Our trip to the Costa Blanca last January was great, but we didn’t expect to come back for a while. However, Colette then discovered that a bike shop near the hotel we stayed in last time was now renting e-bikes. Not just any old e-bikes, but e-road bikes with powerful motors and lots of battery power that would allow her to cover more ground and get to areas that would have been out of range to her on a standard bike.
So we decided, why not? And it meant we could go to the Benidorm cyclocross event like we did last year. That was it, we booked up and I made sure I did plenty of training on Zwift in the lead-up, as I was going to have to try to keep up with her on my own normal bike!
The weather forecast for our arrival had stayed exactly the same for the whole week in the run-up. The sunny weather that the Costa Blanca had been enjoying for the past couple of months was going to break down and it would start raining just as we arrived at our hotel. Well, it did precisely that. So we had to walk to the shop in the rain to pick up Colette’s bike from TopBikes.
I then put my bike together and when tightening the seatpost clamp, I heard a sickening “crack”. I feared the worst, but the bike itself wasn’t damaged, just the clamp. A piece of grit must have got onto the bolt and part of the thread broke off as I tightened it. The result was it wouldn’t tighten up, and so my seat wouldn’t stay in place.
Without a replacement clamp, I would have been stuck. Luckily TopBikes came to the rescue, and loaned me a clamp off one of their rental bikes that wasn’t being used. Major thanks for that!!!
So Colette and I were able to “enjoy” a test ride in the rain on some hilly back roads around Altea. My bike was now working perfectly, and Colette’s allowed her to fly past me uphill with the minimum of effort. Great, we were ready for our holiday!

Colette with that super duper e-bike
The rain continued for a while into the second day, but after that it was mostly sun all the way, albeit a bit cooler than normal but with light winds, which was perfect.

Thibau Nys nearly coming to grief before going on to win the elite men’s race
The day of the cyclocross race was probably the best in weather terms, and I watched it in short sleeves. There was a great crowd, a festive mood and lots of exciting racing. Worth coming all the way for that alone. However, the next day was planned to be our “big day in the mountains” where the range of Colette’s e-bike was going to be put to the test.
Our plan was to complete a circuit similar to that we did way back in March 2017, but do it in reverse, and including the full Port de Tudons ascent, which is one of the main bucket list climbs in the area, but we hadn’t done before.
First of all, we rode southwest along the coast road till we passed Albir, then took a right and made our way to the foot of the Finestrat climb (CV-758). This is where it started to get fun, as we were away from traffic and into a steady climb rhythm. Colette also steadily disappeared in front of me, although she did wait periodically for me to catch up. She wasn’t being heavy on battery use however, restricting herself to level 1 or 2 (out of 5), to make sure the battery would last the whole way round.
We topped out and descended into Finestrat after about an hour of cycling. The villages from here on were going to be few and far between, so we thought it was a good idea to stop for a coffee there. A quick check of battery usage suggested we were well on track and should be able to get round with charge to spare.
After Finestrat, there was quite a bit of descent, until there wasn’t, and we “bounced” back uphill after a sharp corner. That fairly steep climb took us to a T-junction, where we turned right onto the Tudons road.
I wasn’t very sure where the Strava segment for the climb (apparently 9.45 miles at 5.3%) would start, but I knew where it finished! That didn’t really matter, as I wasn’t trying to go as fast as possible up there, but keep to a steady pace (Zone 2-3) to last over an hour’s climbing.

Start of the climb just after Sella
The mountainous scenery to accompany the effort was stunning, so it wasn’t going to be a chore, even though it did seem to last a long time. After passing though Sella, the official climb started, with the roadside reminders of your progress every 1km.
I kept catching view of Colette in the distance, then she would disappear round a corner. She was finding the climb a breeze, even compared to her own e-bike at home. Hardly any effort was required, and on the steeper hairpins, she allowed herself the luxury of switching up to level 3 assistance.
Meantime, I was maintaining my effort but getting progressively more tired towards the end, till I was looking forward to seeing the final 1km to go sign. I caught up with Colette just beyond the Port de Tudons sign, looking out at the view. It wasn’t as photogenic as all the views we enjoyed during the climb, and I kind of wished I’d stopped earlier for some better photos.
However, once we started our descent towards Alcoleja, the magnificent views opened up again, and some hard braking was required to get myself stopped at the side of the road for photos.

Alcoleja
I noticed on the map that there was a restaurant/bar at the far side of Alcoleja village and it was my plan to hopefully stop there for lunch. As we reached it, we noticed it was called the “STOP” restaurant, which was quite appropriate, because we did just that. The waiter came over and we intimated that we required some lunch. “Atun and chips? Chicken and chips?” he suggested. We decided to have one of each, with Colette favouring the tuna.
The local cat that came to visit our table appeared to be fed up with tuna, but quite eagerly ate up the ham from Colette’s emergency sandwich. We like to make a sandwich from the breakfast time buffet and take it with us just in case we need the extra energy or can’t find anywhere for lunch.
Colette uses Strava on her Apple watch to record her rides, but it eats up the battery. She put it on charge during lunch, but forgot to turn on the charger, leaving it dangerously low on juice. So when we left Alcoleja, we decided to fit in an extra coffee stop ASAP, so she could have another go at charging.

Climb to Port de Confrides
We descended from Alcoleja initially, then got into a fairly short sharp climb up to meet the CV-70 road that links Benidorm with Alcoy. We turned right in the direction of Benidorm and got into another steady climb of just over 3 miles to Port de Confrides. At this point, although my legs seemed to feel OK, my knees started to complain a bit on the steeper stretches. I was glad when we reached the top. The major climbing was over and we were left with what was essentially a 22 mile descent to the coast from 3100 ft.
On passing through Confrides, we were on the lookout for a bar for our coffee stop, but didn’t see anything that looked open, so we just carried on till we reached Guadalest. We looked around for somewhere for coffee, but sadly all the seats in the sun were taken, so we ended up in the shade. That wasn’t ideal as we were already feeling a little chilly from the long descent.
Also, there aren’t very many places to park a bike up there, despite it being a haven for cycling. I managed to get our bikes leaned up against a wooden bench, but not for long, as it turned out to be an item for sale on display outside the next door shop. Oh sorry, oops! Eventually, we got sorted out. I was loathe to leave Colette’s bike out of sight, as it would have cost us over 6,000 euros to replace if it was stolen!
Coffees were taken, along with some nice flan, and extra charge was successfully pumped into Colette’s Apple watch. Then we were ready to continue our descent.
That went fine, but not as fast as the previous time, 1) because I was feeling tired and not inclined to push, and 2) because we hit the red light halfway down this time. After such a long amount of descending, it felt good to hit the short climb after the motorcycle museum as it helped to warm me up again. The knees thankfully were not too problematic either.
After passing through Callosa, I began to think about getting back to the hotel, and it would be great to relax in the room with a nice cold beer. So we paused at a supermarket in Altea la Vella to pick up a couple of cans from their fridge, then carried on back towards Cap Negret.
We were just half a mile away when Colette noticed the battery on her watch was critical, so we stopped so she could save her ride there, but just too late… it conked out. Her e-bike however, carried on all the way, with a whole 6% of charge remaining. In contrast to my knee pain, which had gone away, Colette was complaining about sore teeth, which seemed a strange one, until she realised she had been clenching them with range anxiety! But there was never any need to worry. I was confident the battery would last… I think.