The history of the organized cycling movement in Bulgaria began at the end of the 19th century, when the first clubs appeared. In 1902 they united in a union – the Bulgarian Cycling Union (BCU), and General Georgi Vazov – a war hero, brother of the national poet Ivan Vazov – was elected its first chairman. In 1909, the BCS organized the first cycling Tour of Vitosha, which entered the world history of this sport as one of the oldest and best quality races and is not by chance mentioned in the famous French encyclopedia “La Rus”. In 1924 the annals of the glorious Tour of Bulgaria cycling began – also among the oldest and most prestigious such races in the world. /Only the Tour de France, the Giro d’ Italia and the Tour of Belgium precede ours, while the Vuelta (Tour of Spain) came much later.

On the hot noon of August 21, 1924 in front of perhaps the most popular building in Sofia – D. Kotev led Stoyan Alexandrov and Ognyan Toshev. National Assembly, a small group was preparing to set off on their journey. With long trousers reaching almost to their knees, with multi-coloured T-shirts, with small bags over their shoulders, with spare tyres strapped crosswise around their chests, some with large aviator glasses raised on their foreheads – each of them stood next to his bicycle. They were 21 in number. They were true daredevils because they knew what awaited them – long, tiring 1933 kilometres amid oppressive heat and searing thirst on endless dusty not roads but semblance of roads and participants and senders did not even suspect they were starting a glorious tradition: On that August day, the Tour of Bulgaria was born, which even now, after almost a century, continues to be among the most loved and respected races by the international cycling community, and of course, the most prestigious cycling event in Bulgaria.

And after the historical lines, a little about the present and the future of the beloved Tour of Bulgaria; the team of the Bulgarian Cycling Federation, as organizers of the Tour, strive to meet the high standards for its conduct, set by its long history. In this regard, any help of a financial, logistical or communications nature is invaluable and if you feel that you recognise yourself and/or the company you represent in the running of the Tour of Bulgaria then please do not hesitate to contact us. Our aim is to cement on the world sporting calendar the presence of a dignified, high-quality, multi-stage cycling tour of an ancient and simultaneously forward-looking European country with magnificent, yet still under-recognised, opportunities for the development of modern, multi-spectrum tourism. If we do this, it will mean that we have saved an old and respected, with over 90 years of tradition, sporting race, but also that we have taken a step forward towards the much desired and profitable partnership of sport with economy and tourism.