When Sportive.com Came to Benicàssim: What a UK Cycling Journalist Discovered on the Costa del Azahar
- May 12
- 4 min read
UK cycling magazine Sportive.com just called Benicàssim "Spain's hidden gem of cycling paradise." Here's what they discovered — and how you can ride it.
There's a particular kind of quiet that comes over you when a respected industry voice describes something you've been quietly building for years — and gets it exactly right.
Last week, UK cycling publication Sportive.com published a long-form report on the SCOTT Mediterranean Epic Gran Fondo and the Pedal & Pause UNCHAINED cycling camp. The headline they chose was "Move over, Mallorca! This Mediterranean Gran Fondo is coming for Spain's sportive crown."
For those of us who ride these roads daily, it's a moment worth pausing on.
Who came to ride with us, and why it matters
Sportive.com's Amy Young — a Northamptonshire-based cyclist who has ridden Mallorca, Calpe, Tenerife and Gran Canaria, and who trains seriously for Gran Fondos through the British winter — joined our UNCHAINED camp this April to ride the SCOTT Mediterranean Epic Gran Fondo. She's exactly the kind of cyclist Spain's established destinations were built for: experienced, methodical, used to being passed by pro teams in Calpe and to fighting for café tables in Girona.
Her conclusion, in her words: "the cycling dream."
That phrase matters because Amy hasn't fallen for a clever marketing line. She's compared what she found here — directly, on the same legs, in the same season — to the destinations most UK cyclists already know. And she's chosen to describe Costa del Azahar as the place that's better.
What an outside eye sees that we sometimes forget to say out loud
When you live and ride somewhere every week, you stop noticing the things that strangers find remarkable. Amy's report gave us back our own landscape through fresh eyes:
The roads are empty. Not "quieter than Mallorca" — actually empty. Amy describes barely any traffic and very few other cyclists on the climbs. This is not normal in Mediterranean cycling destinations in 2026.
The surfaces are exceptional. Smooth tarmac on the major climbs, sweeping descents without the white-knuckle technical sections that punish less confident descenders in some Spanish destinations.
The pros are already here. Amy was passed by five Alpecin-Premier Tech riders on a recon ride. UCI WorldTour teams have quietly been training in Castellón Province for several seasons. The peloton always finds these places first.
The Gran Fondo is properly organised. A peloton of around 3,000 riders, fully closed roads, three route options (110km, 160km, 196km), and what Amy called "incredibly well organised" — including a clean grand depart from Oropesa del Mar.
The food is real. Pan con tomate and a cold Estrella after a ride, prepared by a professional chef, eaten beside a pool that looks out over the Mediterranean. The "Pause" isn't a marketing concept. It's lunch.
If you want the full account — and you should read it, it's beautifully written — Sportive.com has it here.
The bigger story: why Costa del Azahar is now on the map
Spain's cycling tourism is enormous — the country welcomes around 20 million overnight cycling-tourism stays each year, according to figures cited by Spain's Ministry of Industry and Tourism. But almost all of that demand has historically concentrated on three or four destinations: Mallorca, Girona, Calpe and Tenerife.
There's a pattern that always plays out in cycling tourism. A region gets discovered by the pros. Then by independent travelling cyclists. Then by the industry press. Then by everyone. We're somewhere between stages two and three on the Costa del Azahar — pros are training here, returning guests are arriving for their fourth visit (one of Amy's fellow riders, @2_wheels_in_france, was on her fourth trip), and now the cycling media is writing about it.
What that means in practical terms: if you've been thinking about a Mediterranean cycling trip, the window where you can ride here without sharing climbs with hundreds of other cyclists is finite. It's wide open in 2026. It will not be wide open forever.
Two ways to ride it for yourself
Amy's article ends with a useful nudge: you don't have to wait for next year's UNCHAINED. There are two clear entry points.
1. The La Vuelta 26 Benicàssim Experience — Thursday 27 August 2026
Stage 6 of La Vuelta 2026 (Alcossebre → Castelló, 176.8km) passes through our roads, climbing the Desierto de las Palmas twice and tackling the cat-1 Bartolo, which features a rare 3km sterrato (dirt) sector — a surface almost never seen in La Vuelta's history. According to the official La Vuelta route guide, this is one of the most tactically interesting stages of the 2026 edition. Pedal & Pause is running a multi-day package built around riding the climbs the morning of the stage, then watching the peloton come through. Details and bookings here.
2. UNCHAINED 2027 — Mediterranean Epic Gran Fondo, April 2027
The week Amy wrote about. Six nights, hilltop villa with pool, professional chef preparing half-board catering, four guided recon rides catering to different cycling levels, van support and on-ride nutrition, custom team jersey, and entry to the SCOTT Mediterranean Epic Gran Fondo itself. Places are limited and the 2026 edition sold out. Join the UNCHAINED 2027 waitlist here.
3. Plan your own week
If you'd rather come on your own dates with your own group, our 3-Day Escape and 5-Day Journey packages run year-round. Tell us what you're imagining and we'll build it around you.
A final thought. Amy ended her piece with a thank-you to the friendly cyclists who chatted to her on the route despite the language gap, and she's right that cycling is a universal language. But there's a Spanish phrase the Costa del Azahar taught us that travels just as well: poco a poco — little by little. That's how a region becomes a cycling destination. That's how a spot gets discovered. And that's how, occasionally, you get to wake up in May and read a UK cycling magazine describing your training roads as the cycling dream.
We'd love to share them with you.
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