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Costa Blanca

By John Braynard

July 2^nd, 2017

A few years ago I saw a photo of Tom Boonen standing by the ocean with a huge rocky mountain in the background. The place looked amazing and after a bit of research I discovered was the spring home to many professional teams. This place was Calpe, Spain.

This Spring Brigitte and I were thinking of where we could go and the Costa Blanca came to mind. We did a fair bit of research (just kidding, we did 0 research!) and decided to go to a small town just north of Calpe called Denia.

AirBnB booked and bikes rented from Cafe Ciclista, we flew into Valencia ready to explore the area.

I had no knowledge of the area other than a CyclingTips.com article from a few year ago - which left us pretty excited to explore the area.

So, luckily John at Cafe Ciclista was able to give us some killer tips when we first picked up the bikes.

Off we went...

Costa Blanca

Col De RATAS

I won't mention every single hill we rode up, but I think Col De Ratas deserves a bit of detail. First, the main climb is probably one of the nicest - easy paced climb on the planet. The gradient is just right for heavy-mashers like myself and the view is phenomenal. We saw hundreds of other cyclists on the climb. The backside non-ocean side of the climb is stunning, like some sort of cyclist's wet dream.

While most locals stop at the proper top of the climb, there is a tiny single lane "bike path" that continues a few kilometers over the top. This stretch is extremely unique and damn steep.

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Semana Santa

We were in the region during easter. Some parts of Spanish culture celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus with a tradition called Semana Santa that is oddly similar in style to another tradition from where I am from in the US. It ended up being extremely local and beautiful. Nothing even remotely related to the KKK.

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

Costa Blanca

© 2026 John Braynard

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