Valencia Epic Race Gravel

Valencia Epic Race has been running since 2021 as an amateur stage race made, as its organisers put it, by cyclists for cyclists. The idea is simple: for a few days, whatever your level, you get to race like a professional, with timed stages and a general classification built from your combined times. The gravel race shares the weekend in Buñol with the event's mountain bike race, which starts a day earlier.

Buñol sits in the mountains of inland Valencia, best known for the Tomatina, and the gravel stages make the most of the hills around it. The opening day climbs the Cuesta Roya and the long ascent of the Almudí before heading out on tracks to the Fuente de la Vallesa at Siete Aguas, the Barranco de la Hoz and the Buseo reservoir near Chera, returning over the climb of Cucala. The second day rolls through the Tomatina streets towards Yátova and its landmark hill, El Motrotón, passes the Forata reservoir with views of the Sierra de Martés, then follows the river through Macastre and Alborache and the Ruta del Agua back to town.

The race is led by Alex Castellano Navarro and Marco Lamas Perelló together with Club Ciclista Alma Valencia. Local media covered the first edition in 2021, and the organisers point out that it supported ASPANION, a Valencian association helping children with cancer and their families.