UltraCycling Magazine presents a report from Georgi Stoychev, a Virginia-based ultra-endurance cyclist whose 2025 Transcontinental Race spanned Europe—from the windswept Atlantic coast of northwestern Spain to the shores of the Black Sea in Romania.
For Georgi, the journey was more than a test of stamina—it was a homecoming. As the route carved through his native Bulgaria, every climb and kilometer carried personal weight. But the race wasn’t just emotional—it was logistically brutal. One of the biggest challenges? Catching the elusive Adriatic ferry from Italy to Albania, which only departs every 12 hours. Miss it, and the clock keeps ticking. Success required adapting, innovating and overcoming major mechanical failures that would have stopped a less resourceful person.
Join Georgi as he recounts the highs, lows, and heartbeats of a race that fused continents, cultures, and memory into one unforgettable ride.
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Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Welcome to the Ultra Cycling Magazine show. Uh my name is George Stoch and I just came back from the transcontinental bike race number 11 from Santiago Compostella to Constant Romania. Yeah, I think that’s one of the things that people don’t realize about this race and the rules behind it. I think it it keeps it fun, keeps it different, it keeps people guessing. It’s exciting. It’s technically a different race every year and mostly it’s west to east, but there is a east west edition from Burgas, Bulgaria to breast. Yeah, it varies in length and I think this year was the longest edition. My distance was slightly over 3,000 miles, 3,50, which is I think close to 4,900 kilometers. For some, I see on the results was uh about 200 m less, which is 300 km or in the other direction 3 400 km more. As far as the route, it probably took me close to 250 hours. Uh it could vary depending on the control points and the parkour. they are strategically placed. So obviously before and after uh we kind of close together and the parkours uh sometimes are before the control, sometimes they’re after the control. U so they kind of either um make you make you make the decision to go through the gravel for faster route or go around the longer way to avoid the gravel which is not always doable. Sometimes the parkour themselves are gravel actually most of the time. Uh so it takes a lot lot of time you know I had to research sometimes uh shorter is not faster because of you know climbing you have to consider clim climate you have to consider uh resupply stops maybe even wind direction uh there’s so many considerations but you know you have to make sure that you have the basics food water shelter so I will mark a lot of the uh hotels along the way the restrooms uh certain countries like France uh um water locations like they will have have them in uh um graveyards for example in certain countries like Italy resupplying also tough because they will close the stores in the middle of the day for three or four hours. France they will close on Sunday. So, you have to be aware of all these situations and where potentially you might be. Obviously, we’ll make a lot of decisions uh on the spot, but yeah, I took uh it took me 250 hours to design my route and uh I’m I’m really happy. I just lost got lost one time in the small town in France and then uh at the ferry. I ended up in someone’s uh uh backyard at one point and next to the coastline, but my route kind of ended there. But besides that, I can’t complain. So, for example, we start with a start parkour. It kind of g guides everyone on this. Uh parkour means route that is uh required. You have to ride it or you will be disqualified. You can still finish, but you’re not going to be in a GC, general classification. So, you have to write the the whole parkour in its entirety. Some people have to do it twice. The parkour have direction purposefully. So it starts from you know east to west. You cannot go west to east. Um this time the parker took us from Santiago Compostella to the coastline. So we can properly start from the from the Atlantic Ocean. And then uh the control point was Picos Europa Spain close to Kovadonga famous climb from Lavilta and uh the parkour was after but sometimes it’s before and so I think afterwards though uh The next control was called the turmal. It’s a long way to go. So the distance between two controls could be 400 miles. It could be 700 miles. And you know depending on the route you’re drawing, but the next control was called the turmo. I went the southern route. I was thinking uh more cover from the wind. I didn’t like uh being in France longer because of services, maybe even wind, rain. And I was kind of right from what I’m hearing. A lot of people went north coastline and they stayed in France much longer, but I heard they got rained on. I never got rained on besides the mist on day one. Uh so and then for example in Italy it’s a it’s a two twoprong parkour. There’s parkour on top in the northern part where we uh we did straeta. Pretty nasty gravel section. I think the the world championship mountain biking is there. Then you go down to Sienna. that’s broken into Sienna and Pachento. It’s two parkours, but it’s really one. It’s like a A and B and then the the control was after. So, this is the gist of it, you know. And then we had to take the the ferry from there to the balcons. You could choose your own ferry, but again, it may only guys actually did the one northern from our location and they kind of liked it for their own uh reasons and I I really love that. That’s the exciting thing about TCR when people follow uh they had to bike extra but the uh um the terrain was better. It wasn’t as hot and anyway everyone have their own preference. Yeah. Basically um one of the things in TCRs you make your own research right for example people ask simple questions if I get lost what do I do? You get unlost. So in this case is the same thing. You have to do your own research. Which ferry? What’s the schedule? It turns out on certain days depending on the season this main ferry bar dur runs once a day. On some days it runs twice a day. There’s four different companies I think that service it. The departure times are very similar and mainly and in my case was either 1:00 p.m. or midnight or was it 1:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. So it’s two fairies and if you miss one you’re kind of screwed. Some people are not happy with this rule, but I mean it’s the same rule for everyone. But I also understand it because uh many people like me ended up uh you know not riding for one day. So it gives it kind of resets the the race. Uh unfortunately in certain situations there’s guys racing hard to establish a particular uh size gap in front of the chasers just to find themselves themselves waiting for a ferry and the race is neutralized and then you have a new race on the other side which is also exciting. So this is really the uh so yeah so in my case uh the ferry uh departs from body on the south uh of Italy and it’s 9 and 1/2 hours and uh you end up uh uh arriving at uh Durus in Albania and the parkour and control point there is not far from uh from the ferry. You know, in my case, uh that day the terrain was sort of flat and uh like a lot of other racers, they wanted to change tires before you get to Albania because there’s no really roads in Albania, so to say. It’s kind of in development and I kind of knew that. Uh so I changed tire and it was sort of flat. I covered a lot of ground, you know. But then unfortunately by for southern Italy, uh the heat was pretty insane. It was close to 100°. I was acclimated, but uh I never expected this in Italy. I was surrounded by cactuses and burning ground and I almost had a heat stroke there. So, I had to find uh the next town and take it easy and I think that’s one of the reasons why I missed the ferry. I was there 25 minutes before the ferry departed. They did not sell me a ticket. Some people get lucky, I guess. I some most people uh attempt to arrive there two hours in advance. I wanted to be there an hour and a half in advance, but uh yeah, I was unlucky. So, I had to wait 12 hours over there or so and then another nine and a half 10 to get to to body. But when I got there, I was fresh. So, there’s always positives. And I didn’t take video of the parkour. Uh no, sorry, it’s not the parkour. The parkour itself was not um gravel in Albania, but after that parkour, your control point is located in a place where you either take the shortcut with 15 mile gravel or you go around 55 miles on the flat. I went for the flat and I beat some of the guys that were on the gravel. So, you have to take, you know, your poison pill there and decide what you’re going to do. the high points of the race, you know, I think uh I played I played my my to my strengths. Um I didn’t start super hard. I wasn’t chasing anyone for, you know, top 20, 30, 50 or anyone in particular. I knew in best case scenario, I was telling people 12 13 days I see myself finishing. Ideally, I’m a 14 to 16 day guys on this kind of terrain. A lot of climbing really not uh my strength. Uh, and you know, I finished in 17 and a half. Uh, my goal, my least goal was under 18. And I mean, I’m really happy. I, uh, slept every night consistently. I think that was key to success. I researched everything very meticulously. I was very efficient with stops. You know, it’s not my first rodeo. Uh, I felt great. You know, I I had zero flat tires, which is one of the most amazing things, especially the the last parkour in uh, Romania. The rocks were big, sharp. I was They were smashing straight into the into the wheel. I mean, into the wheel, metal on metal basically. And I think it’s just amazing cuz I was running 28, you know, there were guys with 38 46 mm tires and they were blowing up flats left and right. I started at 65 and at the gravel section I decreased it to 40. I had double the amount of tape and then I had double the amount of uh glue inside. So I think that that worked out. I never crashed as well. So I think that’s pretty amazing. Yeah, I went to my home country of Bulgaria which was very special moment and one of the reasons actually why I signed up. Uh just crossing into Bulgaria in the middle of the night. I was I was super happy and uh despite the climbing that day, I covered a lot of ground. I think I it was the second highest as far as climbing per day. I climbed 17 and a half thousand feet that day and covered maybe 350k. Uh I kind of had a a little surprise for everyone there. I was hoping they will stay by the river which they did either on the Romanian side or Bulgaria side because the final parkour is from Celestra Bulgaria to Constant. I kind of wait uh went through the corner through my hometown uh Popovo Esper Kubat. But anyhow, I know the villages there and I know why it’s better. I think it kind of worked. It allow me to stay ahead of the big uh group chasing me, sleep, and still stay ahead before the last parkour, you know. Uh it’s there’s more cover there. The roads are better. There’s more services there. And uh yeah, that was really special. at the finish. Obviously, my dad was there, my sister, my aunt, couple of f. It It was amazing. It was uh you know, something you can’t really describe. You know, day two started with two broken spokes, a bit of a crosschain situation. Big ring, big ring in the derailer snap, two spokes. In TCR, you can’t just call a friend or you have to use public transportation in commercially available location. So I went to the next village basically babying babying the bike and uh I was carrying spokes. So I found a shop and the guy changed the spokes and my u my derailer hanger was slightly bent. So I was fine but the derailer was clicking and the second day I wake up at 4 2 hours later I hear a loud bang. The derailer snapped in half. The rear derailer everything is bent up. Uh that was that was pretty badly. Uh I had to hold a bike on my back with two straps probably I don’t know 40 pounds 50 pounds and then walk half an hour 45 minutes whatever the time was to this town. Luckily there was a town found a bike shop but I was there 6 hours waiting for them to open. I couldn’t sleep because I just woke up and uh but luckily they were able to fix it. I mean what’s the chances? I was googling oneway tickets back to Bulgaria, Romania. Uh that was not a great feeling, you know. Uh so anyway, we changed it to mechanic mechanical. So in the front I was uh electronic and the rear I was mechanical. Um so that was pretty bad. Aside from that, uh, you know, there was a lot of nasty climbing, a lot of gravel sections that, uh, to the folks watching and seeing the distances, 130 or 150 mi might not sound impressive in that particular time span, but, you know, 10, 15,000 ft of climbing and a bunch of gravel and heat, it’s it’s really brutal. It could take you 60 miles can take you 10 hours easily depending on the conditions. So, it was it was pretty insane, you know. You know, a race like this will humble you. I’ve done uh long races for a long time, but I took it very serious. You know, I had to implement new things into my training routine. Uh you have to be mechanically capable because things will break down and um it’s a long race. Obviously, you’re on your own. So, planning is everything. There were guys that are stronger than me that u you know mentally will break down or mechanically they break down and u they can’t continue or they roll the route designing skills or timing maybe in insufficient so you know mistakes and issues because of it uh but uh one have to approach it really serious you know I had no other race on the calendar on purpose I started preparing last October And uh I dedicate dedicated everything to this. You know, you have to really want it. Uh this is not something that you just do because you’re strong and you want it on your resume. It’s going to be a lot of moments of despair, you know, without food, face to sleep or you’re on top of the mountain at 2 in the morning and it’s freezing cold. You need winter clothes, you know, flat tires, gravel. It’s uh it will test every single ability, you know. So, take take it serious, but also enjoy it. I enjoy it in a weird way. This is where I’m the most alive, you know, and uh yeah, the friendships you make there and everything else, it’s uh there’s nothing like it, you know. [Music] [Applause] Thank you. Congratulations. [Music] Okay, we have to represent for the Balcon countries. This is Gregory Zuber thanking you for watching and sharing.