Coll de Rates & Puerto de sa Crueta Loop
My final cycling adventure of 2024 finds me in the cycling mecca that is Denia, Spain. Denia is over 2,000 years old & much of its history revolves around its port & castle. We’re staying in the Nou Roma Hotel which is situated next to the castle. Once more we’ve picked a great base for a week of cycling!
We woke up to grey skies, which turned to showery rain as we met up at 9.15. This wasn’t going to deter our plans, as the temperature was in the high 20’s centigrade & the forecast predicted the rain wouldn’t last long. After navigating our way across town, we picked up a small 2-lane road that took us past orange & lemon groves. The first 5 miles were flat, so it gave us an opportunity to get our legs warmed up for the challenge ahead.
As we crossed under the motorway at Pedreguer we got our first peak of the big hills / small mountains that makes this region so popular with cyclists. Although we were still on wet roads, the rain had stopped & we could see a small sliver of blue sky in the distance, so things were already looking up in more ways than 1.
Our first climb of the day didn’t have a name, but it was about 5 miles in length & we gained about 1,000 of elevation. The gradient was a friendly 3% to 5% for most of the climb & the 1 standout sight was seeing a fully loaded horse & cart that was heading to Pedreguer for the Sunday market.
As we reached the small town of Parcent, we hit the lower slopes of the Coll de Rates which rises about 1,200 feet in a little under 4 miles – the pro riders will use this as a full-gas effort (the King of the Mountain record is 12 minutes 38 seconds & the Queen of the Mountain is 14 minutes 45 seconds), whereas my time of 44 minutes 30 seconds suggests I’m not quite at that level!!
We began the climb in a pine forest, but as we neared the summit, the views opened up all the way across to Denia, some 20 miles away.
We stopped for strawberry cheesecake, café con leche & an ice-cold coke. Due to the early morning rain, I was wearing water resistant kit (that also retains heat), so I was feeling like a boil-in-the-bag meal by this point!
After a brief descent into the town of Tarbena we turned right & began the last big climb of the day up to Puerto de sa Crueta. This was a 1,000-foot ascent in the space of 4 miles, but the gradient was inconsistent the whole way up. The final couple of hundred yards hit 13%, which certainly tested my climbing legs!
The good news was it was literally all downhill from this point – we had climbed 4,000 feet in the first 26 miles, whereas the next 26 miles would have less than 500 feet of uphill. Happy days!
My extra ballast pays dividends on the descents & I quickly freewheeled away from Sean as we headed towards Castell del Castells (ironically, it didn’t have a castle of any sort!). At 1 point Sean tagged on to a couple of locals who rode him back up to my wheel.
Our loop returned us to Pedreguer & from there we retraced our tire tracks to out hotel in Denia. Having set out in light rain, we enjoyed sun for most of the day & ended up riding on near deserted roads. I think we saw more cyclists today than motorists – always the sign of a great route on a cycling trip.
Gav's Cycling Adventures 