Cycling in Calpe

Calpe is where northern European pro teams go when they need guaranteed sunshine in January. The small coastal town on Spain's Costa Blanca sits at the foot of the Penon de Ifach rock and serves as the base for some of the best winter and spring riding in Europe. The terrain inland is relentlessly hilly: a network of quiet CV-roads climb through almond and orange groves into the Marina Alta and Marina Baixa mountains.

The riding from Calpe falls into two broad categories. Heading inland through Jalon Valley and the Coll de Rates, you hit sustained climbs of 5-12 km with good surfaces and almost no traffic. The roads twist through small villages like Tarbena, Guadalest, and Confrides, and the terrain is steep enough to accumulate 2000+ metres of climbing in a 100 km ride. Heading north along the coast or south towards Benidorm, the terrain flattens slightly but remains rolling.

Calpe's advantage over Mallorca is the depth of climbing. The mountains behind the coast are genuinely mountainous - the Aitana massif reaches 1558 m - and the roads that cross them are quiet, well-maintained, and steep. You can ride a different climbing route every day for a week without repeating a col. The trade-off is that flat recovery rides require more route planning, since virtually every road inland goes up.