Alicante’s Mediterranean coastline, The Costa Blanca, is home to two juggernaut cycling holiday and education camp locations: Calpe and Denia.
Calpe has been used as an education base for a large portion of the seasoned peloton, with Team Dimension Data, Trek-Segafredo, Team Sky, and Sunweb, to name some, establishing camps there.
Travel just a little alongside the coast, and you’ll discover Denia – a barely quieter metropolis in the shadow of its eleventh-century citadel.
There are lots more places to stay in between, as well, and the journey is as simple as a flight into Alicante for the most part.
Why go to Denia or Calpe?
Traveling cyclists generally seek out the superlative in two key standards: weather and terrain. Local delicacies, a fee for lodging (and eating), and amusement are all generally secondary.
So, it’s beneficial for Costa Blanca that in 1986, the World Health Organisation advocated the place as “one of the most equitable inside the world,” applauding its being neither too warm nor too cold.
The region boasts a tremendous 325 sunny days a year. Cyclists tend to go between October and May when max temperatures are around sixteen°C to twenty-five°C. The months from June to September can attain 30° quiet without problems and may get a bit hot for motorbike riding.
The average number of rainy days ranges from one per month during the mid-summer season to six in December, with the spring months soaring at around four.
On to the terrain, which boasts the beauty of variability.
The zesty scent of orange groves often accompanies masses of long, flat lanes.
These offer an ideal playground for crew time trial schooling – something the CCC Team (formerly BMC) had been doing multiple weeks before Cycling Weekly arrived for a week of riding in Spring, leaving at the back of the evidence in the form of chalk strains drawn at the roads.
Then, of the route, there are the climbs. Many of those are pretty steady, from five to 6 according to cent in common gradient and whatever from six to fifteen kilometers long. These lend themselves flawlessly to education efforts at and around purposeful threshold electricity.
These additionally allow for a little power left in the legs for sprint efforts over the forehead, which is ideal even for amateur groups training lead-outs before the season proper.
If you’ve got the legs, a few steep climbs may be used as launch pads for a few high-torque efforts. Examples include the 4km Cumbre del Sol, which averages around 10 in keeping with the cent depending on which way you climb it and includes ramps over 20 in step with a cent.
In 2015, the climb enlivened the Vuelta an España as Tom Dumoulin went on to take the win at the same time as riders in the back of crack at the slopes. Then, in 2017, it became Chris Froome who became pleasant over the ramps.
When ought you propose your ride?
Temperatures are warm all year, though the favorite time to visit is between January and mid-April.
John Fegan, the owner of ‘Train in Spain, ‘which organizes and guides group schooling camps and vacations in Denia, advised us: “The men’s and ladies’ pro groups and continental teams are focused in December and January. From February to April, it is the top time for amateur organizations, golf equipment, and agencies to visit.
“The only time to keep away from is July to mid-September when the coastal roads get very busy, and it’s far too warm for most people to want to exercise much.
“From October to December, temperatures are warm to moderate as they are from March to May. January and February can also be mild to warm; however, there is a cold snap or a wet few days.”
Where to live
Denia
Denia, located 90km from Alicante airport, is a coastal metropolis with rows of traditional streets housing restaurants and stores, an active modern-day Marina, and lengthy stretches of sandy seashores.
The area provides many quiet, flat roads, which are best for time trial and group time trial schooling, recovery days, rolling hills, and, of course, climbing.
Fegan set up Train in Spain and its famous cake and motorbike hire provider, Cafe Ciclista, to host corporations of amateurs and executives. Of course, he proposed the location over its favorite neighbor Calpe.
“Most longer rides [from Denia] begin with 20kms or so of smooth, flat using, which lets riders heat up earlier than going into the climbs,” he says.
“There is a wider variety of climbs nearby, and you may be combined up or greater than you may do from the Calpe vicinity. Directly inland, as well as to the northwest of Denia, it is straightforward to attain and revel in the likes of the Vall de Gallinera – and over to Benares reservoir and Lorcha – Tollos, Vall de Ebo, Mirador de Xap, La Vall de Laguar, Petracos, Coll de Garga.
“More or less straight inland you’ve got, of the route, the Coll de Rates and the Sierra de Bernia, which can be each about 25km from Denia.”
Calpe
Just 20km from the party city of Benidorm and 64km from Alicante airport, Calpe guarantees sandy seashores and masses of seaside bars where you can experience’ healing liquids’ of a hoppy nature.
It’s a favorite family vacation place during the Midsummer season, so there are plenty of locations to eat. Fegan says: “Calpe is a bit toward Alicante airport. However, it enjoys the same climate as Denia and has nearer access to the longer climbs of Tudons and Confrides. If humans want to climb the south longer, it is a superb region. The important disadvantage is that to get out of Calpe and into the hills, you must cycle on busy roads.”
Calpe has historically been favored using pro teams. Fegan explains: “A key reason the seasoned teams selected Calpe as their base is that after the lovable and very massive 4-big name Diamante Hotel, there’s an absolutely big car park wherein they can park their buses and trucks right beside the inn entrance.
“This is a need-to-have for them, and only a few hotels within the other nearby cities can provide it.”
Ontinyent
Fancy staying far from the coast?
Ontinyent is nestled within the Vall Dalriada area, which also includes the Serra Mariola National Park. The city is home to the newly released cycling holiday business enterprise Escapar. Cc.
The city is just over an hour from Alicante airport (91 kilometers), and being inland, it is greener and more luscious. Temperatures may be a touch lower mid-summer season, with much less humidity, and you may assume even fewer wet days, too.
Founder David Emery defined the central place as a “Goldilocks location,” surrounded by a surplus of vineyards, proximity to some of the area’s tallest mountains, and lower ranges of visitors and tourism.
“Looking on the local map of all the named climbs confirms that Alcoy and Ontinyent are blessed with a sheer abundance of climbs, 1000m mountains, and an unparalleled kind of riding that consists of perhaps the most famous climbs along with the Carresqueta, Port de Tudons, and Xorret del Cati,” Emery stated.
“There are a couple of mountain passes straight from the central metropolis, and the riding is high-quality from kilometer zero. However, on the coast, you must initially ride 20 to 30km and quit or merely ride to get the conventional climbs.
“There’s additionally an array of lesser-regarded hiking gemstones, with alpine-like gradients of six to 9 in keeping with cent, that simply doesn’t exist near the coast, in which it’s regularly brief and steep or lengthy and constant,” he delivered.
Coll de Rates is the place’s blue-ribbon climb. At 6km, with an average gradient of 5 in keeping with cent, it’s brief and shallow enough to be ideal for FTP-type efforts.
While most people will use Strava to time their attempt now, there’s an excellent style ticketing system with an order on the pinnacle and bottom.
The clean gradient, great views, and stunning floor make for an outstanding descent, too – just look out for the ones driving inside the different course and so ‘at the restrict’ that the white line is all a piece of a blur.
There are many tester climbs,’ the 8km stretch from Pego winds its way to the summit at a median gradient of 6 percent without precise ramps to disrupt your float.
The constant switchbacks provide ample opportunity to take in the valley views or observe the development of your trip friends.
Beware—if you climb from Pego and continue directly to Tollos after the summit, you’ll be greeted with a similarly 15km of rolling terrain that offers some significantly stinging ramps. So it’s nicely worth leaving a little energy within the tank. Move too hard on the climb, and you might find yourself tempted to get off the motorcycle and call a taxi domestic.
Known for its unrelentingly steep gradient, the Cumbre Del Sol featured in the Vuelta an España in e015 and 2017 – with Tom Dumoulin and Chris Froome winning.
There are five routes up, but the choice selected by the Spanish race’s path planners is 4.1km long, averaging 9.1 percent, with hairpins over 20 percent.
Overlooking the coast, the views from the pinnacle are high-quality—and if you’re no longer tearing yourself apart to reach the summit within the quality time feasible, the area makes for attractive viewing up.
At 10.8km long and with a 6 percent gradient, this ascent offers a vista that more than rewards the efforts made as you snake your way to the top.
You can experience Sagra for a less complicated gradient over an extended distance or start in Castell de Castells for a shorter but steeper version.
It’s worth leaving some fuel in the tank on this one. Even taking the ‘less complicated’ side from Sagra, the primary 8km common anywhere from 3 to 6 in line with the cent—then the final stretch ramps up dramatically, averaging up to 9.4 percent for each kilometer with slopes of 17 in front of the cent.
