Every January, when northern Europe is grey and frozen, the peloton relocates to the Costa Blanca. Bahrain Victorious, Lotto Dstny, Van Rysel Roubaix, Flanders Baloise — they've all set up winter camp here, on the same roads you can ride tomorrow morning. Mathieu van der Poel keeps a flat in the region. He's not there for the beaches.
Alicante is not trying to be Girona. It doesn't have the boutique coffee shops or the professional mystique of the Catalan city. What it has is something more elemental: perfect cycling terrain, perfect cycling weather, and the quiet satisfaction of riding roads that the best cyclists in the world chose to be on when they could have been anywhere else.
The province stretches from the city itself north along the Costa Blanca — Campello, Altea, Calpe, Denia — with the mountains beginning almost immediately inland. The Sierra Bernia, the Puig Campana, the Col de Rates, the Ports de l'Horta — within thirty minutes of the coast you are climbing seriously, on roads that are smooth, quiet, and shaped exactly the way a cyclist would design them if given the chance.