Velo Club Moulin

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Mallorca.

The island of Mallorca deserves a lot more respect than I had been giving it. In my mind it was always a place for us brits to go on a cheap package holiday. However biking around the North end of the island shows Mallorca to be a really beautiful place. The scenery is fantastic and makes me wonder what it would be like for mountain biking? I am tempted to go back with a good map and my mtb or maybe even my 'cross bike! I've not heard much about off road riding in Mallorca, anyone know if it's any good?

I had an awesome time in Mallorca, probably one of the best weeks training of my life. 9 days on the island 45hrs in the saddle and just short of 750 miles up and down the hills. My legs and butt hurt a bit now but they'll recover soon... I hope. A fantastic 9 days with a good fun group of folk.



The riding in Mallorca is ace, completely different to here in the UK. For a start the weather is generally pretty nice. For the most part the roads are smooth and not littered with pot holes and the cars are used to bikers and generally pretty polite!



One of the big features of riding on the island this year turned out to be the landslide blocking the road from Lluc to Sa Calobra, this effectively cut off one of the best mountian routes on the island. Initially this seemed a bad thing but actually it prompted us to search out new routes which we wouldn't normally have ridden. At one point we even ended up doing some cx along the side of a railway as the road we'd chosen turned into more of a dirt track.



The best things about Mallorca.
1. Proper mountains to ride up and down.
2. Cafe con leche.
3. A whole 9 days on the bike with no work to get in the way.
4. Sun.



Thanks to everyone in our group from both sides of the Atlantic for a top holiday, hope everyone had fun. Hopefully see you for some more of the same next year. VCM in Mallorca 2010 anyone? Would be pretty cool I think.

2 comments:

ThePixelMerch©nt said...

Majorca is Spain's best kept secret. For those Spanish that know where to go! They all say what a beautiful island it is. The mtb-ing is good and rough (rocky) and not the place for a cross bike I would say. We did some good trails when we were over there. Probably stayed near to where you are too. I shot the T-Mobile training camp over there years ago when Bobby Millar was testing one of their Pinarellos. It's strange to be in shorts and tee and taking pix of riders wearing full winter clobber! Both the A and B teams were out for hours and hours! The bikes were sweet too. But not as good, as you say, as the coffee. Next time ask for a cafe con leche leche which is made with condensed milk and tastes mighty fine post ride!

Anonymous said...

I was there a couple of years ago riding. We saw the German national teams training all over the island. It's a beautiful place and the riding is great!