Palma- day off the bike

We woke up to noisy waves outside our hotel and some ominous clouds. Not much to worry about in Mallorca, but it gave us an excuse to take the bus to Palma and do some sightseeing. It never rained, but remained cloudy most of the day. We did enjoy the bus ride to Palma and a chance to see some of the "city" side of this beautiful island.

Our first stop on the walk in Palma was at the Cathedral of Majorca. A magnificent structure started in 1306 and completed in 1601. Almost 300 years to build this church. Generations of families worked on this building. It is a large cathedral with columns 21.5 meters high supporting the structure. The height makes it an impressive sight inside and in the course of all the centuries many side altars and naves have been dedicated to saints and bishops.

The famous architect Antonio Gaudi worked in Palma starting in 1904 and did a major redesign of the main altar over ten years.

Inside the many altars are brightly decorated.

The main altar with the "canopy" redesigned by Gaudi.

Before we returned to catch our bus, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and walked around the old city for the rest of the afternoon. Around the park by the sea and the cathedral were many street performers.

Two men making huge soap bubbles were having a difficult time keeping up with the kids running through them breaking the bubbles. Of course the kids were covered in soapy water. There's a lot of water in a bubble that size.

And here's Dana with the Invisible Man behind her.

The park between the cathedral and the sea had a huge promenade with many cafes, seating areas, and gardens.

It was a great day to contemplate tomorrow's ride- Cap de Formentor.

Town tour of the valley

Today we rode from our hotel out through the marsh at the national park through Sa Pobla and then across the central valley on the bike path to Santa Maria. We were on cycle paths almost exclusively the entire way from Sa Pobla, however you do encounter cars from time to time on these multipurpose roads throught the farmland in Mallorca. We had lunch in Santa Maria and reversed our ride back towards Alcudia.

It was a good day to give our legs a rest from the

We had a chance to revisit a place we rode through yesterday after our mountain adventure which was a small hamlet with cobbled streets. It gave us an appreciation for some of the cycle races which include racing on cobbles. It's pretty hard to ride on them! It was a very small place, just off the cycle path and had just a few houses and what appeared to be a winery in the start up mode. As in the rest of Mallorca, everything was spotless and in it's proper place. The stonework on the houses and walls along the road are just beautiful.

We took cycle paths back heading to Alaro, then to Llosetta, Selva, skirting around Moscari and then around the outside of Campanet and on towards Pollenca. We were on cycle path the entire way except for a .6Km piece of the highway to connect to the next path. We exited the path in Alcudia and rode the main street to our hotel for only about 4Km. It was a glorious day in the countryside with orchards of almonds, oranges, lemons, olives, fig trees, vineyards and lots of sheep and goats.

We rode through a few sections of the towns and enjoyed the beauty of the original wood or iron doors on the houses and the cleanliness of each village.

To the mountains...Sa Colabra

To put it in perspective, today's ride is one of the most challenging rides in Mallorca. The ride takes you from the sea in Alcudia around Pollenca and then up to the Col de Femenia near the Lluc monastery. The following graphs show the detail of the topography, but not the beautiful scenery of this part of Mallorca. The mountains have been mastered by roads engineered with switchbacks, bridges and all manner of curves to climb 500+ meters up the very steep mountains. Most of the grades are at 5-7% and go on for over 7Km (4+ miles). It's a long grind up, but the views are spectacular!

Following, a pic of us at the second peak.

Another short climb of 115 meters takes us to the top of the descent into Sa Colabra. The descent is technically challenging with many switchbacks and the road even going under itself at one time. Fascinating engineering!

More of the descent into Port de Sa Colabra.

We took a ferry from Port de Sa Colabra to Soller. And there is only one way out of Soller- over Col de Soller! So after the climb up to enjoy that glorious descent into Port de Sa Colabra our journey by sea ended with the start of another long climb to almost 500 meters.

But the climb is rewarded by another glorious descent! And then a 40Km ride back through the valley across Mallorca to Alcudia. A long day, over 5000 feet of climbing (per Kathie's Garmin 705), capped with hot showers and a good dinner. It will be early to sleep and I'm sure we will sleep well!

Left, a happy Bill Spitale completing the descent from Col de Soller into Bunyola.
And that blue dot in the center of the next pic is Kathie beginning her descent to Port de Sa Colabra.

Yes! That's really her.

Tomorrow? Probably a gentle ride day in the valley to help our legs recover! But it will include a very Mallorcan lunch!

Ride to Petra-San Joan-Sineu-Llubi-Sa Pobla

Our "traditional" first day ride is to Petra. Some gentle rollers with no mountains and a relatively easy way to acclimate to Mallorca climate and traffic. The climate was perfect. The temps stayed in the high 60's/low 70's today and we only had wind on the last three miles in from Sa Pobla. It is always blowing from the east on our return in the afternoon, so there is no way to avoid it. We still managed a decent pace in spite of the wind.

We enjoyed our coffee and snack in Petra, after a 24K ride along the coast and then inland. The square had some shade and the break was needed on the first day of riding. Here's the group on our first break.

Since it is Wednesday, we extended the ride to visit the market in Sineu, the largest open air market on the island. After our stop in Petra, we headed further west to San Joan then north to Sineu to catch the last few hours of the market. We actually found a space to leave our bikes while we shopped for an hour or so. A few of our group had refreshments at the cafe and watched the bikes while others perused the market.

Please notice that our bikes were compliant with the directions of the sign.

The descent from Sineu to Llubi ("You bee") was glorious. The rolling hills resumed on the section from Llubi to Sa Pobla, but nothing really serious as we were heading into the central valley which runs west-east across the island. The mountains were ahead of us most of the day. And that's where we will be tomorrow with one major climb and a few switchbacks to get back after a descent to the sea and a ferry ride to another town.

Tomorrow- ride to Sa Colabra.

Travel Day(s)

Departed Rochester early on Monday and traveled to Mallorca via JFK and Madrid. We planned to play it safe to make our international connection in JFK so we had some time for gourmet dining.....

Our flight departed JFK almost an hour late and we arrived safely Tuesday after a rushed connection in Madrid. The result was no luggage. Well, that put our Wednesday ride to Petra at risk since most of us had our pedals, saddles and bike clothes in our checked luggage. All except Jan, who planned ahead with a full complement carry on. However she, did provide an exceptional educational experience to the TSA folks in JFK about bike components when they made her empty her carry on and answer questions about all the “strange” things she had in the bag (pedals, tire lever, etc). Jan is checking through her bag to make sure she didn’t donate any “souvenirs” to TSA at JFK!

We did our best to stay awake and get on Mallorquin time, so we enjoyed lunch at Bar Hawaii with the local favorite, Jamon Serrano and Manchego cheese with olive oil....all the while contemplating how to ride bikes without pedals, shorts, jerseys - which were all in our luggage (except for Jan!)...

All is well that ends well as our luggage was routed to Palma on the next flight from Madrid. It arrived at our hotel before dinner enabling us to shower, change clothes and eat dinner in a more civilized fashion. We got together before dinner to celebrate arrival of our luggage.

Tomorrow our bikes arrive at 9 am and we plan to do a warm up ride to Petra, about 45 miles round trip. This will be a gentle ride without any mountainous terrain and our bodies should be close to being ready for the time zone changes and challenges of the mountains to the north.

A little bit about Mallorca

Mallorca ("My Orca") is one of Spain's Balearic Islands. It is sometimes spelled Majorca when written in English, consistent with the pronunciation.
We fly into Palma, the islands capital and major city and take a shuttle to Alcudia in the northeast.

Cycling tourism is built on the presence of pro teams training in Mallorca during the winter months. From the Majorca tourism website:

Mallorca has a road network of 1,250 kms, 675 of which are local and secondary roads with an average width of 6.50 m. approximately, and 20% of these are in the mountains.
Throughout the winter, the leading European teams visit the Island because they appreciate its deal conditions for training. Professional cyclists who have visited Mallorca have a highly favourable opinion of the Island. Stephen Roche (winner of the Tour de France, the Tour of Italy and the World Championship) came to Mallorca on the advice of the great Miguel Indurain. As Roche says "Mallorca is quite fascinating! It has a great climate and great scenery and it offers unbeatable conditions for both holiday cyclists and professionals."
From February to March, amateur teams spend their well-deserved holidays enjoying their favourite sport on local lanes, travelling through lovely countryside around the small villages in the interior, where they can also find the real cuisine and culture of the Island.

The weather is almost perfect for cycling, staying in the 60's and low 70's in April/May. There is some chance of rain, but it is diminishing from the winter months. Climate information can be found at this URL: http://www.wordtravels.com/Cities/Spain/Mallorca/Climate
The sea remains in the 60's at this time, making swimming not very pleasant. In the summer months there is much more beach life than cycling.

Mallorca again!

After a Rochester winter which does not seem to want to leave the building......we are looking forward to our departure for Mallorca in just a few days.

We will be traveling with some dear friends from our last trip, as well as a few new ones. A group of twelve will be enjoying the Mediterranean warmth and sunshine. And we will bike to Petra, Cap de Formentor, Soller, Sao Colabra, Randa, and others. Some great hills and switchbacks to improve the skills on the bike and challenge the legs.

Mallorca is not a big island. It sits in the Mediterranean Sea halfway between Barcelona, Spain and Algeria. The norther third is very mountainous and it has ride topographies similar to this profile of the route to Orient. A bit of trivia- Orient has a micro-climate suitable for growing apples.

And of course, the wine is very good and inexpensive to supplement the abundant food. Our hotel, Ivory Playa, is in Alcudia on the eastern shore of Mallorca and we begin and end our days with incredible buffet choices for both breakfast and dinner. In between the time is spent on the bike, as that is our only mode of transportation for our time there. Note, the Romans built all their cities on hills- so we do get some exercise to get to our lunch stops in the cities!

Kathie and Ken (above) at Cap de Formentor in April, 2010. Our first "big" ride last year in Mallorca included two incredible climbs
and some awesome views.