surprised that by 100 miles the pace had hardly relaxed. Marko completed 100 miles (160.9 km) in 4:01:12, a stunning accomplishment breaking the previous UMCA record by nine minutes.

Marko Baloh battling the wind during his 12-hour road record.

Marko: As the event approached everything seemed to go wrong. I miscalculated the effort needed to complete a 400 km qualification brevet for PBP only three days before the record and was feeling too tired. Then the jerseys for the ride weren't ready and we had to improvise on the evening before by cutting a few of the crew's T-shirts and sewing the logos on last year's jersey. I got very little sleep the night before the event, but when I felt my bike underneath me it just felt great! I pushed the pedals effortlessly and the speed I achieved surprised everyone, including myself. After a few hours a wind picked up and seemed to slow me down.

Marko Baloh setting the during 12-hour road record.

Hoppo: Although Marko was feeling on the bike as if the wind conditions were slowing him down, this was definitely not the case as the figures from the logs show. I have never seen such a steady pace throughout a 12-hour ride throughout my riding experience and I have competed in twenty-six 12-hour events. Mark smashed the UMCA 200-mile record by 45 minutes with a time of 8:17:59. Far from getting slower he seemed to get encouragement from the gathering crowds and the fact that the time remaining was growing short.

Marko: Knowing that I had already set two records, I knew the 12-hour record was in my pocket and that helped me to think less about the wind. I tried to keep a decent pace into the head wind part of the course and then accelerate with the wind at my back. It seemed to work as my lap times remained below 29 minutes all the time. The last two laps were even fun again with a big crowd gathering at the start-finish area and knowing that the end was near. My crew and Hoppo did their best to motivate me to speed up in my last lap which I didn't think was possible, but I did it anyway, setting my best lap time over the last four hours. Hoppo even sat outside the car shouting and motivating me to sprint the last ten minutes.

Marko Baloh & Chris Hopkinson.

Hoppo: Knowing how I perform in 12-hour races, I expected Marko to weaken in the last four hours. This was definitely not the case as he continued to put in consistent lap times not showing the tiredness which should be the case after this distance. In the final hour of the attempt he again showed his unmatchable riding ability by decreasing his lap times to close to the original lap times. Spurred on by the growing crowds and the supportive helpers that he had employed, he completed the attempt at Tesanovci 59 with 285.07 miles (458.76 km).