The second stage of the Trofeo Mallorca (aka the Challenge Mallorca) ran from Pollensa to Andratx: that’s the width of the whole island East to West. The peloton started at the base of the famous 365 steps in Old Town Pollensa (just 200m from our villa). I won’t give away the result of the race, as you can see the highlights video here. From the start the race headed south and east to Alcudia before looping back on itself and climbing up to Lluc monastery by the north-east ascent (you can see them whizzing past the monastery turn at 11 mins in). Then it’s down the wonderful Lluc to Caimari descent (the cameras didn’t catch this, sadly as it’s a road very well known and well loved by all our clients; but you can see them zoom through Selva itself at 11.54 mins in). Instead of going through Inca, the route turned through the not-very-picturesque village of Lloseta before passing through the much more picturesque Binissalem (where they had their feed zone—as do many of our clients: Restaurant Robines and Can P’dal are our favourite bars). Through Santa Maria to Esporles, the peloton moved from roads very familiar to Cycle Mallorca clients to more westerly roads, less familiar. Apart from one intrepid adventurer who road solo to Andratx and back from Campanet, it’s really only clients from our Alaro villa who have ventured this far west (here is a route that takes in all of the best roads in the northwest corner of the island, but it’s still a 146km route). They report that it’s great riding here: the...
The Challenge Mallorca race took place last week in Mallorca. This year the race has been moved earlier in the calendar, I guess to make room for the Dubai Tour, which started today. There’s a video of highlights of the stage here, so I won’t give away the winner. This first stage covered the south of the island—areas that most Cycle Mallorca visitors don’t get to see as we focus on the north where the mountains are more. But there’s some beautiful riding here as you can see from the video, roads that we’re now incorporating into the first day of our Tour of the Island. This tour starts in the little seaside resort of Sant Jordi, down the west coast from the Bay of Palma, and heads east to the second night’s stop in PortoCristo. Watch the video and get a taste of the atmosphere of those...
Today is a special day for Cycle Mallorca as it’s my father-in-law’s birthday. Whether or not I’m in Mallorca on the day, I always think of what’s going on there on this day of the year. A birthday tradition for him is to go up and see the almond blossom. This pic is taken on the road between Campanet and Selva (towns where two of our villas are located); it’s about 200m above see level and is an almond-growing area. the blossom is good today—sometimes the 3rd of Feb is a little too early for the best of the blossom, but this year, with the mild winter in Mallorca just as in the UK, it’s out in abundance today. The blossom will be out for a while if you fancy hopping over to get that spring feeling; even a trip in mid-March shouldn’t be too late. Unlike California where the almond trees are mostly clones of one parent plant, in Mallorca they grow the old varieties and so the blossom varies in timing and in colour: some pure white, some very...
The Challenge Mallorca race started today on the island; many teams like Team Sky have a training camp that runs before the race, so it’s been a good week for spotting pros. The race is a tad earlier this year—it’s usually the first week of Feb or so, but it’s shifted a little earlier I guess to make room for the middle east races. The list of riders is here; it looks like there’ll be video highlights each day...
This is perhaps the hardest route you can do in Mallorca. It goes right the way along the spine of the Tramuntana mountains, from Andratx in the west to Pollensa in the east, then you loop gently back to Campanet to bring the distance up to 152km. MapMyRide has it as 4713m of ascending—that includes all the little ups and downs; add up the totals of the 10 classified climbs on this route and the total is 2800m. So it’s hard! A ride this hard is tricky to include in a holiday of a week’s length—when would you do it? Do it at the start and you’d be too wiped out to ride for a couple of days afterwards; do it later in the trip and you won’t be fresh enough to rise to the challenge. To solve this problem, we’re offering the chance to ride the Tramuntana Challenge as part of a three-night stay. day 1: arrive and short tune-up ride day 2: easy day, say 80km over the Orient loop day 3: the Tramuntana Challenge, 150km from Andratx to Pollensa day 4: fly home On the Tramuntana Challenge day, we drop you and your bike in Andratx, and you are supported by a follow-car on...
The season’s been busy, and it’s been a few weeks since our last picture of the day. After a week of cooler, wetter weather, it feels like the best of an English summer here now. There’s evening that special morning light you get in the English summer—early in the morning when it’s still cool, but when you know it’s going to be a scorcher. Here’s the view from the veranda before breakfast this morning (just taken with an iphone): With the days being so evocative of July days in England, and because this is our penultimate week of the season, our thoughts are beginning to turn to our return to the UK. Of course, one has to remind oneself that the English weather isn’t beautiful like this yet, so we’re not missing much at the moment. Like our clients all do towards the end of their week, we’re starting to savour every moment here. In fact, despite the promise of the dawn, the days aren’t scorchers here right now: it’s 18-19 degrees today—perfect for riding. Because it’s clear blue sky and windless, our clients are doing Sa Calobra today; I’m sure many other riders on the island are making the same choice! Now the clocks have changed here to summer time, it’ll be light enough to ride until 8pm this evening on a clear day like today....
