- Sep 20, 2017
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Linking the two largest cities in the country, the final Bulgarian leg is another sprint opportunity, albeit a less straightforward one than the opening stage.
Map and profile
Start
A pretty chunky transfer back over the Balkan Mountains has brought the peloton to Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city. Settled as early as 6000 BC, it had already developed into a town before the arrival of the Persians in the late 6th century BC. When the Macedonians conquered Thrace between 342 and 340 BC, the reigning King Philip II (Alexander the Great’s father) had the city renamed after him, and henceforth it was known as Philippopolis. It was destroyed by the Celts in the 270s BC, but rebuilt. After the Roman conquest, it developed into a sizable city (the population probably numbering in the low tens of thousands), the largest in Thrace bar Constantinople, and prospered greatly. In 250, in the middle of the Crisis of the Third Century, Philippopolis was successfully besieged and then burned by the Goths. It rebounded in the 4th century, possibly regaining the size it had had during the Pax Romana, but suffered greatly during the tumult of the next centuries, being sacked by the Huns in 441/442 and again by the Goths in 471.
After the arrival of the Slavs in the next century, it became a border fortress, initially on the Byzantine side before repeatedly changing hands from the 9th century onwards. Usually, this was either the Byzantines or the Bulgarians regaining the town from one another, but it was also brutally sacked by the Kyivan Rus’ in 970, captured by Frederick Barbarossa during the Third Crusade in 1189, and held by the crusader Latin Empire between the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 and Bulgarian conquest in 1230. Following some further back-and-forth with the ailing Byzantine Empire, it was finally seized by the Ottoman Empire in 1364, and Plovdiv’s military significance soon ceased courtesy of the border being pushed further and further northwest. On the other hand, centuries of regular warfare finally coming to an end helped the city in most other aspects. Trade in Thrace in general increased significantly, and Plovdiv became one of the region’s major economic centres. As was the case with many Ottoman cities, it also became quite ethnically diverse: when the Russians briefly held the city during the Russo-Turkish War that saw Bulgaria become independent in 1878, their census showed the city was 45% Bulgarian, 23% Turkish and 19% Greek, with Jewish, Vlach (≈ Romanian), Arvanite (≈ Albanian), Romani and Armenian communities also attested.
The same census showed a population of 24000, but Plovdiv did not formally become part of the new state until 1885. Hence, Sofia was selected as the capital instead, despite being smaller at the time as well as less centrally located. Population growth would be consistently rapid in the next century (in spite of the usual Turkish, Greek and later also Jewish emigration) before stabilising around 340000 people, but even so, Sofia would surpass Plovdiv before the 19th century was over. Prior to communism, industrialisation in the city was mainly centred around food processing and tobacco; the economy has since diversified. Tourism has also developed significantly in recent years, courtesy primarily of the well-preserved ruins of Philippopolis but also of the mostly Ottoman-era old town. Away from the city centre, Plovdiv is notable for having the largest Romani neighbourhood/ghetto in the Balkans, at an estimated 40000 inhabitants. As is the case in most parts of Europe, the Romani here are subject to deeply rooted discrimination and the relationship with the state is uneasy at the best of times.
And of course, it’s impossible to talk about Plovdiv without mentioning its most famous son, Hristo Stoichkov. Widely recognised as the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time, he played domestically (mostly at CSKA Sofia) until the fall of the Iron Curtain, after which Barcelona snapped him up at age 24 in 1990. Here, he became part of the Johan Cruyff-coached Dream Team, which won four La Ligas in a row as well as the European Cup in 1992, the year before it was rebranded as the Champions League. He also led his country to fourth place (its best-ever result) at the 1994 World Cup, becoming top scorer himself and winning the Ballon d’Or for his efforts. After spending a year at Parma, he returned to a now post-Cruyff Barcelona, winning the Cup Winners’ Cup before winding down at CSKA Sofia, in Asia and finally in the US.
(picture by BrankaVV at Wikimedia Commons)
The route
Not too much to write about this one. The stage mostly follows the historic route from Plovdiv to Sofia, starting by heading through the uppermost part of the Thracian Plain, passing through one major town in Pazardzhik (Пазарджик), then running into the Sredna Gora (Средна гора), the low range separating Sofia from the plain. The race follows the lowest route, and the climbing really is no more than a false flat. However, rather than heading straight for the capital, there’s a bit of a detour for both touristic and sporting purposes. First, we have the intermediate sprint in Dolna Banja (Долна баня), then the road kicks up in earnest as we head towards Borovets (Боровец), the second-largest ski resort in the country as well as the site of the 1993 biathlon world championships. The official statistics are 9.2k at 5.4%, but once again the first categorised part is indistinguishable from the uphill drag leading up to it. Once that section is over, the gradient settles around a fairly consistent 6%. Nothing too challenging, but it should add some interest, also because it’s the first cat. 2 of the race. The descent is both shorter and shallower, and the remainder of the stage trends very gradually downhill as the riders head towards the capital. The bonus sprint is basically at the edge of the suburbs.
Finish
This one has me worried. The last corner is at 8k to go and the roads are extremely wide, often a recipe for a massive crash. It doesn’t help that the road nudges left pretty significantly at less than 150 metres from the line, so everyone will want to be on the same side. The final 100 metres are on a yellow brick road, so keep your eyes peeled for sightings of wicked witches or legendary singers.
Sofia is of course the Bulgarian capital, but it has a lot of history before it achieved that status. As with Plovdiv, the area has been inhabited since the Neolithic, possibly because of the hot springs located here. During the 3rd century BC, the area was settled by a Celtic tribe known in Latin, and thereby to us, as the Serdi. They established their capital here, and after the Romans conquered this part of modern Bulgaria in 29 BC, it became known as Serdica. With upper Thrace still a client kingdom for the best part of a century after that, Serdica was naturally favoured by the imperial apparatus, and developed into one of the main centres in the Balkans, thanks in part to its iron and gold mines. As the Roman era wore on, its fortunes became more tumultuous, its importance growing but its security waning. In the early 2nd century, Serdica formally received city rights, but it had to be rebuilt after being destroyed during the Marcomannic Wars (basically the prequel to the barbarian invasions of the next centuries) in 170.
Later on, it was the birthplace of two fairly notable emperors. The first was Aurelian, who reigned from 270 to 275. Aurelian came to relevance when the Crisis of the Third Century was at its worst: Rome had lost about a third of its territory to two breakaway states, the Gallic Empire in the north and the Palmyrene Empire in the east, yet somehow neither of those was the most pressing crisis as large swathes of the remainder were dealing with invasions. In the late 260s, the Balkans were figuratively (and sometimes literally) aflame courtesy of the Goths. The Romans met them at Naissus (modern Niš in Serbia, 120 kilometres east of Sofia), and for the first time in a long time won a decisive victory. Aurelian led the cavalry at this battle, and as the army usually decided on succession at this time, this helped him rise to power in 270. While the Crisis had come about in part because of the army’s political power, Aurelian proved a fantastic choice. In just five years, he reconquered both the Gallic and the Palmyrene Empires, drove out the Goths, the Alamanni and the Vandals, and oversaw both the start and the end of the construction of Rome’s Aurelian Walls. To make this possible, Aurelian abandoned Dacia (modern Romania) to move the border to the more easily defensible Danube. Serdica, which had been partially destroyed by the Goths during the invasion that led to Naissus, was therefore now much closer to the border, and was therefore redeveloped in part with its newfound military purpose in mind.
Unfortunately for the Empire, Aurelian was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in 275, leading to ten more years of intermittent civil war until the ascension of Diocletian, the most reformist emperor in Rome’s history. One such reform was the introduction of co-emperors, a system that failed to quell the tendency for civil war but had such enduring power that the Empire was eventually split in two. In 293, Diocletian made the other Serdica-born emperor, Galerius, junior co-emperor in the East. Possibly at Galerius’ behest, the four co-emperors instigated the last and worst Roman persecution of Christians in 303. Two years later, Diocletian abdicated and Galerius now became the senior figure in the East. Galerius’ reign was mostly characterised by the breakdown of the system of co-emperors, although he largely retained control over his portion of the Empire. Towards the end of his life, Galerius came to regret the persecutions, and while on his deathbed in 311 with a disease I’ll spare you the gruesome details of, he proclaimed an edict that ended the persecution. As he was in his city of birth at the time, this became known as the Edict of Serdica. The Edict of Milan issued two years later is far more famous, but although the latter was farther-reaching the immediate effect of the former was the greater. Serdica having been mostly forgotten shows how the combination of Constantine the Great claiming credit for the actions of his predecessors and later historians favouring Constantine (partially because he was a rival of said predecessors, but especially because later historians were mostly Christian) shape our understanding of the history of the time.
Constantine may have had little love for most things Diocletian or Galerius, but that attitude did not extend to Serdica, his mother’s birthplace, which reached its zenith during his reign. The imperial government operated from the city with some regularity and some sources suggest he considered making it the new capital before settling on Byzantium (from then on Constantinople). After his reign, the Empire gradually starts to weaken again, culminating in the destructive invasions of the 5th century. Serdica was not spared, being destroyed by the Huns in 447. It was rebuilt and retained its military importance, but it was nowhere near the size and economic strength it had once had.
Serdica was sacked at least twice during the Slavic invasions, but the Byzantines either retained or regained control until 809, when as previously discussed, Krum massacred its population, then crushed the Byzantine counterattack. The town was now renamed Sredets and remained part of the First Bulgarian Empire until its end in 1018. After the Second Bulgarian Empire gained it almost two centuries later, its economy started to flourish again. Its goldsmithing had endured and was now supplemented to a much greater degree by trade and other crafts. Serdets was probably the second town in the country after Tarnovo at this point, with the name Sofia (after its 4th-century church) being introduced towards the end of this era.
In 1385, the Ottomans successfully besieged the city, and would hold it for almost five centuries. Sofia continued to prosper economically, whilst undergoing a great cultural and demographic change: the Muslim share of the population would peak at about 80% in the 16th century. In the last two centuries of Ottoman rule, Sofia’s fortunes declined with the Empire’s. At the time of independence, the city was rather impoverished and had around 19000 inhabitants. The exodus of the Turkish population briefly caused that figure to drop by 40%, but after Sofia was selected as the capital in 1879, it naturally exploded in size. Much of what can be considered the city centre today was developed in the next few decades, and the population surpassed 100000 before WWI, 400000 before WWII and 1.1 million by 1985 before the growth finally levelled off. However, its status as the capital sometimes had a dark side: the 1925 communist terrorist attack I mentioned earlier was in Sofia, and Allied bombings in WWII cost over 2000 citizens their lives.
Modern Sofia is the dominant city within Bulgaria in every aspect. Unlike most Bulgarian cities, the economy is heavily service-based. In the post-communist era, a metro network that now totals 47 stations has been constructed. Naturally, it is also central in sports. There are at least a dozen sports in Bulgaria that are bigger than cycling, but as this is a cycling forum, I can’t not end this post without mentioning Ivailo Gabrovski. He is the record winner of the Tour of Bulgaria (five wins), but of course, if you are familiar with the name, you know that the real reason I’m discussing him is the 2012 Tour of Turkey. Having already failed two blood tests during an international career where his biggest win was the Tour de l’Ain, at 36 he said ‘f*ck it’, loaded himself to the gills with EPO like in the good old days, and produced one of the most hilariously doped performances of all time to crush all life on earth on the queen stage. Naturally, he got popped.
(picture by Deensel at Flickr, reuploaded to Wikimedia Commons)
What to expect?
A sprint is virtually inevitable, the only question is whether anyone will try to get rid of the most onedimensional sprinters on the climb, and if so, whether they succeed.
Map and profile
Start
A pretty chunky transfer back over the Balkan Mountains has brought the peloton to Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city. Settled as early as 6000 BC, it had already developed into a town before the arrival of the Persians in the late 6th century BC. When the Macedonians conquered Thrace between 342 and 340 BC, the reigning King Philip II (Alexander the Great’s father) had the city renamed after him, and henceforth it was known as Philippopolis. It was destroyed by the Celts in the 270s BC, but rebuilt. After the Roman conquest, it developed into a sizable city (the population probably numbering in the low tens of thousands), the largest in Thrace bar Constantinople, and prospered greatly. In 250, in the middle of the Crisis of the Third Century, Philippopolis was successfully besieged and then burned by the Goths. It rebounded in the 4th century, possibly regaining the size it had had during the Pax Romana, but suffered greatly during the tumult of the next centuries, being sacked by the Huns in 441/442 and again by the Goths in 471.
After the arrival of the Slavs in the next century, it became a border fortress, initially on the Byzantine side before repeatedly changing hands from the 9th century onwards. Usually, this was either the Byzantines or the Bulgarians regaining the town from one another, but it was also brutally sacked by the Kyivan Rus’ in 970, captured by Frederick Barbarossa during the Third Crusade in 1189, and held by the crusader Latin Empire between the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 and Bulgarian conquest in 1230. Following some further back-and-forth with the ailing Byzantine Empire, it was finally seized by the Ottoman Empire in 1364, and Plovdiv’s military significance soon ceased courtesy of the border being pushed further and further northwest. On the other hand, centuries of regular warfare finally coming to an end helped the city in most other aspects. Trade in Thrace in general increased significantly, and Plovdiv became one of the region’s major economic centres. As was the case with many Ottoman cities, it also became quite ethnically diverse: when the Russians briefly held the city during the Russo-Turkish War that saw Bulgaria become independent in 1878, their census showed the city was 45% Bulgarian, 23% Turkish and 19% Greek, with Jewish, Vlach (≈ Romanian), Arvanite (≈ Albanian), Romani and Armenian communities also attested.
The same census showed a population of 24000, but Plovdiv did not formally become part of the new state until 1885. Hence, Sofia was selected as the capital instead, despite being smaller at the time as well as less centrally located. Population growth would be consistently rapid in the next century (in spite of the usual Turkish, Greek and later also Jewish emigration) before stabilising around 340000 people, but even so, Sofia would surpass Plovdiv before the 19th century was over. Prior to communism, industrialisation in the city was mainly centred around food processing and tobacco; the economy has since diversified. Tourism has also developed significantly in recent years, courtesy primarily of the well-preserved ruins of Philippopolis but also of the mostly Ottoman-era old town. Away from the city centre, Plovdiv is notable for having the largest Romani neighbourhood/ghetto in the Balkans, at an estimated 40000 inhabitants. As is the case in most parts of Europe, the Romani here are subject to deeply rooted discrimination and the relationship with the state is uneasy at the best of times.
And of course, it’s impossible to talk about Plovdiv without mentioning its most famous son, Hristo Stoichkov. Widely recognised as the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time, he played domestically (mostly at CSKA Sofia) until the fall of the Iron Curtain, after which Barcelona snapped him up at age 24 in 1990. Here, he became part of the Johan Cruyff-coached Dream Team, which won four La Ligas in a row as well as the European Cup in 1992, the year before it was rebranded as the Champions League. He also led his country to fourth place (its best-ever result) at the 1994 World Cup, becoming top scorer himself and winning the Ballon d’Or for his efforts. After spending a year at Parma, he returned to a now post-Cruyff Barcelona, winning the Cup Winners’ Cup before winding down at CSKA Sofia, in Asia and finally in the US.
(picture by BrankaVV at Wikimedia Commons)
The route
Not too much to write about this one. The stage mostly follows the historic route from Plovdiv to Sofia, starting by heading through the uppermost part of the Thracian Plain, passing through one major town in Pazardzhik (Пазарджик), then running into the Sredna Gora (Средна гора), the low range separating Sofia from the plain. The race follows the lowest route, and the climbing really is no more than a false flat. However, rather than heading straight for the capital, there’s a bit of a detour for both touristic and sporting purposes. First, we have the intermediate sprint in Dolna Banja (Долна баня), then the road kicks up in earnest as we head towards Borovets (Боровец), the second-largest ski resort in the country as well as the site of the 1993 biathlon world championships. The official statistics are 9.2k at 5.4%, but once again the first categorised part is indistinguishable from the uphill drag leading up to it. Once that section is over, the gradient settles around a fairly consistent 6%. Nothing too challenging, but it should add some interest, also because it’s the first cat. 2 of the race. The descent is both shorter and shallower, and the remainder of the stage trends very gradually downhill as the riders head towards the capital. The bonus sprint is basically at the edge of the suburbs.
Finish
This one has me worried. The last corner is at 8k to go and the roads are extremely wide, often a recipe for a massive crash. It doesn’t help that the road nudges left pretty significantly at less than 150 metres from the line, so everyone will want to be on the same side. The final 100 metres are on a yellow brick road, so keep your eyes peeled for sightings of wicked witches or legendary singers.
Sofia is of course the Bulgarian capital, but it has a lot of history before it achieved that status. As with Plovdiv, the area has been inhabited since the Neolithic, possibly because of the hot springs located here. During the 3rd century BC, the area was settled by a Celtic tribe known in Latin, and thereby to us, as the Serdi. They established their capital here, and after the Romans conquered this part of modern Bulgaria in 29 BC, it became known as Serdica. With upper Thrace still a client kingdom for the best part of a century after that, Serdica was naturally favoured by the imperial apparatus, and developed into one of the main centres in the Balkans, thanks in part to its iron and gold mines. As the Roman era wore on, its fortunes became more tumultuous, its importance growing but its security waning. In the early 2nd century, Serdica formally received city rights, but it had to be rebuilt after being destroyed during the Marcomannic Wars (basically the prequel to the barbarian invasions of the next centuries) in 170.
Later on, it was the birthplace of two fairly notable emperors. The first was Aurelian, who reigned from 270 to 275. Aurelian came to relevance when the Crisis of the Third Century was at its worst: Rome had lost about a third of its territory to two breakaway states, the Gallic Empire in the north and the Palmyrene Empire in the east, yet somehow neither of those was the most pressing crisis as large swathes of the remainder were dealing with invasions. In the late 260s, the Balkans were figuratively (and sometimes literally) aflame courtesy of the Goths. The Romans met them at Naissus (modern Niš in Serbia, 120 kilometres east of Sofia), and for the first time in a long time won a decisive victory. Aurelian led the cavalry at this battle, and as the army usually decided on succession at this time, this helped him rise to power in 270. While the Crisis had come about in part because of the army’s political power, Aurelian proved a fantastic choice. In just five years, he reconquered both the Gallic and the Palmyrene Empires, drove out the Goths, the Alamanni and the Vandals, and oversaw both the start and the end of the construction of Rome’s Aurelian Walls. To make this possible, Aurelian abandoned Dacia (modern Romania) to move the border to the more easily defensible Danube. Serdica, which had been partially destroyed by the Goths during the invasion that led to Naissus, was therefore now much closer to the border, and was therefore redeveloped in part with its newfound military purpose in mind.
Unfortunately for the Empire, Aurelian was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in 275, leading to ten more years of intermittent civil war until the ascension of Diocletian, the most reformist emperor in Rome’s history. One such reform was the introduction of co-emperors, a system that failed to quell the tendency for civil war but had such enduring power that the Empire was eventually split in two. In 293, Diocletian made the other Serdica-born emperor, Galerius, junior co-emperor in the East. Possibly at Galerius’ behest, the four co-emperors instigated the last and worst Roman persecution of Christians in 303. Two years later, Diocletian abdicated and Galerius now became the senior figure in the East. Galerius’ reign was mostly characterised by the breakdown of the system of co-emperors, although he largely retained control over his portion of the Empire. Towards the end of his life, Galerius came to regret the persecutions, and while on his deathbed in 311 with a disease I’ll spare you the gruesome details of, he proclaimed an edict that ended the persecution. As he was in his city of birth at the time, this became known as the Edict of Serdica. The Edict of Milan issued two years later is far more famous, but although the latter was farther-reaching the immediate effect of the former was the greater. Serdica having been mostly forgotten shows how the combination of Constantine the Great claiming credit for the actions of his predecessors and later historians favouring Constantine (partially because he was a rival of said predecessors, but especially because later historians were mostly Christian) shape our understanding of the history of the time.
Constantine may have had little love for most things Diocletian or Galerius, but that attitude did not extend to Serdica, his mother’s birthplace, which reached its zenith during his reign. The imperial government operated from the city with some regularity and some sources suggest he considered making it the new capital before settling on Byzantium (from then on Constantinople). After his reign, the Empire gradually starts to weaken again, culminating in the destructive invasions of the 5th century. Serdica was not spared, being destroyed by the Huns in 447. It was rebuilt and retained its military importance, but it was nowhere near the size and economic strength it had once had.
Serdica was sacked at least twice during the Slavic invasions, but the Byzantines either retained or regained control until 809, when as previously discussed, Krum massacred its population, then crushed the Byzantine counterattack. The town was now renamed Sredets and remained part of the First Bulgarian Empire until its end in 1018. After the Second Bulgarian Empire gained it almost two centuries later, its economy started to flourish again. Its goldsmithing had endured and was now supplemented to a much greater degree by trade and other crafts. Serdets was probably the second town in the country after Tarnovo at this point, with the name Sofia (after its 4th-century church) being introduced towards the end of this era.
In 1385, the Ottomans successfully besieged the city, and would hold it for almost five centuries. Sofia continued to prosper economically, whilst undergoing a great cultural and demographic change: the Muslim share of the population would peak at about 80% in the 16th century. In the last two centuries of Ottoman rule, Sofia’s fortunes declined with the Empire’s. At the time of independence, the city was rather impoverished and had around 19000 inhabitants. The exodus of the Turkish population briefly caused that figure to drop by 40%, but after Sofia was selected as the capital in 1879, it naturally exploded in size. Much of what can be considered the city centre today was developed in the next few decades, and the population surpassed 100000 before WWI, 400000 before WWII and 1.1 million by 1985 before the growth finally levelled off. However, its status as the capital sometimes had a dark side: the 1925 communist terrorist attack I mentioned earlier was in Sofia, and Allied bombings in WWII cost over 2000 citizens their lives.
Modern Sofia is the dominant city within Bulgaria in every aspect. Unlike most Bulgarian cities, the economy is heavily service-based. In the post-communist era, a metro network that now totals 47 stations has been constructed. Naturally, it is also central in sports. There are at least a dozen sports in Bulgaria that are bigger than cycling, but as this is a cycling forum, I can’t not end this post without mentioning Ivailo Gabrovski. He is the record winner of the Tour of Bulgaria (five wins), but of course, if you are familiar with the name, you know that the real reason I’m discussing him is the 2012 Tour of Turkey. Having already failed two blood tests during an international career where his biggest win was the Tour de l’Ain, at 36 he said ‘f*ck it’, loaded himself to the gills with EPO like in the good old days, and produced one of the most hilariously doped performances of all time to crush all life on earth on the queen stage. Naturally, he got popped.
(picture by Deensel at Flickr, reuploaded to Wikimedia Commons)
What to expect?
A sprint is virtually inevitable, the only question is whether anyone will try to get rid of the most onedimensional sprinters on the climb, and if so, whether they succeed.
Last edited:
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