Valencia is a beautiful city but it is a big city, so I don’t know how great of a starting point the city itself is. However, I’ve done Denia/ Calpe before, which is quite close to Valencia, and the entire Costa Blanca/ Costa Valencia is about as good as it gets for cycling.
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Costa blanca is a very special place! I’m a Canadian who spent 7 years 45 min south of Malaga city in Fuengirola cycling and although it was fantastic for many things, I found drivers much less patient, the city busier, the grades much steeper, and the cycling culture kind of, non-existent. Now I’m living in Calpe, and couldn’t be happier. The punishing Spanish terrain is still very much at your fingertips, but it’s a bit more forgiving than the south, and it’s complimented by some of the most patient and well mannered drivers i’ve had the pleasure of sharing the road with. Top it off with world tour pros at your local coffee stop, or on your favorite daily climb during the winter months, and it makes it a truly remarkable experience. Happy to take folks around if ever you’re interested!
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I can’t say I like one place more than the other. I’ve spent a couple of months near Marbella and actually really loved riding my bike there:
Yeah this will be the first international trip for my wife and I, so thinking Valencia this year, maybe Genoa next and then Porto or Lisbon and then circle back and explore some of the smaller less touristy areas of our favourite of the three countries.
But preference would be something on the ocean.
I must agree with you on south of Malaga. I was even afraid when driving. However, the east of Malaga is a completely different story. I can’t compare with Calpe and you probably won’t meet a pro in a cafe (what cafe!?) unless you go to Granada. But the riding is some of the best I have seen, roads are empty and riders much calmer. The biggest benefit compared to Estepona/Marbella is the coastal road without traffic and more options.
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Good to know! I spent most of my time cycling inland (toward Yunquera, Coin, Jaen, Ronda etc.) and rarely north east to notice a difference, but I’ll make an effort to try that next year when I visit for a few weeks!
Cafes, there are many you can catch pros at on the daily. Better yet, you can also catch up to them on their rides for a quick chat, especially during team camp when it’s less hectic, or on a recovery day. With press day around the corner for some teams, Rates was overrun yesterday with photographers and team cars. I snapped a ton of great photos of the new DSM kit on the wheels of Bardet and Fabio, saw the new EF kit and HM2 (er… lab71…) in action. Remco and the Wolfpack are a staple around here as well (they’re living a block from my place at the moment). With CX winding down for MVDP, Alpecin I’m sure is poised to be out in force within the next couple of days. Lots of fun, and frankly all of this is happenstance. Some guys spend a great deal of time scouring the media for the best locations to meet their favorite riders - it’s really not necessary here. Edit: worth mentioning that every pro cyclist I’ve encountered to date whether for a quick chat or a wheel, has been exceptionally pleasant to interact with. Always smiles and always positive vibes. Really encouraging for the sport.
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I’ve stayed in Almunecar and rode between Velez-Malaga and Trevelez (the furthest points to the west and to the east I’ve been to). From Almunecar you have Carretera de la Cabra straight up the mountain completely without traffic. Frigiliana loop is very nice and every climb from the coast to Haza del Lino is awsome. I think Rubite has completely new surface (2 years ago). If you can get there (Haza del Lino) when the almonds are blossoming I’ll envy you!
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Thank you so much for the recommendations! Will be next winter, but i will keep you posted 
I 100% agree.
I visited Calpe in December '22, and yes, it was great; the riding, weather, respect from drivers and general vibe was pretty spot on.
I visited Alicante region (8km from Nerja) November '23 and have to say that I much preferred it over Calpe. In my opinion, more variety in terms of riding options, equally as good roads and weather and where I was meant that I encountered very few cars but was equally close enough to Malaga and Granada for some culture, night life and city living when I wanted it.
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You went from Alicante to Malaga for night life? Isn’t that like 500km between those cities? Maybe I understood that wrong.
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Sorry, I think I meant Andalusia rather than Alicante.
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Yeah, that makes a ton more sense. Andalusia for me has 2 big advantages compared to basically every other place in Spain (barring the Canaries, that are basically in Africa).
On the south coast of Spain it is:
- the most southern: even a lot more than Mallorca, Alicante and especially much more than Girona. That definitely leads to it being warmer, and the proximity to the mountains near Gibraltar as well as Morocco make it relatively well sheltered from
The wind and keep dry. - it is among the most western places in the CET time zone, which leads to crazy long nights.
When I stayed in Estepona in January- March, sun was setting about 2 hours later than in my home city (Hamburg, Germany), but also 30 minutes later than in Valencia, and 45 minutes later than in Palma de Mallaroca.
That might not be much to some, but meant I could work until 5pm, and then do a full 90 minutes of outdoor riding in late January before it got dark. That’s mid march conditions for me usually.
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This is devolving into a Spain exclusive thread. For the brave and adventurous climbers I recommend Colombia, year round.
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That’s definitely on the bucket list, as well as Bolivia and Peru. Doesn’t lend itself super well as a recurring winter escape for me as a citizen of Central Europe.
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Gulf coast of Florida in March sometime (date TBD) to visit my aging parents and get some riding in. I have a feeling that there will be more eating than riding, but we’ll see.
I’ve been to both, definitely recommend a gravel or mountain bike for Bolivia! The roads there are very rough.
I’ll visit my folks in Costa Rica next month, they retired there so I’m already familiar with some areas. Highly recommend.
I’ll do some MTB in the coffee region (Tarrazu, Los Santos) and finish with a bikepacking trip to the beach and back to the mountains.
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We went to Anna Maria Island for this Christmas, and compared to previous year ( I spent on the Florida Gulf Coast) we felt the influence of El Niño a lot. It was colder and wetter than usual. It could impact March weather as well
Having said that drivers have always been nice and given safe space, being pan-flat is a great place for Z2 works, but the scenery is so beautiful that it’d be a miss to focus on intervals lol
I didn’t do a lot of planning before hand as I didn’t know how much time I had so when a spot opened I used the Strava feature to create a map and followed it
More inland you’ll find quieter roads
Tallahassee is another great spot for riding and scenery is more varied
Imho You can apply those things to the whole Panhandle area
Clearly if you go during spring break it could different, but I try to avoid to travel during that time
I’ve just finished a week of riding in Taiwan and I was very impressed! Roads that rival anything I’ve seen so far, stunning vistas and very quiet inland and on the eastern side of the island.
It was a very spontaneous trip so I had no expectations/preconceptions - I only heard about the Taiwan KOM obviously but the island has so much more to offer. It may be my new favorite place to ride.
It’s pretty easy to get a decent coffee and there’s a seven eleven literally in every small town, which makes it perfect for a cycling trip. Drivers are very courteous, the number of thumbs up we received from cars we held back on climbs was mind boggling, people shouted encouragement and didn’t seem to be annoyed.
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Maybe OT here, but what bag are you using for travelling with the SL8 and Rapide Cockpit? Any photos of the bike packed?
Beautiful images btw, I miss GC now… Heading to Calpe in a few weeks.