We'll start from Benidorm on the way to Finestrat through the CV-70 road, only to leave it a few moments later to join the CV-758 road. The latter has some very steep uphill sections at first which will soon lead us to a nice part of the road that keeps going up and down towards Finestrat, between the Sierra Cortina mountain range (on our left) and the Puig Campana (the mountain on our right-hand side).

After Finestrat, we'll keep going straight until we reach the CV-770 road through a really hard section of the route, where we'll need to try and avoid wasting too much energy before facing the ascent to the Tudons mountain pass (Category 2). This climb, which begins in the town of Sella, is a big classic and is very well-known by touring cyclists (Tudons can be climbed up through 4 different routes). Even though it's quite gradual, it does cover a very long distance. From our current location, the ascent is 17 kilometres long (you might find some other documentation describing the 22-kilometre-long route from Villajoyosa), with an average gradient of over 6% that gets even harder in the final stretch, when some slopes hit a 13% gradient. We'll pass, on our right-hand side, the access to the "Escuadrón Ejército de Aire" military base, open only on special occasions, such as the different stages of Vuelta a España. Few will forget the exchange of looks and gestures between Nairo Quintana and Chris Froome while fighting for the first position in the 2016 edition. Those amongst us who know this area, though, will easily remember how good old Luis León Sánchez paid for the efforts done on the first parts of the climb, proving this mountain pass requires us not to use up our energy all at once.

Once we reach the top of Tudons (1,024 metres), we'll begin a quick descent to the charming small village of Alcoleja, where we'll find multiple drinking fountains and restaurants, in case we need to refill our water bottles and regain our strength.

After doing this, we'll keep going quickly down the CV-770 until we reach the riverbed of the Penáguila river and face a short but very demanding climb that will take us to the CV-70 road near Benasau, from which we'll turn right towards the Alto de Confrides.

From the lowest part of the riverbed of the Penáguila river, we'll start a climb that covers a distance of about 6 km and has an elevation gain of around 300 metres, before taking a road that keeps going downhill practically until the end of the route.

By the time we get to Confrides, we'll have almost completed all the climbs for the day. This town, which we'll find on the 51st kilometre of our route, can be a good spot to give the local cuisine a try and regain some of our energy, while we enjoy the amazing views of the Valley of the Guadalest river. Historically, this has been the natural route between the regions of L'Alcoià and El Comtat to the region of Marina Baixa. Confrides is at the top of the valley, between the Aitana and the Serrella mountain ranges.