The Costa Blanca mountains are a favourite winter training ground for professional teams, and Castell de Castells sits right in the middle of the good part: high, quiet roads, honest climbs and villages with a bar at exactly the right moment. You don't ride out to the mountains from here; you wake up in them, in a village that has been working these terraces for centuries.
The classic climbs from Castell de Castells
Coll de Rates
The most famous climb on the Costa Blanca, where you'll see the pros doing their winter intervals. From Parcent it's a steady, beautifully surfaced 6.5 km with sweeping views north and a restaurant terrace at the top. It can also be approached from the Tarbena side, straight off our own road, for a longer, gentler way up.
Tossal dels Diners
After the Coll, the optional extension to Tossal dels Diners adds roughly 3 km of much harder climbing, with ramps over 15% and a final section around 21%, plus a short unpaved stretch before the concrete road. It is a different proposition altogether, and very much optional. The full Parcent ascent works out at about 9.8 km at 6.6%.
Port de la Vall d'Ebo
Many riders' favourite climb in the region: ten hairpins, barely any traffic, kilometre boards with the gradients on them, and views that keep improving. The steepest work comes in the first two kilometres, there's a merciful flat shelf halfway, and the high valley beyond the top is glorious, empty riding.
Port de Tudons
The highest paved mountain pass in Alicante, and the big one for a proper day in the Aitana mountains: seventeen hairpins up from Sella with gradient boards every kilometre. It is a long, steady climb rather than a wall, but there are ramps around 10% and above. Fold it into a big day through Guadalest and Confrides and you've earned whatever you order at the bar that evening.
Road surfaces on the main climbing roads are generally very good, and traffic in these inland valleys is light in a way coastal riders don't quite believe until they arrive. Gradients are honest rather than brutal. For most riders, a sensible climbing gear is worth having: the main passes are steady rather than savage, but the Tossal dels Diners extension is another matter entirely.
Rides from Casa Blanca
These loops link the best-known roads of the region straight from the village. Distances are honest approximations; the area is well mapped on Komoot and Wikiloc for planning your exact route.
1. The Rates loop
Down the Vall de Pop to Parcent, up the classic side of the Coll de Rates, then home over Tarbena on the CV-752, one of the quietest, prettiest roads in the region. Coffee stop in Parcent, views the whole way back.
2. The two-valleys day
Out through the Vall de Pop and around to the Vall d'Ebo climb, over the top into the high valley, then back through the empty lanes towards home. Refill water in Vall d'Ebo village; there isn't much else up there, which is exactly the point.
3. The Vall de Seta villages
West from the door through Famorca, Facheca and Tollos, tiny stone villages strung along the valley beneath the Serrella. Almost no cars, no famous climbs, just constantly rolling mountain road. Lovely in almond blossom season.
