Why this ride
Sustained elevation change, linked bends and open summit views. It also links naturally to Western Balkan Mountains.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Petrohan Pass
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 110 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 04
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
Verify pass condition, surface quality and local closures. Specific flag: weather.
Seasonal context
May-Oct
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Sofia
Sofia sits under a mountain, and that is the first thing to understand about it. Vitosha rises right behind the southern suburbs, a broad, dome-shaped massif topping out at Cherni Vrah, around 2,290 metres, and on a clear morning the snow is visible from the boulevards. People ski there in winter and hike in summer, and the city's residents treat it like a back garden. The capital of Bulgaria is a plain, solid place of about one and a quarter million, with Soviet-era blocks, Ottoman remnants and an unexpected number of small parks.
Read the complete Sofia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sofia sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Montana.
2. Montana
Despite the name, nobody here is thinking about Big Sky country. Montana takes its name from a Roman fort, Castra ad Montanesium, that stood on the hill above the Ogosta river, and the town wore several other names before that one came back in the 1990s; under communism it was Mihaylovgrad, after a local party hero. It lies in the far north-west of Bulgaria, where the Danube plain begins to crinkle into foothills, and it is the northern doorway to the Petrohan pass, the old road over the Balkan range to Sofia.
Read the complete Montana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Montana comes up 110 km in.