Granada
Mar 28 – Apr 4, 2027 · 7 days
Mar 28 – Apr 4, 2027
7 days
Up to 14 participants
Gravel Cycling
The challenge
The Alhambra glows gold as the sun drops behind Granada. Your bike is built, tuned, and ready. We share a…
Read the full brief
The Alhambra glows gold as the sun drops behind Granada. Your bike is built, tuned, and ready. We share a first dinner in the old town, the mountains dark above us. Tomorrow we ride.
I'm Chris Hall, and I've spent years riding gravel and telling the stories behind it. This is a hard week in the Sierra Nevada, and I want you to feel every bit of it. You'll join a small team for seven days of white gravel roads, pine forests, and open desert plains.
We warm up with a short loop, then climb into the Sierra de Huétor. That day alone is 65 km and 1,300 metres up. There's a recovery ride through olive groves to keep your legs fresh. Then comes the big one: Granada to Guadix, 70 km and 1,400 metres, ending in a town built of caves. More than 2,000 cave homes are still lived in there today.
From Guadix we ride Gorafe, past ancient dolmens and sculpted red rock. We roll through sandy riverbeds and quiet canyons to the underground hermitage of San Torcuato. Stay longer and you'll reach the white villages below Spain's highest peaks, set between desert and mountain.
The climbs are long. The heat is real. Some days you'll be glad of the support van behind you. But that's the point. The effort is what makes the views mean something.
Picture the last quiet road, dust on your legs, the Sierra Nevada rising ahead. That's what stays with you.
Apply to join
We read every application. Small group — and I want to get the group right. If this sounds like you, apply below.
Day-by-Day
Day 1
You land in Granada, and I meet you with a quick van ride from the airport. My mechanic tunes your bike while you settle in. Then we roll out for a short warm-up loop, 20 km of gravel and tarmac, 500 m up. As the sun drops, we share dinner in the old town. The Alhambra glows above us.
Day 2
Day 2 is our first big ride. You'll join the team for 65 km of gravel and tarmac, climbing 1,300 m. We wind through pine forests under the Sierra Nevada. Smooth white gravel carries you from one viewpoint to the next. Mountain views wait at every turn. It's hard work, but the peaks make it worth it.
Day 3
Day three is your recovery ride. We head west of Granada, 40 km of gravel and tarmac, with 500 m of climbing. The land shifts here. You will roll past farms, crop fields, and hills full of olive groves. It is a shorter, easier day. We keep the legs fresh before the big one comes. Green hills, quiet roads.
Day 4
Today is the big one. We ride 70 km from Granada to Guadix, climbing 1,400 m over gravel and tarmac. The land shifts as we go. Open plains, strange rock, geology like nowhere else in Spain. Guadix is old, a Roman colony from 45 BC. It holds over 2,000 cave homes, still lived in today.
Day 5
Day 5 is one of my favourites. A short 30-minute transfer brings us to Gorafe, a village of cave houses and over 240 dolmens. Then we ride 55 km with +1,100 m of climbing. You'll roll through towering gullies, sculpted sandstone, and rock in wild colours. Layers of earth, stacked like time itself, all around you.
Day 6
Day 6 rolls out at 48 km with +650 m of climbing. We ride sandy riverbeds and remote gravel tracks through rugged canyons and sculpted rock. Wide valleys open up, shaped over millions of years. We finish at the Hermitage of San Torcuato, carved into the ground. Rock, silence, and a chapel below your feet.
Day 7
This is our last ride. We roll 45 km to the white villages below the Sierra Nevada. Quiet gravel roads link the desert of the Granada Geopark with peaks above 3,000 m. You'll climb 670 m across two very different worlds. Then we head back to Guadix. One last sky, two landscapes, one team.
Day 8
This is it. The last morning. You will wake, then eat a good breakfast together. After that, a private van takes you to Granada or Málaga Airport. No riding today. Just quiet, tired legs and a head full of Spanish gravel. The desert, the caves, the white villages. All of it, still with you as you go.