The Strada Bianche race is today, over the gravel roads south of Siena. It’s the most beautiful race of the year, perhaps, and surely the most beautiful race of the spring. I’ve compared the finishing climb into Siena with the climb out of Bunyola to begin the Col D’Honor before—a short steep climb between the houses. But this year, as excitement builds for the race I realise that the gravel roads aspect of the race is Mallorca-like too. Once, of course, all the roads in Mallorca were gravel, but steadily they’ve been surfaced, partly for the cyclists who come. But there’s still miles of gravel roads around. A recent issue of Cyclist magazine asked how many bikes you need (the answer was lots), and a gravel bike was one of the essentials they listed. Perhaps we could run gravel bike tours of Mallorca
! It would take some scouting (normally I’m checking lanes to make sure they are good pavement!). Get in touch if you’re interested! These pictures are taken from PezCycling News’ excellent preview of the new sector of the course, here.
