This Christmas holiday I left for Spain in order to escape het horrendous Belgian weather. The goal was to train and to train hard. Given the current state of the season (first race is planned in the end of April in Cannes, FRA) the accent was placed on volume.

And volume it was. With 5 25km runs and several 20km and with 4 150km bike rides and even one double century ride quite some distance was covered. All in all, my body coped really well. Only my food intake seemed to not be able to follow the effort. I dropped from 63,8kg to 62,1 (for 1m80) and from 5,2% body fat to an abnormal low 3,8%. This week I will be eating a lot of junk to prevent getting sick.

The results were there as well. Thanks to staying injury free, my performance chart on TrainingPeaks soared to a 106 Fitness. Hereunder you can also find a heat map of the different cycling and running routes. The swim routes remain limited to the communal pool.

What follows is a post I wrote to promote the town of Benicassim as a place for winter training. Not the usual travel guide style, but you’ll catch my drift. I’ll refer to different routes, but as I can’t add GPX files, I will find another way to make them available, If requested.

A winter stage in Benicassim? Explanation in 5 routes.

Who on earth buys a travel guide? Far more valuable are the experiences of equal minded peers. Nevertheless, the writing of an all-including travel brochure is not that evident. I present you with the description of a potential place to pass the winter as a runner/cyclist/triathlete, thematic based on cycling routes.

It goes by itself that there are way more roads to explore than just these five. Or that one could combine different routes into one. Just ask, inform yourself or join an organized trip, that way you don’t have to think for yourself.

Desierto de las Palmas

Benicassim, 1600km from Brussels and 80km from Valencia is located in the Valenciana region at the Costa Azahar. It is not really a costa that is well known among Belgian tourists, but even from here you can send the hot kisses. The adjective can be taken literally, for the kisses you’ll have to work for yourself. Due to the fact that the province of Castellon is enclosed by hills in the north, south and west, the region is granted a supreme microclimate. When the whole of Spain is drenched in rain, the sun will shine in Benicassim.

Costa Azahar not being in popular demand with Belgian tourists is rather positive in my opinion. The Spanish traffic rules insist that cars passing bikes should leave minimal 1,5m space. Most Spanish drivers interpret this freely and give you the whole lane. Belgian mentality is to try and chop your handlebars with their rearview mirrors, a mentality they apparently tend to put in their travel cases. Nothing of the matter, nice tourist-free cycling in Benicassim.

A small downside is the language. Other than Spanish they don’t speak much there, no French, no English, but with some obscene gestures you can explain in a pharmacy that you need something for your saddle soars.

The ride

The Desierto de las Palmas is a natural reserve immediately to the west of Benicassim. A true paradise mountain bikers and motor crossers, but on your road bike you’ll have just as much fun.

A loop can be made from the town center – climb on the north side of the hill – descent on the south side – flat run to the center in approximately 25km. 25km consisting in a climb and descent, both measuring 7,5km at around 6% average; giving you a 450 gain. Doing the ride in this order gives you the most spectacular views, since the south slope passes mainly through woodland. If you want to conquer the hill on both sides, the Spanish government has provided a treat: on the start of the climb and on the end of the descent (so independent of direction) they have placed a roundabout. Descent, smoothly make your u-turn, climb. Love it.

Ribesalbes

Plenty of hotels to be found in and near Benicassim, all different pricing as well. You can choose for a sports hotel, such as Intur Orange, and benefit from a bike storage place, 25m pool and fitness, or you can choose a more economic option in the town center, in which case you shall have to visit the communal pool to do your swim sessions. Most hotels are accustomed to cyclists and will happily provide you a solution for your carbon stallion, either the room or an enclosed storage room.

If you are a frequent swimmer in Belgium, you will feel my pain. Sharing lanes during public hours in the pool is a recipe for disaster and frustration. This pool found the solution in providing ridiculously large opening hours: daily from 0700 to 2100 (bit shorter in the weekends), leaving you nearly solo in the pool at times. The price is very acceptable as well: 35 euro for 10 sessions, including Jacuzzi, sauna and fitness.

Another option for residing are one of the many camping sites. The largest, Bonterra Park, can be found at merely 200m of the town center. And if you’re not a fan of tents and caravans, there are reasonably priced chalet and bungalows to rent.

The ride

A whole lot of words about pools brings us seamlessly to the Embassament del Sitjar, a hydro-power plant to the south-west of Benicassim. A 45km ride leads to the town of Ribesalbes, at the lake shore. The whole session takes about 90km with a 700m gain and is one of the most flat rides you can do in this area, if you don’t want to ride up and down the coastline.

After setting out you will pass Castellon de la Plana. Even though this is only the capitol of a province, its population is bigger than Brussels’. Cruising through the city center is not really advisable.

The curvy north side of the lake is very rarely visited by cars and is hence the ideal spot for some technical power sessions. Very rarely visited implies that there can be cars, unseen in the corners, so sticking to your lane is a must!

Santa Lucia

Just north of Benicassim lays the town of Oropesa del Mar. Both are connected by an old railroad track, partially asphalted for cyclists, partially gravel for hikers and runners. Thanks to the unoverwhelming climbing capabilities of trains this Via Verde is relatively flat, ideal for a LSD run. To the south you can run next to the beaches and, if you avoid enough Spaniards, you will arrive in Grau, one of the suburbs of Castellon.

If you’d rather develop some thick calves on the run, the areas of La Colomera, La Renega and El Balco, just next to the Via Verde are there for you. They vary from very acceptable slopes to monsters of +25%. For the very long run it is possible to tackle the Dieserto on foot. It has been described by the road, but you can also climb it offroad or via mountain bike trails. Slopes of +25% are not exceptional here as well…

The ride

The ride to Santa Lucia starts with a heartbreaking choice: do you opt for the flat Via Verde or do you make a little detour and pass the short but steep viewpoint of Oropses? After this choice the road remains flat along the coastline, passing orange, olive and artichoke fields to the village of Alcossebre.

If you choose to make your u-turn at that point, you’ll have had an 80km flat ride, only 200m gain thanks to the view point. If you choose to proceed and climb Santa Lucia, why not, it was a finish in 2017s Vuelta, you’re in for some suffering.

It’s a pimple of only 4,5km, but you make 350m gain. So you can say it’s a pimple that’s about to pop. With segments at 23% you can only hope that you manage to turn your 39/25 around quickly enough to prevent a face plant. The other way around, on the descent, you can only hope that your brakes don’t give way. All that aside: pretty! Really pretty.

I must apologize for the strange lay-out of the map and graphs, but I only did this route as part of something bigger. So you should follow the bright blue line.

Albocasser

Spain is not flat. I think I’ve mentioned that before. But the fact that you can climb cols hors catergorie other than in the Pyrenees is a less known fact.

One of these can be found a few miles north of Benicassim. If you climb the Coll de Bandereta (Serra d’Enganceran) from the correct side (via Benlloch), you’re in for a 12,5km treat and 490m gain. The other side is possible as well, makes it just a bit shorter. Or did I forget to mention that you’d have to pass the Alto de la Sarratelle? A 15,5km climb at 4% average.

Shorter, more explosive hills are plenty around. Few of those are the Desierto, 7,5km and 450m gain; the view point of Oropesa, 5km and 150m gain with a descent about halfway; Cabanes, 8km with 330m gain; the climb to Borriol, 3km with 150m gain or the port de Eslida, 16km climb with 550m gain.

The ride

The Alpine stage to do near Benicassim is called Albocasser, after the town enclosed by the Coll de Bandereta and the Alto de la Sarratelle. Also the furthest point of the ride.
Setting off is direction Oropesa, preferably via the view point, that way the calves are warm for what is to come. Next it’s over Cabanes, where the loop starts. If you want to start with the Coll, you follow the Vall d’Alba arrows, if you want to start with the Atlo, you follow Vilanova.

Both sides are equally pretty and both sides result in the same distance and gain. This is one of the benefits of a loop. The total adds up to 140km with over 2000m gain.

Eslida

What rests is a brief description of nature and climate. If I’d were to say that the variation is immense, I wouldn’t be lying. The surroundings are far from monotonous as Fuerteventura or Lanzarote, there are hills and there is coastline. Cities and rural areas. Orange and artichoke fields. Barren climbs with great views and climbs sheltered by woodland. You name it.

The climate is very pleasant for a sporty holiday. The region is known for its ridiculous amount of sunny hours, it scarcely rains, but the humidity is rather high. Ideal for the sweaty ones. In summer it tends to get too hot for me, but if you function in 40°C, be my guest. This Christmas holiday, days with 25° were recorded. This is rather exceptional, but anywhere between 17 and 20 can be considered normal.

The ride

The variation in landscape becomes very clear during the ride to the town of Eslida. In the route drawn hereunder, I’ve added the Desierto as warm-up, feel free to leave it out.

We leave following the coastline to Castellon. Once past this provincial town it’s cruise control on the main road, luckily Spanish mentality is more cyclist-oriented than at home. After this brief intermezzo it’s time for the orange fields. The quality of the streets is not optimal in this section, but one could consider it as training for the abominable cycling lanes in Belgium.

Halfway out we arrive in Eslida and the climb to port de Eslida. A climb through woolands. It’s advisable to start on the north side: starting off early enough may cause the roads to be damp due to condensation, the advantage of starting from this side is that the descent has seen some sunshine and will be dried up for the most part.

After the descent we go straight through the center of La Val d’Uxio (market on Friday, stay away, complete chaos) and continue on a very soft descent towards Castellon and home.
It’s lovely and it’s 150km with 1400m gain (if you include the Desierto).