Munich to Istanbul · part 7 of 10 · Serbia · Bulgaria
Ride from Niš to Sofia on your smart trainer
Up the Nišava by Bela Palanka and Pirot, into Bulgaria at Dimitrovgrad, and over the hills to Sofia.
In Chrome or Edge on a laptop or desktop, with a smart trainer or on the keys. No subscription, no card. The iPhone app is coming.
- Distance
- 155 km 96.0 mi
- Climbing
- 1,429 m 4,689 ft
- Highest point
- 912 m 2,993 ft
- Steepest 200 m
- 8.0%
- At 45 minutes a ride
- about 3 weeks
Along the way
- 0.0 km 0.0 mi Niš
- 18.4 km 11.5 mi Sićevo gorge
- 43.0 km 26.7 mi Bela Palanka
- 68.5 km 42.6 mi Pirot
- 92.3 km 57.3 mi Dimitrovgrad
- 112.5 km 69.9 mi Dragoman
- 154.5 km 96.0 mi Sofia
About the road
Part seven of Munich to Istanbul follows the Nišava upstream out of Niš, through Bela Palanka and Pirot, known for its woven kilims, to Dimitrovgrad and the Bulgarian border. Across it, the road climbs through Dragoman and comes down to Sofia, the Roman Serdica.
After the flat valleys of the Danube and the Morava, this is the first part with real hills in it.
Also known as Via Militaris, Niš–Sofia by bike, Nišava valley.
How to ride it on your trainer
- Open longvoie in Chrome or Edge on a laptop or desktop. It is free: an email and a code to sign in, no password, no card.
- Connect your trainer: any smart trainer that speaks FTMS (Wahoo, Tacx, Elite…), or a power meter, and a heart-rate strap if you have one. No trainer yet? Ride on the keys.
- Pick Niš to Sofia. longvoie sets your trainer's resistance as the road climbs and eases it as it falls, and you ride it in 3D, on the real street.
- Stop whenever you like. Your next ride starts from the metre you stopped at.
| Your usual ride | Niš to Sofia takes |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | about 4 weeks |
| 45 minutes | about 3 weeks |
| 60 minutes | about 2 weeks |
| 90 minutes | about 5 rides |
At three or four rides a week, and a steady 25 km/h plus an hour for every 1,000 m up.
Take the road with you
The route is free to download as a GPX file, for your bike computer, Komoot, Strava or another trainer app: nis-sofia.gpx.
More roads to ride
Route © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database License. Heights from the Copernicus DEM, through Open-Meteo.