Calpe

 Calpe, home of sun, wind, sand, seniors and cyclists. So far in that order..

I have followed many riders who gravitate to this area during the cold European winters and was keen to get a feel for the place by bike.  Like Denia, this city sits right on the Mediterranean coast however, unlike Denia, all roads lead upwards.  No flat riding to be had here, so recovery days are walking the narrow streets of the old town.

Dark clouds cling to the mountain tops in the distance, we see from our 6th floor apartment on the morning of our first ride. The temps are around 20 degrees but the wind was howling with gusts of up to 45kmph.  We are here for a short time, so have to make most of the days and figure, the hills will provide some protection from the wind.

To access our loop, we head south, into strong winds towards Altea, the road running alongside the Mediterrean sea, not feeling exactly enthusiastic about the ride ahead at this point.  Once we turn inland, we both release a lot of tension and fall into the relax rhythm of climbing into the hills while the sun eventually show's herself.


The road is exquisitely quiet, the odd motor bike and cyclists, all heading upwards to the overhanging dark, threatening clouds.  It would be nice to think they will just hang there all day but as we get higher, the clouds eventually descend or we reach them, I dunno but soon enough, we are in pea soup.  

Dave is ahead of me, I can barely make out his form in the shifting fog, but I know its him, I recognise his long white socks.

We long ago donned our rain jackets, so are prepared as it starts to sprinkle fine misty rain. At least we are warm, as we are climbing the backside of Col de Rates, riders are descending towards us, their wet brakes squealing on the corners, some with no lights, 'stupid' I think to myself. 


I catch up to Dave as he waits for me at the top in the steady rain now, he is all excited, 'just said hello to Tom Pidcock (Mountain bike World Champion) and he said Hi.' While I've got a soaked bum from water coming off my back wheel, feet feel like their in buckets of water, white socks are now grey from dirt, can't see a thing with glasses on, but hey 'that's great' I say. Now we have to get down off this mountain.  At least my breaks don't squeal and we make it down safely to Parcent, town at the base for hot coffee and a dry off, before 40km ride home in wet gear. 

Day 2, we head North to the coastal town of Xabia, pronounced 'Shahbeeah'. It was raining when we woke so delayed our ride an hour or two, but then of course those lovely winds, had picked up by then and no matter what direction the route took us, we were into the wind most of the day.  A tuff day, particularly since it got to 25 degrees inland, hot for riding, then down along the coast into the hazy soup. 


Some parts were lovely, particularly the inland cultivation, every spare plot of land has some orchid on it.


But a tuff day overall, frustratingly slow in parts as I wait for the long queue's of patient cars to pass me,
along the narrow coast roads. Kinda feel guilty if I'm holding them up, but really, Spain is particularly patient when it comes to cyclists.  Pedestrians have right of way here, Number 1, then cyclists, then cars. It's an amazing experience, so safe for riding.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lisbon Portugal

Image
After the dreaded long haul light, we land in Lisbon, with no issues. The quickest way to recover from jet lag, is to stay awake as long as you can and fall asleep once the sun goes down in your new city.  So we hit the streets of Lisbon old town and walk till we drop. And what an awakening of the senses it was, the use of colours, stunning architecture and beautiful patterns everywhere. Davids orange jacket a perfect contrast colour against the stone backdrops. The city was hit with a devastating earthquake and subsequent fires in 1755, the majority of the old city rebuilt as we see it today, with modern architectural innovations and colour.  Many of the homes are covered in tiles, to provide protection from the humidity from the Tagus River. The rebuild was uniformly designed with wooden frameworks and stone walls providing flexible connections to withstand future seismic events in a grid like urban layout.  The result is a stunning, relaxed and easy city to walk throug...
Read more

Cycling the Atlantic Coastline

Image
Our goal was to ride to the furthest southwest tip of mainland Europe, Cape St. Vincent, where the next stop is Africa. We all excited as our final ride turns out to be perfect, in terms of wind direction and speeds.  The Atlantic winds can be brutal and we knew, 'to choose your day carefully'.  It's overcast with black clouds overhead as we disembark the train at Lagos.  But the rain is only light sprinkles, a tad annoying as we done our jackets, then have to take them off again as we get too hot.  It is simply stunning, as our route takes us up and down and into small coastal towns. The beautiful sandstone cliffs, remind me of home and the Great Ocean Road.  I think of Marcia as I ride past a Wyndham Premium Resort, what a stunning place to stay.. Unfortunately,  Lisa gets another flat.  Thank goodness for the boys. We pass though Sagres, the last town on the coast then make a bee line for the final drag down to the furthest southwest point in Portug...
Read more

Paella and Coll de Rates

Image
It's the night before Lisa's last ride, so we head to a traditional Spanish restaurant for some Tapas and Paella, glorious evening in the old part of town.  Our booking was for 6pm, happy hour in Spanish terms, so there is not many eating yet, some restaurants opening as we finish our meal.  But we have an early start tomorrow to ride the most famous, talked about ride in this region. We had four tapas, meatballs, baked potatoes, tempura cod and roasted young green peppers (capsicum) delicious... All eaten with fabulous local red wine, though I don't drink wine I can recommend the beer. Followed by two paella's, one of vegetables with different meats and the other, a seafood combo, without prawns, as Bob is allergic.  So the dish is a little odd to look at, but we don't want to have to use his EpiPen. The paella's are wonderful, perfectly cooked with the crusted bottoms. Really good local food. We wake to another perfect day and head to Parcent, the town at the ...
Read more