Vitosha 100

Vitosha 100 is one of Bulgaria's most traditional mountain endurance events: one big loop around Vitosha, the mountain that rises straight out of Sofia, raced on foot, by mountain bike, or both back to back as a duathlon.

Its roots lie in a '100 kilometres in 24 hours' challenge that Bulgaria's hiking and mountaineering societies put on their calendars, when between 1,000 and 2,000 people a year set out to cover the distance within a day. The loop links the villages around the mountain, from Vladaya and Kladnitsa to Bistritsa and Dragalevtsi, on forest roads, dirt tracks and mountain paths with short stretches of asphalt between them.

The race is run by Anna Pencheva-Taparkova, a master of sport in mountaineering who has organised the Tour of Vitosha since 1983, together with a small team of mountain athletes. The front of the field keeps getting faster: Bulgarian National Radio reported Hristo Tsvetkov becoming the first runner to finish the course in under seven hours.