Balkan Marathon Rally 2014″ is a race through Bulgaria and Macedonia and is a true cross country rally. Slopes and beautiful mountain trails are part of this rally. High mountains and lots of forest are on the menu. Here is the route:

 

 

As a consequence  of the bad weather in August the race has been changed and unfortunately some stages were cancelled. Whist these changes the rally was still quite good, high altitudes, grass slopes, stony and gravel high speed race tracks, wonderful. I was 4^th overall before I got a flat rear tire which I had to change during a special stage. I couldn’t finish the stage and got a penalty.

At the end I was lucky to finish 3^rd in my class, mainly because there were not that much riders in the >450cc category, but hey; podium is podium!

 The Aprilia was great in it’s first rally lots of power which enables me to keep up with the fastest riders on the straights. They can turn corners faster but I can catch up accelerating, really it works that way: 78 Bhp against 45 from the average 450 KTM. As long as my arms can keep up with it. One oil change and only one air filter. No dust at all, we’ve got rain almost every day..