Advertisement
Published: September 12th 2023
Edit Blog Post
We have combined two days worth of riding into one because we couldn't find any accommodation at Smolsko. This means we have just on 100kms to do today and there are 3 significant climbs we'll have to negotiate. We're anticipating a long day in the saddle.
We aimed for a 7:30am leave but time got away from us a bit as we were still trying to tweak the route to see if we could make it any more efficient. We were on the road at 7:45am and right in the middle of peak hour traffic in Sofia. We have about 5kms in the city where there are plenty of cars and we need to be cautious. We then get to the outer city which was even worse as the road was much narrower and the roads in a lot worse condition. We were eventually funnelled onto a motor way again. Lots of traffic and crossing the slip lanes for cars getting off and on took a lot of care. It was 16kms before we got on a road where there was little traffic and we were out of suburbia. Leaving big cities, especially on weekdays, is no fun at all.
Once we were out in the country side we had a lovely ride that was very gradually rising. We had a break about 10:15am right before our longest climb of the day. It was about 9kms long but not overly steep except for a few patches of 7 to 8%. The road was good and the scenery spectacular. Lush green hills and rocky outcrops on both sides of us. It was a long climb in both distance and time but the down hill certainly made it worth it. The downhill side stretched right out to about 13kms. The road was recently resealed and the incline wasn't too steep making it a very enjoyable descent. Again the scenery was spectacular, changing a bit as the hills receded a bit from us. We continued riding until the base of our second climb where we had lunch before setting off. Now this was a shorter climb but it was the steepest and hardest climb of the day. There were lots of trees either side of us which provided shade for a good portion of the ride which certainly helped. Just before we crested the road took a sharp rise through a hill
top town which proved the toughest part of the day (and we had already ridden over 80kms). That just left the smallest and easiest climb of the day of about 100m after which we were able to cruise downhill into Panagyurisht.
We are staying at another Spa hotel. They have an indoor and outdoor pool, multiple types of saunas and a spa. We were looking forward to putting them all to good use. Unfortunately, there were no available slots for a massage by the time we had checked in (about 3:00pm).
All in all we had a great day. We were on the road for 8.5 hours, covered 100kms and climbed just over 800m, and effectively picked up another contingency day. Maybe we're finally getting fit?
Tomorrow we head to Plovdiv which is 78kms away and mainly downhill.
Distance travelled today: 100kms
Distance travelled so far: 3,948kms
Advertisement
Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0264s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb