After last winter, we planned a getaway to the sun for this January, opting to visit the Costa Blanca again. Lynne and Keith were joining us this time, and they persuaded us to do an 11 day stay rather than a week, in case we lose any days to bad weather. The average temp for the time of year is 17 C, although last year it was mid-20s. That sounded just great. So good, that we were joined by another friend, Alison to take the numbers up to 5.
We were staying at Hotel Albir Plaza in L’Albir, about 4 or 5 miles up the coast from Benidorm. It’s a quiet resort compared to Benidorm, but that’s how we like it. We also chose this hotel partly because it has secure bike parking in the basement.
Our first ride to Guadalest was great, but on our second day we were faced with a forecast for a strong westerly wind. So we decided to take the tram west to El Campello, then ride back, hopefully with some wind assistance. That was the plan anyway.
The day started with us celebrating Lynne’s birthday with a restrained half glass of Cava, which the hotel lays on at breakfast time. Then it was off to Benidorm to catch the tram. We could have picked it up at Albir, but then we would need to change at Benidorm, so we just decided to cycle to the tram station in Benidorm and cut out the wait.
My planned route into Benidorm worked OK until one of the roads turned out to be a no entry, so Alison took it on from there, as her Garmin could re-route us to pick up my route further on. The resort city was busy with traffic and wasn’t a lot of fun to cycle through. After a while, we picked up the cycle path I was aiming for, which took us along pavement busy with pedestrians as far as the tram station.
Although we had a good 15 minutes to spare, the queue for tickets was not moving very fast, with some complicated discussions going on at the front. Alison went off to buy our tickets from an automated machine, but it didn’t like her type of credit card. I was beginning to get tense but we got served at last and pushed the bikes onto the busy L1 tram with a couple of minutes to spare.
It was a squeeze getting the bikes on, splitting up between both ends of the tram. A guard came on just before we departed and told us that the maximum number of bikes is 4. He didn’t kick one of us off, but seemed keen that we didn’t do it again!
The trip lasted about 50 minutes, standing next to the bikes all the time, but after a few people left at various stops, there at least was enough room to get our bikes out of the way and into the bike spaces. We jumped off at El Campello, leaving the tram to continue all the way to Alicante.
From El Campello, I had let the online route planner decide the best way out of town. However, it was going to take us on the main road, so Lynne and Alison came up with a quieter alternative. We then used a couple of roundabouts to cross over the N-332 and AP-7 to get us onto the CV-775 road to Relleu. The blustery wind made its presence felt as we crossed the roundabouts, nearly blowing us off our bikes.
We then left the traffic behind as we began a gentle climb into the mountains. It was sunny but not exactly warm, so we had to stay fairly well wrapped up. Still, much better weather than virtually anywhere else in Europe, so we couldn’t complain.
By the time we reached the village of Aigues, we had done over 1000ft of climbing and it was definitely time for a coffee, so we stopped at a bakery / coffee shop. There were a number of interesting looking baked goods on offer, and I chose one to share with Colette as we drank our coffees. It looked like an apple turnover, but sadly it was just sugar coated puff pastry with a hollow centre. Bad choice! I wished I’d gone for a sausage roll or pastie instead. Next time…
After leaving Aigues, we had a bit of relief for the legs with some downhill. Soon, we were being passed by some very fast cyclists, whose colours we recognised at the CCC pro cycling team. They very quickly disappeared into the distance, but were visible for a while longer, rounding some of the bends up ahead.
We reached those switchbacks after a while, and what a joy they were, especially with the occasional bit of wind assistance to make them seem easier. The view of the surrounding jagged-topped mountains was spectacular.
I decided to stop at the top of the climb for regrouping, and there in the layby was the CCC team car. A young, tall and skinny rider was standing there, holding his bike minus its back wheel, looking very cheesed off. A mechanic was finishing pumping up his tyre, and I presume he had just finished repairing a puncture, as they were not carrying any spare wheels. I asked if Greg van Avermat (the Olympic road race champion and CCC rider) was training with them today, but was told he was in Belgium, and this was the youth development team. The mechanic fitted the wheel, put the bike on the roof rack and the boy in the back. Then they all raced off to catch up the main group.
It did cross my mind to ask if they had any spare bidons that I could have as a souvenir, but I chickened out. Coincidentally, a few days later while we were waiting for a tram at Calpe, an Astana mechanic arrived to catch the tram home and happened to be carrying a bag of bidons from that day’s training ride, from which he kindly offered us one each. Astana are now one of our fave teams!!!
Anyway, after regrouping, it was mostly downhill to Relleu. I let gravity take control and got up a good amount of speed at one point, when a sudden strong gust pushed me right across the white line onto the other side of the road. Needless to say, after that I kept the speed down to a manageable level.
We arrived at Relleu on the lookout for a lunch stop, gathering on the main street to discuss where we might go. The wind was funnelling between the buildings at great force. Alison’s weather forecast said to expect wind gusts to 76 kph, and it felt every bit of that. We went into the Balcon de Relleu and ordered simple bocadillos for lunch.
After Relleu, there was a lot of descending till we met the CV-770 at a right turn. We had to do that very carefully, as the swirling wind could catch you by surprise at any time. Though mostly, the sight of madly thrashing bushes just ahead was enough warning to kill the speed a little and be prepared.
We turned left onto the CV-758 after a short while, taking us steeply down then steeply up before the slope moderated on the run-in to Finestrat. Another coffee stop was called for there, before the last proper climb of the day out of Finestrat. The wind might well have helped us here, as I remember feeling that it was quite easy.
Wanty-Groupe Gobert sped past as we were having coffee in Finestrat
After that, we descended safely to meet the busy CV-70 at a roundabout. Making use of a bit of cycle path then side roads, we managed to get back to Albir without coming across much traffic at all. The only traffic problem came as we tried to pass under a bridge in Albir, where the traffic goes from driving on the right to driving on the left as you pass under, then back to the right again. God only knows why they chose to do that, but it was the cause of much beeping of horns.
Soon after, we had parked the bikes safely in the underground car park and were planning our trip to an Indian restaurant for Lynne’s birthday. It had been a great sunny day of cycling that might have been perfect if it weren’t for the wind, and perhaps a slightly less stressful tram journey would have helped.
To give the tram its dues, we went the opposite direction to Calpe and found the L9 tram line a bit less busy and better suited to carrying bikes. With five of us, the tram was always going to be potentially problematic, but for a couple it would be ideal, as the tram opens up so much more area for cycling. Otherwise, you might run out of routes after a week.
With the 11 days in the sun over, we arrived back in Edinburgh to snow. It isn’t going to be easy to get motivated to cycle in the cold again…