Day 82: Tabernas (Cycle)

At the "official start" of today's climb to the Puerto de Alto de Velefique and beyond!

At the Alto, but with yet more climbing (about 330 metres of elevation) to the masts on top of the cone shaped mound in the distance (about 5 kilometres away):

An old climb sign just before the Pueblo of Velefique:

Which is not consistent with the newer one!

Although, the official climb is 14 kilometres in length, to get to the "start" required climbing from Tabernas at an average gradient of 2.5%. So, effectively I was climbing for about 34.5 kilometres followed by a descent of 34.5 kilometres, which was most enjoyable: especially as there was very little in the way of motorised traffic. Indeed, in total there were about 6 cars, 2 motorbikes, 1 motorbike with sidecar, 1 scooter and no bicycles encountered all day!

The "official climb" is often compared with the French climb of Alpe d'Huez, except the French climb only has 21 hairpins, whereas the Spanish climb has 25! (another site suggests it's 23 - I didn't count them!) Both are 14 kilometres in length. However the elevation gain is about 120 metres greater for Alpe d'Huez.


The other main difference is that the Puerto de Alto de Velefique is very much less well known and, as such, does not see equivalent amounts of bicycle traffic: its remoteness may also contribute to this. According to Strava (cycling App), there have been 11,368 attempts of the Velefique compared with 336,483 for Alpe d'Huez! (Obviously, these figures relate to Strava users only, but I think it gives a reasonable indication of the relative popularity of these two climbs).

The highest point of the day was at the Mirador La Tetica (aka Tetica de Bacares), where there was snow to be found!

     

The elevation at the summit is 2080 metres and I started at an elevation of 430. So that is roughly an elevation gain of 1.025262 miles!

When I climbed "only" to Puerto de Alto de Velefique in 2023 I was mostly cycling in cloud, didn't really get to appreciate the views and thought I was going to become hypothermic on the descent: it was oh so very cold with the wind chill and freezing temperatures: With out doubt today's ride was more enjoyable!

I had planned to move to the coast after the ride to be closer to the start of my next ride but, just as I was about to leave, it crossed my mind to check the weather forecast - the temperatures were forecast to be in the low 20's °C, compared with about 13°C here. So I'm stay put! But, I will need to get up early in the morning, which is never a good thing!

• Distance driven: 0
• Distance cycled: 69 kilometres
• Weather: Much better than last time!

Today's route: