Anna Pencheva: master of alpinism. Chief organizer of the Tour of Vitosha 100 km. She joined the organization in ’83. Since then, every year has sent thousands of participants to the launch and enjoys them, when they arrive at the finish.
Teodora Pencheva: a national snowboarder. Organizer of many sport events.
Georgi Radev: ski mountaineer and expert of race timing.
The story
Vitosha 100 – more than a race! 100% adrenaline and adventure. 100 km mountain marathon. 100 km bicycling.
The magic began in the 70s of the 20th century, when the race “100 kilometers in 24 hours”. The idea was shaped of the competition comes from the participation of Bulgarian orienteering at competitions in Italy, where 24-hour trials take place in order to reach as much distance as possible or to move at a distance of 100 kilometers for the time. The first route of the race even “stays” outside of Vitosha mountain and enters the Lyulin Mountain in order to be able to meet the idea for 100 km.
Many participants are included in the event. The event is rapidly becoming massive – between 1,000 and 2,000 people take part every year. There is no need to compete to advertise and “recruit” people who love nature, mountain and sports outdoors because they are already gathered in mountaineering and tourism clubs. After the “100 kilometers in 24 hours” has entered the calendar, it is no surprise to collect so many people on the route – participation in events from the calendar is provided by the club or the company and for those who wish to present their teams the arrival in Sofia for a 24- Walking through Vitosha is trouble-free. But then the Tour is perceived as a tourist event rather than a competition – the participants appear at the start, prepared for a tour, not for a recent trip or run, with heavy hoops and readiness to sleep in the mountains.
Today the race is at a totally different level. The results achieved each year are better than the targets set for participants in the 1970s and 1980s. People who are required to participate on a yearly basis are very few, and those who do not want to go back later are almost gone. The competition is important for many people, because there is something special that goes around the Vitosha Mountain – a symbol of the capital.
Today the best run the distance, escaped in less than ten hours, the route is already moving and cyclists, judges and assistants expect the athletes at each supportive place, close relatives and friends who support their loved ones in the last meters, and some – real machines, they maded twice – once with a bicycling and then running (competing in the discipline of “duathlon”).