Gran Fondo La Nucía: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

Start and finish are at the Camilo Cano Olympic stadium in La Nucía, and the course is a genuine loop: the analysis puts its first and last points eight metres apart. The first of eight climbs begins at kilometre six, and almost nothing here is flat - only around fifteen per cent of the distance.

The first half works inland in steps: a good three kilometres at almost six per cent, then five at three and a half, later ramps at six and a half, with long descents between them. The high point is a little above a thousand metres in the Sierra de Aitana. The section that matters comes late: from kilometre 99, the Coll de Rates, a good six kilometres at five and a half per cent from Parcent up to 628 metres. It is timed separately, and the organiser offers a prize worth up to 3,000 euros for beating the record on it - 11:57, set by Tadej Pogačar.

After that comes the descent through Tarbena and, at kilometre 126, another two and a half kilometres at four per cent before the road falls back to the coast. The race runs two classifications at once: riders chasing World Championship qualification are assigned their distance by age group and race for the top 25 per cent of their category, while OPEN riders choose their distance and ride outside that ranking. Closure is rolling between two vehicles, and a control point at Gorga withdraws riders outside the safety window. Mid-October on the Costa Blanca is warm and dry - the reason professional teams ride here all winter.

Pacing Strategy

This course has an unusual shape: its hardest single task sits at kilometre 99, not in the middle. Everything you spend on the many medium climbs of the first sixty kilometres is missing on the Coll de Rates - and the Coll de Rates is where qualification is decided and where the clock runs separately.

So ride the first half distinctly more conservatively than the gradients allow. At three and a half to six and a half per cent they are all rideable, and that is precisely the trap: you ride them out of the saddle because you can, and arrive at kilometre 99 empty at the foot of the only climb that counts.

Ride the Coll de Rates itself evenly - a good six kilometres is twenty to thirty minutes for most riders, a threshold effort rather than a sprint. If the record prize is on your mind, remember that the holder's 11:57 is a different race from yours. The rest is descent plus one small ramp at kilometre 126, where a group is worth more than any individual effort. And note: this is October on the Spanish Mediterranean with an 08:30 start - the heat arrives in the second half, exactly when the Coll de Rates does. Drinking belongs in the plan from the first hour.

Training plan for Gran Fondo La Nucía: 12-week build

Four to six hours in the saddle with 2,275 metres of climbing spread over eight ascents - not a mountain stage with a single pass, but a sustained effort that alternates constantly between climbing and descending. More than eighty per cent of the route is either up or down; almost nothing is truly flat.

The emphasis follows: long rides with many medium climbs of five to twenty minutes at threshold with short recoveries between them, rather than a handful of very long climbing intervals. Train only the long pass and you will be good for the first sixty kilometres and empty for the last thirty.

One course-specific session falls straight out of the profile: a twenty to thirty minute climb at threshold after three or four hours already in the legs. That is the Coll de Rates exactly, and almost nobody prepares for it.

Conditions are the other half of the preparation. Mid-October on the Costa Blanca is markedly warmer than central Europe, often above twenty degrees, and the climbs are exposed and shadeless. If you are travelling from a cool autumn, ride your last long sessions in midday heat, plan fluid intake across the whole duration, and gear for a course that only asks its real question after a hundred kilometres.