DAY ONE · THE SHAKE OUT

Arrivals Valencia by 13:00, Castellón by 14:00

Check in and bike build from 15:00

Ride departs 17:30

Land, unpack, build the bike. A local shop can do it instead if you would rather, just tell us in advance.

At 17:30 we roll out together, one group, easy pace. Quiet back roads west into the foothills, climbing gently to just under 500 metres through almond and olive terraces. Passing though the beginning of Stage 7 of this year's La Vuelta Tour.

At 31 km we stop for coffee in the square at Atzeneta del Maestrat, the town at the mouth of the mountains and the gateway to most of your week.

Then home to discuss the week in detail over dinner.

The shakeout checks your bike is right and helps us put you in the group that suits you.

DAY TWO ·  START CLIMBING

Signature 57.8 km · 967m · approx 3h 05

Extended 80.7 km · 1,546m · approx 3h 50

Both groups roll out together for the first 10 km to Atzeneta, where the road turns upward and the week begins properly.

Signature climbs 13 km at 4% to the stone village of Benafigos at 894m, then turns and takes the same road back down.

Extended keeps going. Twenty kilometres of climbing to Xodos topping out at 12.5%. At 1,096m, one of the smallest inhabited places in the Valencian interior, then across the high ground to Port del Collao at 1,058m before the long descent through Benafigos.

Both groups meet in Atzeneta for food, then ride home together. The CV-170 is narrow, beautifully surfaced and almost empty. 

You will hear the group before you hear a car.

DAY THREE · HIGH IN THE MAESTRAT

Signature 65.3 km · 1,198m · approx 3h 30

Extended 99.5 km · 1,810m · approx 4h 45

A long steady climb from the door. Fifteen kilometres at 4% takes both groups up to Culla with gradient highs of 12.6%. At 1,049m, a hilltop village of stone streets and castle ruins that has barely changed in six hundred years.

From there the two routes part.

Signature drops east through open country to Albocàsser for food, then turns for home on quiet rolling roads.

Extended pushes north into the highest country of the week, climbing to 1,205m below Vilafranca before the run across to Ares del Maestrat, a village perched on a rock ridge at 1,116m, where lunch is waiting.

From Ares it is downhill-biased all the way home.

This is the day the Maestrat opens up. Empty roads, wide horizons, and villages that feel a very long way from the coast.

 DAY FOUR · LA VUELTA COUNTRY

Signature 75.1 km · 1,200m · approx 3h 55

Extended 110.9 km · 1,974m · approx 5h 15

Three climbs and the quietest roads of the week.

Extended turns uphill almost immediately, 13 km at 3.5%, with parts hitting 13.4% to Sierra Engarcerán at 783m. Signature skips it and takes the valley road north.

Both groups then climb to La Serratella at 836m, sixteen kilometres of steady gradient through pine and limestone, and meet in Albocàsser for food.

From there Signature heads for home while Extended carries on north over the Coll del Tírig at 678m, topping out at 13%, dropping towards Catí before turning back.

This is deep Maestrat. Villages of a few hundred people, roads with grass down the middle, and the kind of silence you only get an hour inland.

DAY FIVE · THE RECOVERY RIDE

All riders 52.1 km · 751m · approx 2h 35

One route, one group, no pressure. Halfway through the week your legs have earned an easy day.

We ride south on quiet lanes through almond terraces and pine, the same country as the shakeout but in the opposite direction, which makes it a different ride entirely. Different climbs, different descents, different views.

At 37km we drop into Vilafamés, a hilltop village of ochre stone stacked below a castle, and stop for a long lunch. Vilafamés is one of only six villages in the whole Valencian Community accepted into Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España, the national association that protects Spain's finest, most beautiful rural towns.

Tomorrow is the queen stage. Today is about getting ready for it.

DAY SIX · THE QUEEN STAGE

Signature 84.9 km · 1,336m · approx 4h 20

Extended 138.5 km · 2,842m · approx 6h 50

The biggest day of the week, and the highest.

Extended rides from the hotel, climbing through Port del Collao at 1,051 m and on past Vistabella del Maestrat, one of the highest villages in the Valencian Community. Signature takes the van to Vistabella and joins the route there, at the peak of the same first climb. Same summit, same views, same descent.

Both groups drop off the high ground together, before the long haul to the roof of the week at Puertomingalvo, 1,448m. Then on to Castillo de Villamalefa for lunch, a village of a few hundred people in the Alto Mijares where the bar has been feeding passing cyclists for years.

After lunch everyone rides out together, dropping through Lucena del Cid and Figueroles on one of the best descents of the week. Signature peels off at Les Useres and is shuttled home. Extended carries on through Atzeneta and back to the hotel.

Empty mountain roads above 1,000 metres for most of the day. This is the one people come back for.

DAY SEVEN · THE BEACH RIDE

Signature 77.6 km · 899m · approx 3h 50

Extended 90.6 km · 1,021m · approx 3h 55

Six days in the mountains. Today we ride to the sea.

Both groups head south and climb into the Desert de les Palmes, a natural park of red rock and pine above the coast, topping out at 416m with the Mediterranean opening up below. The famous peak that took Tadej Pogačar to victory in this years La Vuelta Tour - Stage 6.

Then the long descent to the water, and lunch on the beach at Benicàssim.

The van is there with your gear, so bring swimmers. Eat, swim, sit in the sun for as long as you like. There is no hurry today.

When you have had enough, we ride back inland over the Coll Ribera de Cabanes at 356m and home through the hills.

A last day that finishes with salt on your skin rather than another summit. 

Seven days in the Maestrat, and the sea to round it off.

DAY EIGHT · TIME TO ROLL OUT

Breakfast, bikes packed, and in the van to the airport. We leave at 08:00, which gets you to Valencia in good time for anything  from 11:30am onwards.

Before you go, look at what you did.

You rode out of a valley nobody has heard of and into mountains that most people who live an hour away have never seen. You climbed through Benafigos and Xodos, villages of a few hundred people clinging to rock, and over the Port del Collao where the road narrows to something that feels more permitted than built. 

You crossed the high ground to Culla and Vilafamés, two of only six villages in the entire Valencian Community on Spain's official list of its most beautiful. You stood at 1,448 metres on Puertomingalvo with the whole Maestrat below you and nothing moving anywhere.

Fourteen climbs over 200 metres. Six hundred kilometres and ten thousand metres of ascent if you rode Extended. Coffee in village squares where the bar has been in the same family for three generations. Roads where you heard the group before you heard a car. And on the last day you came off the mountains and finished in the sea.

There is no famous climb here. No queue at the summit, no photographer at the hairpin, no name anyone recognises. Just a week of roads you had almost entirely to yourself.

Thank you for riding with us. We hope to see you back in these mountains again.