Looking at heading off somewhere for a few days to get some real climbs in on the road bike, just doing some research on where right now. I like the look of Madeira but I heard there’s no decent beaches so it would be hard to persuade the missus to go.
Somewhere with lots of hills close together preferably, which rules out parts of the Alps as the climbs can be so far apart.

Suggestions and experiences welcome!

Ta!

Basque country? Lots of hills, not as big as the Alps but I never feel like I’m on a flat route. Great beaches and great places to stay. I live there and like it, so biased. Still, I reckon you’d have a good holiday.

Loads of towns/cities along the coast would probably suit you.
Hondarribia
San Sebastian
Zarautz
Gernika
Bermeo
Bakio
Plentzia

At a push, Bilbao

All worth a look.

Puerto Pollensa in Majorca?
Mates went to Tenerife recently.
Gran Canaria?

Bagneres de Luchon? You’ve got Port de Bales, Superbagneres, Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet nearby.

Basque country and Gran Canaria both sound tasty. Either of you got any links for routes from Map My Ride or the likes?

Try around lake Annecy in France. Loads of serious climbs within 20 miles or so including Semnoz which was a stage in last years TDF.

Majorca
Gym owner just back from there said 8k ft climbing per day

Sounds enough to me – I’d have taken the uplift myself

Go to Corvara in the Dolomites, or Bormio. Lots of climbs in close proximity to either place.
Take your 39/25 and then try and make us believe that you got up the concrete track side of the Mortirolo without putting your foot down.

http://www.basquemtb.com/pyrenees-road-cycling-holidays/

Looks a nice hill in the middle.
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4656923

Riding up big hills in sweltering heat?

Doesn’t sound like my kind of holiday…

Mackem, did you ride that yourself? How did you find it? Looks like a big climb alright,only problem is its in miles.

Still open to more options or more detail about the current suggestions! It seems like a bit of a minefield.

Mackem, did you ride that yourself? How did you find it? Looks like a big climb alright,only problem is its in miles.

Doesn’t look that big (only 400m), just stupidly steep! I’d second the Basque country, very beautiful part of Spain and very different to the Costa del Sol “experience”. The only problem could be the weather, there’s a reason it’s so green…

Other options on the north coast would be Cantabria or Asturias – both have lots of mountains very close to the sea. One thing you might want to think about (if you head to Spain) would be doing a local sportive – summer is peak season, and there are lots of well organised rides on closed roads going on.

Spanish climbs: http://www.altimetrias.net/aspbk/provincias.asp

Alicante / Benidorm is quite mountainous inland, and no shortage of beach holidays to be found there 🙂

I think it all depends on when you’re looking to go – peak tourist season can make a massive difference in some locations and then there’s weather considerations out of season.

The canaries/balearics etc. I gather are all to be avoided Jun-Sep unless you want to be run off the road by some gormless tourist in a hire car. Spanish costas much the same (if you stay near coast anyway – mountains inland would be fine I reckon). Northern Spain would still be lovely as it’ll just be the Spanish on holiday there – Basque country definitely best by any measure bar the need for mega altitude, but you can always divert to pyrennees.

Don’t do Alps/Dolomites until at least July purely for best weather on the high passes. Pyrenees probably not so bad earlier on. However these don’t have beach options for the missus.

Oh, and ‘a few days’ won’t be long enough 😉

Basque country definitely best by any measure bar the need for mega altitude,

I would argue the Picos de Europa (from Cantabria or Asturias) are just as good – the Angliru springs to mind, but there are loads of other excellent climbs available.

Don’t rule out the Alps.

I suggest Le Bourg d’Oisans.

The follwoing can all be done from the town :-

Alpe d’Huez
Les Deaux Alpes
Col d’Ornon
Col du Lauteret
Col du Galibier
Col du Glandon
Col du Croix de Fer
Col De Sarenne
Vuajany
La Marmotte course
La Barede

Tha should keep you busy.

Don’t rule out the Alps.

I suggest Le Bourg d’Oisans.

Being >300km from the beach might be a problem, though.

liguria,Cote D’Azur…..tons of climbs, 0 – 2000m+ tons of beaches

Doesn’t look that big (only 400m), just stupidly steep! I’d second the Basque country, very beautiful part of Spain and very different to the Costa del Sol “experience”. The only problem could be the weather, there’s a reason it’s so green…

Yep. First time I flew in there I thought I’d got on the wrong flight, the approach was like a misty Alpine landing.

Lanrarote is nice.
Keep her on the beach then off you go up the hill.

The gf doesn’t want to go anymore, so the Alps is now an option 🙂 .

Any recommend any guiding road bike companies in the Basque, Mallorca or Bourg d’Oisans? Cheers.

Tri4thealps good. Did 10 days road riding with them last year, massive amounts of hills. In morzine so easy transfer from geneva.

Did 850 miles in 10 days and over 50000ft of climbing.(one ride was plan flat around lake geneva).

Majorca just go to pollensa – few groups ride out of there every day and there are good maps of roads on Island so fairly easy.

Majorca weather better at mo I guess. You can start climbing ten mins from pollensa and get a lot in over the tramantua mountains.

Looks a nice hill in the middle.
http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4656923

Muro de Aia is brutal, but short. My garmin shows 33% at the steepest part. Nice route that, but I wouldn’t do the main roads, I’d go via Igeldo.

Any recommend any guiding road bike companies in the Basque, Mallorca or Bourg d’Oisans? Cheers.

If you’ll be based near San Sebastian I can send you a few gps routes. Been riding here 6 years so probably done every route possible within about a 4 hr radius. Basque weather is usually decent during summer, can be bad though (eg it rained all day every day of July 2012!) but having use of a car will get you somewhere dry within an hour or so’s drive.

Cheers chaps. Still a bit up in the air regarding where I’ll be going!