Gran Fondo La Nucía 2026

The route

Gran Fondo La Nucía reaches its second edition from La Nucía, home of the Comunitat Valenciana Olympic Stadium and one of the key hubs of professional cycling on the Costa Blanca in winter. A single distance of 132 km. La Nucía is well known in the cycling world for hosting WorldTour team training camps during October, November, and February: the climate and roads of the Alicante interior are among the best in Europe for quality riding when the rest of the continent is under grey skies.

The 132 km route follows the same passes that professional teams use for their autumn training blocks: the Serra de Bèrnia, the Puig Campana, and the Serra Gelada. The Serra de Bèrnia has a very distinctive ridgeline with a sawtooth profile visible from kilometres away. The Puig Campana (1,406 m) is the most prominent peak in the area, with the Foradà hole through the summit rock. The Serra Gelada, closer to the coast, closes the route with views of the Mediterranean and Benidorm in the background. These are not high mountain passes, but the accumulation over 132 km is not trivial.

October on the Costa Blanca has a reputation for being ideal cycling weather, and in normal conditions it is: 20-26°C, sunshine, and light wind. But October is also the month of the gota fría (cold drop) weather system on the Mediterranean, and when it arrives it does so with intensity. In normal conditions, wind on the Costa Blanca in October is a moderate E/SE sea breeze of 10-20 km/h that barely registers on the interior roads. On strong Levante days, particularly those associated with the gota fría, easterly wind can reach 30-40 km/h on exposed coastal sections, though the topography provides significant shelter on the interior passes. October is the most unpredictable variable in the calendar: it can produce the best day of the year or arrive with heavy rain and strong wind.

La Nucía is 55 km from Alicante on the AP-7 and 10 km from Benidorm. The Olympic Stadium is an easy landmark for arrival and the village has all necessary services. October is low to mid-season on the Costa Blanca but hotels remain open with good availability. If a WorldTour team happens to be on a training camp at the same time, the possibility of sharing the roads with professional cyclists is entirely real.

Variants and GPX

Past editions

Real Open-Meteo weather on each edition day.

How to register

Registration, price and rules are on the official website of the organization. Official march website →

More information

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