Denia, Spain. April 2026
9 of us headed off to Denia, Spain for a five night trip organised by Marcel. We were hosted by Maddy and Rich who a lot of people will know as they were members of the club a few years ago. We were met at Alicante airport and a 1.5 hour journey took us to two fabulous villas overlooking Denia and the sea. The villas had everything we needed to keep us extremely comfortable for the trip.
After a quick change into cycling gear we headed of to the very popular Cafe Ciclista to hire our bikes. The bikes were Berria, a Spanish Brand, fitted with Shimano 105 Di2. After a couple of teething problems we were all pleased with them.
Day 1 - 28 miles - 1,995 ft ascent with an nice climb to get a view of Denia.
Each Morning Maddy and Rich greeted us with an excellent pre-ride breakfast which set us all up for the day’s cycling. We were then all fired up and ready to leave at 9:20.
Day 2 - We climbed the famous Coll de Rates. A great climb of 4 miles with a steady gradient of 5.5%. After the climb the stronger riders opted for one of Rich’s cheeky bonus loops which took in another climb. The rest of us headed back happy with our first proper climb done. 65 miles and 4,734 ft for the “short” ride and 87 miles with 6,841 ft for the others.
Day 3 - Took us up another fabulous climb, the Puerto La Llacuna. 5.5 miles - 1,827 ft ascent at an average 6.1%. This was followed by an incredible descent. On the traffic free smooth surfaces it was easy to go down as a big group and get some great speed. Here’s Marcel making it look easy! 71 miles - 4,098 ft.
After a tough day Rich took us to a fabulous beach front bar for some much needed refreshment.
Day 4 - was labelled as the “easy recovery day” - Just the 58 miles 4,341ft.
Perhaps some took the “easy” a bit too literally!!
Every day included riding on very quiet roads.
Day 5 - took in 2 climbs - The Vall de Laguar, 4.78 miles at 5.2% and the Partida Masil, 3 miles at 5.1%. We were very lucky with the weather as the sun was glorious but it was not too hot. Here are Roger and Marcel proudly wearing their Mount Ventoux Les Cingles jerseys. Total ride 76 miles 5,299 ft.
The whole area has loads of incredible murals.
This sadly brought the trip to an end. We all agreed it had been fantastic. This really is a fabulous area for cycling and one we would all visit again. Maddy and Rich were excellent hosts and guides taking us on some fantastic routes with perfect coffee and lunch stops. An enormous thanks to both of them for making it the perfect trip.
Also a huge thanks to Marcel for pulling it all together, we headed off to the airport asking him where will we go for 2027?