Mountain biking is a sport I’d say I’ve managed to avoid my whole life and it’s not something I ever thought I’d see when Googling Things to do in Costa Blanca. Don’t get me wrong, I love an adventure and anything fuelled by adrenaline but mountain biking is just one of those sports I’ve actively avoided; it’s so FAST and DANGEROUS and having grown up near Fort William in Scotland, home of the Mountain Bike World Cup, I’ve seen more than my fair share of gruesome injuries from bodies flying off a mountain bike when they hit a rock or tree root at the wrong angle. So on my most recent visit to the mountains of the Costa Blanca region of Spain, I was ever so slightly hesitant when the owner of the hotel we were staying in asked us if we wanted to try out one of his new mountain biking tours but on e-bikes. “It makes it much easier” he promised and “you’ll be safe” he also promised. Turns out he was right on both accounts and actually, I had the best time taking part in a sport I honestly thought I’d never even try. Read on to find out how you can experience this too!
What are e-mountain bikes and how do they work?
Mountain biking is hard but luckily, an e-mountain bike adds much needed power to your pedal strokes and makes getting uphill to those wonderful views a whole lot easier. I was surprised at how much of your own human power you still need to put in but I know one thing for sure; I wouldn’t have been able to make it up the route we followed with a non electric mountain bike.
Electric mountain bikes will have different settings giving varying amounts of power which is usually changed through the press of a button on the handlebars. The bikes we used were heavy – almost 30kg – but we didn’t really notice this while pedalling plus this made them feel strong and sturdy and the chunky tyres did a great job of handling the varied terrain our route took us across. I was so impressed with how good the e-mountain bikes were and the charge on it, after starting at 100%, cycling for 5.5hours up 1200m of ascent and using the turbo boost A LOT they still had almost 50% remaining on our return. Incredible!
Where can I go on an E-bike tour in the Costa Blanca mountains of Spain?
Our adventure started in the quaint and still traditional town of Tarbena, just 40 short minutes from Benidorm, and our host Juan the owner of Tarbena Bikes and Hotel Tarbena introduced us to our guide Oliver, a man I can only describe as someone with an infectious zest for life. We had a quick introduction for how to control the settings and to get a feel for the bikes and within a few moments we were whizzing around the hilly town ready to start our adventure.
Our destination? “See that mountain with the aerial on the top” Juan and Oliver pointed to, “that’s where we’re heading.” Said mountain was VERY far in the distance and HUGE! It was 2.30pm by the time we set off and I wondered whether we’d make it back in time before dark but Oliver and his infectious smile and love of life, told us it would all be fine and off we went, dinging our bells and racing each other up the tracks at the back of the village (hello turbo mode!).
What was the route of the E-bike tour like?
The route was an incredible one and the scenery changed so often I kept wanting to stop for videos and photos. After an initial steep ascent up a gravel, stony path the views of the mountains opened up behind us and we could see all the way down to the sea and Benidorm in the distance.
After stopping off at a view point, we had a short 15 minute section on the road but the roads in this area feel like they are reserved for cyclists and we passed more of them than we did cars. Although I did notice that there seems to be some kind of cycling hierarchy and people on e-bikes are definitely at the bottom of it judging by the mucky looks and lack of any returned “hola” we were dishing out.
After leaving the road, the fun really started and we made our way up and up and up…. and up through forests, along mountain tracks and higher and higher until we reached the windy summit of Morro Blau and the most incredible views across to the mountains and down into the valleys and to the sea again.
After spending a little time here enjoying the views we headed back down, trying our best, unsuccessfully, to not fall off when the track got a bit bumpy!
By now, it was getting close to sunset, the perfect time to see the groups of wild boar which live in the region. We smelt them before we saw them and honestly, when a group of the little things ran out straight in front of us, we let out a squeal of delight. What a treat!
On the way back, Oliver suggested we take a short 15 minute detour to some natural arches called Els Arcs. I’d actually hiked to these before (check out the hike here) but I knew mum would love them so off we went, revving the bike up onto turbo again and practically hovering across the well trodden paths.
We arrived at Els Arcs and had the two arch formations to ourselves. It was an absolute joy to sit here and just take it all in and by this point Oliver was like an excited labrador loving every moment and snapping away lots of photos on his phone.
Just LOOK at this place!
After admitting it was now getting dark, we hot footed it back to where we’d dumped, I mean carefully parked, the bikes and raced back along the tracks and the main road to Tarbena making it back just in time for a delicious home cooked dinner at Hotel Tarbena.
This was such an incredible adventure and I can’t wait to do it again sometime. Juan at Tarbena Bikes is wonderful and is going to be providing lots of different e-mountain bike tours soon (we were lucky enough to be his guinea pigs for this trip) and I definitely recommend getting in touch with him if you would love to have a similar adventure. He speaks fluent English and if you contact him, let him know I sent you!
You can find him at Tarbena Bikes and also at Hotel Tarbena on Instagram.
Happy e-mountain biking! I promise you’ll love it.
For more adventures and things to do in the Costa Blanca mountains of Spain, check out my other blog posts here.
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