Pinkbike visits Bulgaria!

Racing is a funny old game. Those based in the UK are spoiled for choice with the sheer volume of races on offer with multiple events each and every weekend throughout the summer. But in Bulgaria there are less than a handful of races each year.

This is the story of a British invasion which took place at their last race of the season...

In October there was an assorted bunch of Brits converging on Gatwick airport in the south(ish) of England. The hour may have been ungodly; the miles traveled by each person to be there the same as most drive to a race itself, but that was the point. We were all there for the sole purpose of racing in a foreign land. Somewhere different, somewhere new and somewhere motivating at the end of a long UK season. So it was onto a flight we boarded, staffed by hostesses with fake tans almost as bright as their uniforms, and bound for the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.


Bulgaria really is an amazing country but there is no escaping the culture shock it provides when compared with the usual riding destinations of France and Switzerland. It's not that different, but now that it is part of the EU, it shows just how diverse a group of nations the Union is. Even final approach to the airport feels like a foreign land as vast numbers of concrete flats loom into view out of the rain a and a very geometric arrangement of streets spreads out beneath the wings. A large forested park provides dominance to the Sofia’s skyline conceals an officially recognised and built set of trails and tracks. When we were told that by the guys who had already made the trip earlier in the year our ears certainly pricked up and made us look forward to getting out riding all the more.


So we were flying out for what was the second Shambhala Open Cup race of 2010 and the second too that felt a big British presence. RAM Bikes were the organisors of this event and it was they who took the time to pick us up from the airport in Sofia, show us round their new factory and generally look after us during our trip. Having all managed to get onto the plane without any of the dreaded excess baggage (“how heavy do you think your bike is sir? Is it under 20kg?”) it was a relief to see them appear at the other end undamaged and on time. Hands shaken, names swapped and things begin to move – relatively quickly once RAM main man Nikolay Titev got behind the wheel of the hired Fiat to take us back to the factory and later for a bite to eat in one of the local cafes.


Sopot is a small town sitting in the southern shadow of the Troyan Balkan Mountain, the mountain down which the race course is built and which was to provide our entertainment for a few days. Located a few hours to the east of Sofia, we turned up on the Thursday and checked into our hotel. At less than £5 a night it’s hard to see where you can find better value and still have walls – and a nice base it proved to be, well, it was once we worked out how to work out the heating in the rooms.


Now have you ever had one of those moments when you see something so unexpected that everyone goes quiet, quickly followed by a ‘What the..?’. Yes? Well we managed that too. On the Friday morning we turned up in the carpark at the base of the mountain to be presented by a UK registered Merc Sprinter. Bear in mind here that this is a drive of at least 2000 miles and several days of solid action at the wheel. After running through the various possible owners in our heads we couldn't think who would have been mad enough to drive to Bulgaria just for the weekend so knocked on the door to find out. It turned out to be UK Experts Adam Holleyman and Nathan Vials. Apparently it had seemed like a good idea to head over after racing the last iXS Swiss Cup of the year in Switzerland the weekend before – four days of driving later and it perhaps didn’t seem quite so smart, especially when made to avoid Croatia for the lack of one seat belt! So that was another two Brits to add to the ever growing contingent.


Unfortunately the weather, whilst blue skied on Friday, was windy at the top of the mountain so practice was first of all delayed and then finally cancelled – so we took the opportunity to walk the track. Having been run from the very top of the mountain in previous years, 2010 saw the start move a few minutes down to create a course of just under five minutes for UCI accreditation. Shorter it may be but it’s still a solid undertaking to do a track walk on, especially when you’re walking up the hill as well which is easier said than done on certain sections. Even the run from the top of the chairlift to the start of the race is a solid course in its own right at just over two minutes of rock strewn action which almost seemed to be the cause of more punctures than the race track. Kicking off from the wooden start ramp the upper reaches of the track are loose, rocky and fast, with some sweet turns which just beg to be carved.


A few kickers later, and with an amazing view in the background, you dropped from the open scrubby ground up top into increasingly dense woodland. More rocks, more fast turns and plenty of trees on the exit of corners ready to catch the edge of your bars. The brakes were certainly getting a hard time on track with some high speed stops, steep sections and no let-up. And the same went for suspension too, the rough and loose rocky surface not at any point particularly easy going meant that it was working overtime. So much so that Rob Smith blew his RC4 up on the last practice run, leading to a rather more stressful build up to racing than was ideal.


So the top was fast, rocky and loose. What of the bottom? With trees getting ever bigger, the small scrubby bushes gave way to what could be called real forest and this is where there were some real features. The first of which was a big rock garden. With a few changes since the race in May the line had inevitably changed with it and so it was with some excitement we looked at what was possible. And the line, should you have been on fire, was to launch from one rocky outcrop to land about fifteen feet away in a natural bowl and then launch from a second rocky form to clear a ridge of rocks sticking out of the ground another fifteen or twenty feet away.


Not many rode the new line but those who did got some huge cheers. Shortly after there was another rocky riverbed, and then the going got steep with the track seemingly perched on the edge of a cliff in places. Which added a certain edge to proceedings with the thought present that should you mis-judge things, you may well have a bit of an unplanned drop before reaching solid ground. Check out the track videos for the full run down but unfortunately it just can’t do justice to how good the course was.


Unfortunately, turnout was down on the earlier race in the season, numbering under one hundred riders. This was no doubt caused partly by the National Champs having been held just one week prior and the high relative cost of racing in the country. Yet looking at the entry list there were still a significant number of riders in the UCI category, more so even than at the May race. Seeding kicked things off, followed by the final after a fairly lengthy lunch break.


In the hardtail class it was an all Bulgarian podium which saw, Teodor Todorov take third with a 5:39 for KK Alexi Nikolov. Bojidar Bahchevanski thus took second with a 5:36 and Viktor Tsivnev the win for Piratka DH Team with a time of 5:33. All close, and all solid times given just how rough and brutal the course was – bad enough in many places on a full downhill bike when the pace was upped!


Juniors were next and saw Konstantin Dimov take third for DRAG racing team with a 5:11 and SPR Team rider Mihail Banov second with a 5:06. The win went to Kristian Milchev with a 4:55 and near eleven second lead for Cheta++.


In the unlicenced Open category, it was Romanians who graced all three steps on the podium. Ignat Pail was third for Playbike with a 4:56, Geza Kinda second on a 4:53 whilst Ianosiu Radu took the win for Playbike having put in a 4:39, a time which would have put him top ten overall in the UCI class.


Ah yes, the UCI class. Brits made their presence felt at the last race with the top two spots going to Ben Baker and Rob Smith. This time, with re-enforcements, six of the top ten places went to those from the small Isle. Third went to Borderline/Solid UK rider Nathan Vials with a 4:24 with second taken by Rob Smith for 3Smiths/Santa Cruz. This was a race which went down to the wire. Having had to borrow a shock, Rob went off first and this left him sitting in the hot seat for the majority of the race. That was until Team Skene’s Alex Bond came storming down to cross the line. The times? 4:16 vs 4:13; Alex had taken it.


There was also a brief 4x event which was won by the UK’s Martin Ogden onboard the new RAM 4x Hardtail, with second going to Dimitar Gaidov and third Geza Kinda. With only sixteen entries it was only ever going to be a fairly relaxed affair but those racing downhill unfortunately missed most of it as they made up for a lack of Friday practice, continuing to ride the downhill as the 4x was going on.


Despite the lack of competitors the atmosphere was still there, with a chilled out end of season vibe hanging in the air. That was until the racing started and then the crowds were there, cheering and providing an awesome finish to your run. So what did we make of racing in Bulgaria? Fantastic, and we’ll definitely be back, the trails are sweet, the atmosphere a welcome change, and the people a good laugh – and that’s what it should all be about, having fun on your bike.


Although there were plans to stay out for a week, some of us had to head back on the Monday night to the UK so it was planned to get a day of riding in near Sofia in a town called Borovets. Unfortunately this simple journey was somewhat complicated by a detour via Plovdiv to sort Joe out. Joe Hayhow is the UK distributor of RAM and unfortunately had broken his wrist on the Saturday which meant a trip to the local A&E was called for. A trip which started rather worryingly with the sight of a butchers apron. A slightly more relaxed approach to painkillers also saw beer and glasses being pulled out post-op and holiday pics being shared with the surgeon through the wonders of Facebook.


The detour to Plovdiv on the Sunday was to get the cast sorted out which had been put on too tight and was leaving his hand looking like the Michelin mans’ after being dipped in blue paint. Not good! But all sorted the late night drive through Bulgaria was entertaining, especially once we got onto the backroads and started to climb into the mountains – trying to keep up with the new sprinter in the hire van with a non-local behind the wheel certainly added a bit of excitement.


Trying to avoid huge potholes, keep the van between the barriers and keep George insight in the Merc was certainly one way to keep the eyes on stalks. And we were pretty successful...until the bang. One pothole hit, one destroyed rim. Time to hunt for the spare.


Borovets is the premier ski town in Bulgaria and it shows. We were checked into a hotel which had the works attached, spa, pool, and a guarded room for the bikes yet it cost less than a hostel would in the UK. Peak season is likely to be a fair bit more expensive but even then it would still be pretty killer. The local restaurant can also be recommended for a Full English in the morning, all served with a glass of Absinth. A new one on us and perhaps not an ideal morning pre-ride drink. But the food was good, and that went for what we ate throughout the trip. Meat, cheese and salad were the main staples but it was tasty and above all cheap. Good beer and wine too.


But of course it was the riding we were here for so fter building bikes up in the hotel conference room we headed outside to the uplift. Driven by a Bulgarian Olympic ski jumper, this was an ex- army truck purchased from the East Germans when the wall came down which took place of the chairlift for our day of riding.


Read what UK Elite racer Rob Smith thought of Borovets: "Arriving past midnight after a very eventful drive from Sopot we didn’t get to see any of the area or hills. We checked into a 4* hotel and went straight to bed after being up early for race day at Shambhala. When I woke up I was not expecting to see the mountain straight out the window with the lift just in front of the hotel. After a quick look around the area I thought this place would be perfect for a big race as it was littered with massive hotels all in sight of the ski lifts."


Sadly the ski lift for the downhill track was having maintenance checks ready for Ski season, so we had a nice army truck role up to take us to the top. I have been in some sketchy uplifts over the last few years, but this took it to new levels! We were getting thrown around all over the place holding onto our bikes, and then going up a steep ski slope the 4 wheels started spinning on the muddy grass and the vehicle started to slide back down, this happened on each of the drivers 6 attempts at getting up and I for one was happy when he gave up and decided to go the long way round!


We made it to the top and enjoyed the amazing views before heading down the track which starts directly below where the chairlift drops off. Straight in the first section was littered with roots all over the place, this continued all the way down before breaking out into the open half way down where there were plenty of fly offs and wide open berms. You then joined straight back into more root littered woods with steeper turns. We only got to do two runs of the track but it was easy to see the track had huge potential with masses of line choice and some amazing sections. This is also the first attempt at a fully built Downhill track for the Bike Park and the organisers told us they have plans for a bigger and better track in 2011. The bottom section had a nice wide open turn which was visible at the bottom and then a small wooded section before going of a fly off out into the open and down to the finish. This track was completely different to Shambhala but if they were both in the UK they would be the best by far.


"With more tracks planned to be built in 2011 and with the hotels at the finish line and multiple chairlifts it would be well worth a look into heading out and riding world cup standard tracks which are still fresh."


And that pretty much summed up the trip for us, both those visiting for the first time and those who’ve been out with the RAM guys before. The country just has so much potential for racing and riding. The tracks we rode were awesome and the whole vibe relaxed. Borovets really impressed, despite only getting the briefest of experiences before we had to head back to the UK. And whilst there may not be the same trail network or infrastructure in place as found in some of the more established bike parks, this is something they are working hard to improve and will see further trails added to those already there. It may not provide entertainment for a week as it stands just now but it would be ideal for a long weekend of chilled out riding for many European riders. We’re hoping to get back out for some more exploration of the trails in 2011 so we’ll be updating all you Pinkbikers on what work has been carried out!


Many thanks must go to the RAM Bikes team who sorted us out with entertainment, lifts, food and accommodation. George Daskalov from RAM also provided most of the photos you see here in this article.

Go check out their site at www.ram-bikes.com
Also, check out the rest of George's pics here.
And some more, less pro shots here.

The run down to the start of the track in Sopot:


The race track itself. First run down on Sunday morning: