{"id":808,"date":"2018-06-29T15:45:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T19:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/?p=808"},"modified":"2018-07-04T15:50:59","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T19:50:59","slug":"sofia-varna-sofia-1200-june-22-25-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/?p=808","title":{"rendered":"Sofia Varna Sofia 1200 – June 22-25 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ride report from Dave Thompson:<\/p>\n

It’s actually more properly labeled Silven, as that’s where the ride actually starts and ends; three hours from Sofia.\u00a0 Varna isn’t the mid-point; it’s the first Control on the first day, about 200 km from Silven … but all that said …<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yes.\u00a0 This was a good one.\u00a0 But I usually say that about all of them.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
First, overall impressions …<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There’s some really pristine countryside but in other areas, it seems that once someone throws some garbage, it’s open season to dump yours there.\u00a0 Roadside bins are overflowing.\u00a0 It’s a matter of money.\u00a0 Still, most of our riding was in areas where the scenery was beautiful with endless sunflowers in the flat areas and roadside wild fruit trees.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There are dogs aplenty.\u00a0 Mostly they they ignored me but a few ran out.\u00a0 In general they are small and not a problem.\u00a0 In a few cases they did get the adrenaline pumping!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There is no, repeat no, real bicycle infrastructure.\u00a0 There are no shoulders.\u00a0 However, the drivers are courteous, more so than I have encountered on average in North America.\u00a0 On the last day, a long flat stretch with zillions of trucks due to the highway being closed, you watched your line but there was never a problem.\u00a0 Pull-offs are every few hundred metres so you can always (and I did) take a break.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If an adult cyclist is approaching you and you have to take a bet as to whether or not it’s a Randonneur … if you have to put down money … say yes.\u00a0 I only saw 4 other riders!\u00a0 There were kids and errand bicycles in the towns, but no cyclists.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On the first day we had hot.\u00a0 It hit 99F on my Wahoo.\u00a0 It almost hit that on the last day as well.\u00a0 On the second we had chilly and windy (in our face, of course) to start.\u00a0 On the third night the temp dropped to 40F and rain; I was on the edge;\u00a0 I made it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The route was a figure 8 this year.\u00a0 Out to Varna then north for the first overnight.\u00a0 Back to Sliven for the second overnight.\u00a0 Into the mountains for the third overnight and then back to Sliven.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The first two days were somewhat tough, mostly due to that headwind in the morning of the second day.\u00a0 A figure 8 makes it too easy to throw in the towel, which is what happened to 5 riders out of 11.\u00a0 The third day has a lot of climbing into the mountains, up a gorge late at night, water roaring.\u00a0 Back down that gorge in the morning, the views were glorious and then we climbed … a 30 km climb, up another gorge.\u00a0 There was payback from that, of course, with a long, long, descent to the valley followed by the seemingly endless ride north on the flat with all those trucks, back to Sliven.\u00a0 That last bit was the toughest for me, wanting the ride to be over, grinding along a straight, mostly flat, line.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lazar has run this 15 times now (or 14?).\u00a0 He changes up the route constantly and this was a hillier instance.\u00a0 I really enjoyed the ride.\u00a0 Even that last bit would have been OK had I remembered to bring some music to occupy my mind.\u00a0 I blew it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There were 11 riders including Lazar.\u00a0 Two Russians, one half & half Canadian & American (me), one half & half Bulgarian and American (Georgi), one Japanese and the rest Bulgarian.\u00a0 For the first part of the ride I was in the front half of the group but then, of course, the DNFs knocked off the back half :).\u00a0 The Japanese fellow and I traded places throughout the ride; Lazar was the lanterne rouge.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Weather is always a variable, of course.\u00a0 The Japanese fellow said that it was hotter the last time that he did the ride.\u00a0 I think that Lazar made this time hillier than most but with those hills (gorges) comes the beauty.\u00a0 Rolling open countryside isn’t anywhere near as interesting.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It’s a low budget ride.\u00a0 The accommodations at the start\/finish & 2nd overnight at the Omega Bistro are friendly, clean and basic, with great food.\u00a0 The 1st overnight is what I would call dormitory – three single beds in one room – not shared – private bath as I recall.\u00a0 The 3rd overnight is rustic; a hostel in the mountains with foam mats on the floor and a shared shower.\u00a0 The atmosphere more than made up for the rusticity :).\u00a0 It’s well planned with food stops; coupons for those locations to encourage you to eat there; hosts well prepped to serve good, hearty food.\u00a0 The route this year went through enough towns that I was never short of food or liquids.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I highly recommend the ride.\u00a0 Don’t let the almost 50% DNF rate scare you off if you’re considering adding this to your bucket list.\u00a0 Lazar is even willing to get input from potential riders on the routing.\u00a0 He’s done it enough that he can cut and paste to please.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ride report from Dave Thompson: It’s actually more properly labeled Silven, as that’s where the ride actually starts and ends; three hours from Sofia.\u00a0 Varna isn’t the mid-point; it’s the first Control on the first day, about 200 km from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ride-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.randonneursontario.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}