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ICONIC ASCENTS & PANORAMIC VIEWS

Hills to climb

Experience iconic ascents like the Coll de Rates, a favorite among professional cyclists for its combination of steady gradients and panoramic views. Tackle the legendary Cumbre del Sol, known from the Vuelta a España, and feel the thrill of conquering its steep, winding roads. Explore the scenic Bernia climb, a hidden gem that rewards you with serene vistas and a true sense of adventure.

Col de Rates

Coll de Rates is THE climb that everyone, from pro riders to novice cyclists, does when in Costa Blanca. It is by no means the steepest or the longest climb in the region, but for one reason or another the ascent from Parcent has near mythical status.

The approach through the Xaló valley sets the tone before the real climbing begins. The road rolls gently through orange groves, almond trees and vineyards, past the scattered villages of Lliber, Xaló and Alcalalí, before arriving at Parcent, where you turn left onto the CV-715 and the gradient asserts itself immediately. The lower slopes are steady and open, offering wide views north across the valley as you gain height. The road tightens and twists through the middle section, then delivers a sweeping 180-degree hairpin before the hardest kilometres — a straight, exposed run to the summit averaging 8% — where the sea appears to the south and the effort becomes unavoidable. Kilometre markers with gradient readings are posted throughout, which is useful when you are trying to hold something back for that final push.

The road surface is immaculate. Traffic on the climb itself is light. And from November through to March, on any clear morning, you are almost certain to share the tarmac with riders from WorldTour squads on winter base training. Tadej Pogačar holds the Strava segment record at 11 minutes 51 seconds. That proximity — professional riders, amateur cyclists, the same road, the same café at the top — is part of what gives Coll de Rates its character. There is a restaurant at the summit with a terrace and panoramic views, though it rarely opens before eleven, which tends to catch early-starting groups out.

The col sits at a natural crossroads, and the options from the top are what make it so well suited to building longer days in the mountains.

The most popular continuation is the descent northwest towards Tàrbena — fast, technical and rewarding, with views over the Serra de Bernia on the approach to the village. From Tàrbena, the CV-752 adds further climbing before dropping down to Castell de Castells, which has become the standard coffee stop on the classic loop: a quiet inland village with a bar that knows its clientele well.

For those with more in the legs, the CV-720 from Castell de Castells back towards Parcent completes a circuit that takes in rolling terrain, vine-covered hillsides and the full breadth of the Marina Alta interior — typically 70 to 90 kilometres in total from the coast, depending on the start point.

An alternative from the summit heads northeast towards Pla de Petracos — a short but fierce transition with ramps touching 17% — which opens up the connection to Col de Vall d’Ebo. The combination of both climbs in a single day is the standard itinerary for training camps in the region, and the one most likely to leave you genuinely satisfied with the distance by the time you roll back to the coast.

For the ambitious, a rough track continues past the restaurant towards Tossal dels Diners at 927 metres — an additional 3 kilometres at 10.5% on a narrow paved lane — extending the total ascent from Parcent to nearly 10 kilometres. Most riders leave this extension for a second visit, which is exactly what Coll de Rates tends to produce.

Col de La Vall d' Ebo

Col de Vall d’Ebo is the climb that those who have already done Coll de Rates go looking for next. It sits just far enough off the main cycling circuit to feel like a discovery, yet anyone who has spent a proper week riding the Costa Blanca will tell you it belongs in the same conversation.

The standard ascent begins in Pego, where the CV-712 peels away from the valley floor and commits immediately to the mountain. The numbers are honest rather than alarming — 8 kilometres at an average of 6%, topping out at 540 metres — but what makes Vall d’Ebo memorable is the way the landscape changes around you as you climb. The lower slopes run through a dense pine forest, and the road tightens into a series of proper switchbacks that let you gain height quickly without ever feeling like the gradient is trying to break you. Above the treeline, the pines give way to open limestone hillside, the road straightens, and suddenly the Mediterranean appears in the distance. That view alone is worth the effort.

The road surface is excellent throughout, traffic is essentially non-existent, and kilometre markers with gradient percentages are posted at regular intervals — a detail that separates the serious cycling roads of this region from everything else. Maximum ramps touch 11%, but only briefly. The climb rewards steady pacing more than raw power, which is precisely why pro teams from across Europe use it for tempo and threshold work during winter base camps.

Reaching the col opens up more options than most riders expect. The most obvious next move is to drop into the village of La Vall d’Ebo itself — a short, sharp descent of 3.4 kilometres that puts you in front of the village bar, which is exactly where you want to be. Coffee, a brief stop, then a decision.

From Vall d’Ebo, the road east towards Alt de Tarrenyes and Pla de Petracos adds another 3.9 kilometres of climbing at 5.5% — a quieter, more remote pitch with steeper ramps and very little company, often described by those who ride it as the hidden reward of the whole day.

Those wanting a longer inland loop can press north on the CV-712 towards Port de Tollos at 830 metres, linking into the Guadalest valley and eventually back to Coll de Rates for a final climb before the coast — a combination that appears on several winter training camp itineraries and forms the closing act of the Gran Fondo Contador held each September in the region.

The western descent back towards Pego, meanwhile, is among the finest in the area: long, fast, technically interesting, and with the sea growing larger in the windscreen of your vision with every hairpin. It is the kind of descent that makes the climb feel like an investment rather than a cost.

Vall de La Gallinera

Vall de la Gallinera is not primarily a climb. It is a route — and that distinction matters. Where Coll de Rates tests you and Col de Vall d’Ebo rewards the effort, the Gallinera valley simply pulls you in and refuses to let you go until you have ridden through all eight of its villages and understood why riders from across Europe keep coming back to this particular corner of the Costa Blanca interior.

The standard approach follows the CV-700 northwest out of Pego, where the road leaves the coastal plain and begins to rise gently into the mountains. The gradient is patient — 23 kilometres at an average of just 2.5%, topping out at 628 metres — and that patience is the point. This is not a climb to suffer on. It is a road to inhabit. The effort required is steady but never alarming, which leaves everything else — the landscape, the light, the villages, the blossom — available to the attention in a way that harder climbing does not allow.

The valley is flanked by the Sierra de les Solanes and the dramatic limestone walls of the Penya Foradà, a rock formation with a natural arch through which, on the equinox, the sun passes in a straight line. The valley floor and lower terraces are planted with cherry, almond, orange and olive trees in a density that changes the character of the riding with every season. In February and March, the blossom is so thick along the roadside that riders often stop without quite knowing why — the instinct to pause precedes the conscious decision. In late spring, the cherries are sold from roadside stalls in front of bars that have been serving cyclists for decades.

The eight villages — Benirrama, Benialí, Benitaia, Benissivà, La Carroja, Alpatró, Llombai and Benissili — appear at intervals along the valley like beads on a string. Each is small, quiet and architecturally intact, with stone walls and terraced orchards climbing the slopes behind. The bar in Benissivà has become the standard mid-route stop on longer loops, less by official designation than by the collective decision of thousands of passing riders who found it at the right moment.

The col itself sits at the junction of several excellent onward possibilities, and choosing between them is the main logistical pleasure of a day spent in this part of the region.

The most popular continuation drops northwest over the Alto de Margarida and descends towards the Beniarrés reservoir — a long, quiet plunge through open hillside with the water appearing gradually in the valley below. From Beniarrés, the road south to Lorcha and then east through L’Orxa opens a loop back towards Pego or Denia that covers some of the wildest and least-trafficked terrain in the province, with the kind of silence on the road that has become genuinely rare across European cycling destinations.

Those heading northeast from the valley summit can connect to the Mirador del Xap and the upper section of Vall d’Ebo — a logical pairing that makes the Gallinera the approach road to Ebo rather than a destination in its own right, and extends the day into something considerably more demanding.

A third option, continuing south from the valley over the Port de Tollos at 830 metres, links into the Guadalest circuit and eventually back towards Coll de Rates — the standard architecture of the big days ridden out of Calpe or Denia during winter training camps, and the route followed by the Gran Fondo Contador each September.

What sets Vall de la Gallinera apart from the named climbs around it is precisely that it does not make the same demands. It is the ride between the hard things, the route that connects the mountains to the coast and gives a long day its logic. Most riders remember it more vividly than the climbs on either side of it — which, in its own way, is the best recommendation it could have.

Collado de la Garga
(La Vall de Laguar)

Collado de la Garga is the climb that earns its place on the list through character rather than fame. It appears on fewer training camp itineraries than Coll de Rates and draws fewer first-time visitors than Vall d’Ebo, but riders who have done it tend to rank it among the most complete ascents in the region — and they tend to say so with a specific kind of conviction that comes from having been properly tested.

The standard ascent begins just outside Orba, where the CV-721 turns north into the Vall de Laguar and commits to a long, steady approach through the valley floor. The opening kilometres are generous — pine forest on either side, a handful of proper hairpin bends, the gradient manageable — and they deliver you through the three villages of Campell, Fleix and Benimaurell in sequence, each perched a little higher on the valley wall than the last. This section of the climb is, in the best sense, processional. The views over the Orba valley open progressively as you gain height, and on clear days the Mediterranean is visible as a thin bright line behind you.

The valley itself carries its own weight in the ride. La Vall de Laguar was one of the final refuges of the Moorish population after the Reconquista, and the terraced hillsides — over 7,500 stone steps built in the eighth century and still intact — are visible from the road throughout the ascent. The agriculture of almonds, cherries and olives on these terraces gives the lower slopes their texture and their smell in spring, when the blossom coincides with the best months for riding.

Then Benimaurell arrives, and the climb changes its mind. The village itself pitches steeply at 16%, announcing the real business of the upper section. Beyond the last houses, the road narrows significantly and the final 2.8 kilometres make a different kind of demand — sustained ramps above 15%, with a maximum recorded gradient of over 20% in the steepest passage, and nothing to interrupt the effort except the views, which by this point are extraordinary. The sea, the coastal towns, the full sweep of the Marina Alta from altitude: it is the kind of panorama that arrives at precisely the moment the legs most need something to think about.

The summit sits at 766 metres, and the Venta del Collau — a small café and restaurant at the top — is one of the better-justified stops on any cycling itinerary in the region. It opens reliably, serves cake and coffee to riders who have clearly earned both, and has the kind of terrace that makes the decision to sit down for ten minutes feel like wisdom rather than weakness.

The col opens two distinct onward options, and which you choose determines the character of the rest of the day.

The straightforward descent back to Orba returns the way you came — long, fast and rewarding in its own right, recovering quickly through the pine forest and back to the valley floor. This is the sensible choice if the Garga is the main event of the day.

The more interesting option drops south on the CV-720 towards Benigembla and the Jaló valley — a rougher descent, with some sections of older road surface and concrete paving on the steeper pitches, but manageable on a road bike and well worth the minor inconvenience. From Benigembla, the Jaló valley opens up the full range of connections: east towards Parcent and Coll de Rates for a final climb before the coast, or west towards Castell de Castells for the coffee stop on the classic loop. This is the combination most commonly ridden by training camps based in Calpe or Denia, and the one that turns the Garga from a notable climb into an anchor for a genuinely ambitious day.

A third possibility, for riders prepared to piece together less-travelled roads, connects northwards from the col towards the Pla de Petracos and eventually Vall d’Ebo — bringing the full mountain interior into a single circuit that few riders outside the region know exists, and fewer still complete in a single outing.

Alto Miserat

Alto Miserat – known locally also as Pico Xilibre – is the outlier in this collection of climbs. Where Coll de Rates has status and Col de Vall d’Ebo has scenery, where Coll de la Garga has its villages and its history, Miserat has something harder to name: a raw, unmediated severity that keeps its numbers at the summit small and its reputation disproportionately large among those who have been there. By the difficulty scoring used by climbers across the region, it ranks as the toughest paved ascent in the whole of the Costa Blanca. That is not a casual distinction.

The mountain sits at the junction of three valleys — Gallinera, Ebo and the coastal plain north of Pego — which means it can be approached from three different directions, and which also means it commands, from its summit, the most comprehensive panorama in the northern Alicante province. On a clear day the Balearic Islands are visible on the horizon. This is not the view from a col that other roads happen to cross. It is the view from a genuine high point, the highest in the surrounding area, and it has to be earned accordingly.

The most commonly ridden approach climbs from Pego on the south side, gaining 661 metres in 6.6 kilometres at an average of just over 10%. The numbers are accurate but they do not quite convey the texture of what happens on the road. The first significant passage — a sustained 1.6-kilometre stretch averaging 15.6% — arrives before the legs have any right to be tired and takes what composure you had carefully assembled on the lower slopes. There is then a merciful flattening at the Camp de Tir, a shooting range at the midpoint of the climb, where the road relents long enough for a cyclist to remember who they are before the gradient reasserts itself for the final push to the col. Beyond that junction, the road to the actual summit — marked by a radar station and telecommunications mast at 751 metres — adds a final concrete ramp of punishing steepness that some riders walk and none find comfortable.

The road surface has historically been mixed, with potholed sections in the middle passages, though the final kilometre to the summit has been resurfaced and is now in good condition. Traffic is essentially zero. There are no kilometre markers with reassuring gradient readings. There are no cafés. There is very little shade on the upper half, where the mountain opens to bare rock and the road is entirely exposed. What there is, increasingly, is the view: the Gallinera and Ebo valleys falling away to either side, the sea growing on the horizon, the whole interior geography of the region laid out below in a way that no other summit in the area can match.

The climb from Adsubia, on the east flank, is by most accounts the hardest of the three approaches — 6.2 kilometres at an average of 10.7%, with sustained sections above 20% and a road surface that requires careful line selection throughout. It is less travelled than the Pego side, which makes it quieter but also means there is less collective knowledge of its condition on any given day. The descent from this side back to the CV-712 is not recommended on a road bike without prior knowledge of the surface.

The third approach, from La Vall d’Ebo on the north, is the most forgiving — 5 kilometres at 7.3% average — and the one most likely to be appended to a descent of Col de Vall d’Ebo as a short, sharp addition to a longer day. It works well in this configuration: Ebo down, Miserat up from the north, then back through the valley or across to Pego.

There is no café, no restaurant, no natural stopping point except the bare col itself and whatever the view offers — and what it offers is considerable. The 360-degree panorama from the summit takes in the Mediterranean to the south and east, the Gallinera valley cutting northwest through its mountains, the Ebo valley running west, and on clear mornings the faint shape of Ibiza and Formentera on the horizon over the sea.

The practical options are a return by the same route or the Pego-to-Adsubia circuit, which riders occasionally set as a standalone day from the coast — up one side, down the other, back along the valley floor. The combination with Col de Vall d’Ebo, linked via the road through La Vall d’Ebo, makes a natural pairing for riders wanting two serious climbs in a single outing without excessive mileage in between. From either summit, Pego serves as the resupply point: the town has cafés, a bakery, and the kind of bar that understands what a cyclist looks like at the end of a hard morning in the mountains.