(guitar music)
(quick laugh)
- We're out here in sunny Spain,
and we're in a beautiful location, Doddy.
- [Doddy] Yeah, right outside Alicante.
Tour Spain and I hooked this up.
Rad trip.
- [Dean] I know, look at all these mountains to pick.
But you've been here before, so you can be the guide.
- We're hitting that one first.
We're going to ride down there off the back.
- Down there?
- Yes, it's a bit of a mean hike up the other side there.
Sort of pointing to the top.
- Yeah.
- Then we've got all of that to go.
- All of that?
- Yeah.
- Oh my goodness, are we going to have enough time
to round that and head back down there for a beer?
- We're gonna have to.
- Alright let's go.
- Let's get pedalling.
- Let's go. - Join us for a ride.
(yelling)
(upbeat music)
- We're riding just outside the city of Alicante
in eastern Spain, it's located on the stunning
Costa Blanca coastline which is part of the Valencia region.
Access to the hills is just a short pedal
from the small town of San Vincente Del Raspeig,
which is just six kilometres from the seafront.
So a lot of the trails out here in sort of the
Valencia Costa Blanca region are really really rocky,
as we been finding out.
- Yeah.
- And it's just the sort of stuff you can't really
go into as hot but you've gotta check it out
cause it's pretty hard on the bike.
- Yeah so you want to take a lot of spares with you.
You gotta take some inner tubes, be it in a backpack,
or on your bike anywhere, just take some spares with you,
cause you don't wanna get a puncture
so far out in the mountains and you gotta walk
all the way back into the city.
- Yeah and there's a lot of stuff like this
you creep up on pretty blind as well so,
just have that in the back of your mind
when you're riding this sort of terrain.
(upbeat music)
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
Well getting up one of those descents that we just did,
makes the burning legs worth it.
(upbeat music)
Alicante is quite high for mountain bikers.
There are some really good bike shops in town,
and the Spanish brand Mondraker are based here too.
You'll often see the R and D riders out testing
new prototype bikes on these very hills.
Last year we saw loads of locals out riding en masse.
Both on regular bikes and on E bikes too.
All of them were really friendly.
(upbeat music)
What it's all about Dean.
- Yeah, this is sweet.
So when was the time you came here?
- [Doddy] I was actually here in April.
- That's not long is it.
- Yeah, so, April 2017.
- So you're familiar with the trails then.
- Yeah not this particular one but I have been out here.
It's pretty rad, it's super rocky.
(upbeat music)
About 40% of the Valencia region is over 600 metres
above sea level, and Castelo, which is based
in the north of Alicante, is the
second most mountainous province in Spain.
So it's perfect for exploring by mountain bike.
There's a network of BTT centres in the region
that offer a whole range of mapped trails
to suite riders of different abilities.
There's up to 100 kilometres of colour coded trails here
already available to ride, and much like UK trail centres
they'll offer bike hire and have facilities
like car parks and wash rooms.
(upbeat music)
Although here in the winter season,
it can be really warm in the middle of the day.
The temperatures definitely drop at sundown,
and the wind can be quite chilling when up in the hills.
(upbeat music)
Hey what a ride eh?
- [Dean] Yeah, insane.
Bit rocky but it was super fun.
- [Doddy] Rocky, windy, sunny, we've had it all today.
- [Dean] Don't forget about the wind, that was horrible.
- [Doddy] Beat. - [Dean] Yeah.
- [Doddy] Put her there.
- That was so good, we did like 20 miles.
We went round that mountain,
- Super rocky just outside town there.
- And then that mountain there.
Yeah you cycle out of the city to the mountains.
- [Doddy] And just got back here just to catch that.
- [Dean] Catch that big guy going down there.
- [Doddy] What a run.
- [Dean] Wow it looks like there's weather coming in.
- I reckon we got time for a cheeky beer,
before that rain comes in.
- Yes but if you want to see another video,
click down here, epic ride of us and whistler.
- And if you want to see another epic ride,
click down here for Fort William.
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- And if you like our rocky ride, give us a thumbs up.