CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
135 km from Plovdiv to Gyovren, about 3 h 12 of riding. It goes by way of Asenovgrad, Bachkovo and Shiroka Laka. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,500 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 21 km this is Bulgaria Rhodope Gorge Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Plovdiv is one of the oldest continuously lived-in cities in Europe, and it wears its age with a kind of cheerful disorder. People have lived on these rocky hills beside the Maritsa River for some eight thousand years, and the Romans, who called the city Philippopolis, left a theatre that is still used for concerts, carved into the hillside and facing out across the rooftops. The name comes from Philip II of Macedon, who took the town in the fourth century BC. With about three hundred thousand people, it is Bulgaria's second city, and it has every kind of shop and fuel station you might need.
Read the complete Plovdiv write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Plovdiv is where the day begins. Next is Asenovgrad.
Asenovgrad is the last proper town before the Rhodope Mountains, and it sits where the Thracian plain, flat, warm and full of vineyards, runs up against a wall of dark, forested hills. The town is large, with over fifty thousand people, and its streets, churches and markets feel Bulgarian in every detail. It was named after Tsar Ivan Asen II, the medieval ruler who rebuilt the nearby fortress, and the name of that fortress, Asen's Fortress, is what has made the place known to travellers.
Read the complete Asenovgrad write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Asenovgrad comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bachkovo.
Bachkovo Monastery stands in a narrow valley on the Chepelare river, a few kilometres into the Rhodope Mountains, and it is the second largest monastery in Bulgaria after Rila. It was founded in 1083 by Gregory Pakourianos, a Georgian-born commander in the service of the Byzantine Empire, who built it as a retreat and a fortress, and for centuries it has been a centre of Orthodox faith and Bulgarian culture. Its stone walls, wooden balconies and courtyard trees have a calm that is quite at odds with the busy road outside.
Read the complete Bachkovo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach Bachkovo. Next is Shiroka Laka.
Shiroka Laka is what a Rhodope village looks like when someone has decided not to knock it down. Tall stone houses with whitewashed upper floors and overhanging wooden balconies stack up the hillside above a small river, joined by lanes of cobbles that are steep enough to test a pair of motorcycle boots. The roofs are of heavy stone slabs, the walls are thick, and the whole village has been declared an architectural reserve, so the character of the place has been preserved with unusual care.
Read the complete Shiroka Laka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Shiroka Laka, late in the day. Next is Trigrad Gorge.
Trigrad Gorge is where the Rhodope Mountains show their teeth. The Trigradska river has cut a deep, narrow canyon through the limestone, with walls that rise some three hundred metres on either side, and the road runs along the bottom of it with the sound of water in your ear. Sunlight arrives late and leaves early, and the air is cool even in summer. The gorge sits close to the village of Trigrad, a small Rhodope settlement, with Devin, a spa town of about seven thousand, some sixteen kilometres away and the best bet for fuel and food.
Read the complete Trigrad Gorge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Trigrad Gorge. That is the ride.
Plovdiv → Asenovgrad is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Asenovgrad → Bachkovo is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bachkovo → Shiroka Laka is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Shiroka Laka → Trigrad Gorge is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.