woot! I'm going to Mallorca!

[alpinerabbit]

My s.o. and I have just booked a week of cycling holidays in Mallorca... wish me luck! (especially weatherwise)...

[jobob]

when are you going? :)

[alpinerabbit]

early march :) only a month or so to go....

[alpinerabbit]

I'm outta here!:)

[DeniseGoldberg]

I'm outta here!:)
Have a great time!

--- Denise

[alpinerabbit]

YaY!!!

I'm back!

It was fun - we did only solo tours, as the groups were way too good for us (70 km at 20 kph up to 140 km at 26 kph). We completely trashed ourselves on day 2 so we could only do a wee ride to shop for some water on day 3, had a recovery day 4 and then worked ourselves up to 86 km on day 6. We did keep a 20 kph average but the tours would have been too long for us. I won day 6 because boyfriend trashed himself on day 5 :p
This is after a long dreary winter. I find that spinning (1-2x per week) helped absolutely NOTHING. Perhaps some CV endurance but muscle wise, zero. 90 minutes is not enough for riding outside, 3-5 hours.

Hotel, location, equipment (cube agree bikes with carbon fork and shimano ultegra, if you care to know) and staff were super, breakfast too - dinner was a bit cafeteria-esque and lunchpack sandwiches inedible, which we offset with more dried fruit and two dinners at a wonderful roadside restaurant (whole large seafish "a la plancha", served for two). The weather and landscape were gorgeous. Bit chilly still, but sunscreen a definite asset.

We should have done 2 weeks. You can do endless tours of mostly flat riding but if you wish, there are some nasty mountain loops and a full scale mountain range for serious climbing on the west coast.
We got to see all - the ugly overdeveloped tourist areas as well as old Palma de Mallorca,full of very interesting architecture, and the most wonderful bakery I ever went to, and the back roads with farmland, olive groves, cherry blossoms, sheep, bronze age structures to explore, cliffs over deep blue water - heaven!

Will be back (either there or somewhere else warm) in fall and definitely 2 weeks next Spring.

[jobob]

Sounds excellent ! A nice break from winter.

[papaver]

we would like to go too. Where did you rent your bikes? We are planning to go this fall and/or next spring.

[alpinerabbit]

Hi,

www.huerzeler.com - we also stayed at one of their hotels. Mostly Swiss and German guests.

I'm off again this Friday, 4th time!

[papaver]

Hi,

www.huerzeler.com - we also stayed at one of their hotels. Mostly Swiss and German guests.

I'm off again this Friday, 4th time!

I'm jealous! But still, have fun!

[shootingstar]

would love to see some photos of the area.

[papaver]

would love to see some photos of the area.

Mallorca isn't the most beautiful part of spain, but it's perfect for cycling. Flat, hills and even mountains.

There are lot's of places where you can rent a racing bike or a mtb. Even the hotels are used to accommodate big groups of cyclists.

Most northern European cyclists (like me) go there during spring or autumn because of the nice weather. Especially in the springtime all the European pro cyclists go there.

[Thorn]

would love to see some photos of the area.

http://www.cassandrathorn.com/PhotoRoot/2006/2006Mallorca/
http://www.cassandrathorn.com/PhotoRoot/2003/2003Mallorca/

It is not common to see North Americans on the island, but some of us do go there. I read before our 2006 trip that cyclists make up 5-10% of the tourists to the island and less less than 1% of tourists are North Americans.

During the summer season the island can have a seedy reputation--another "interesting" stat is that during season the time from getting off the plane to first sexual encounter is under an hour. Cyclist season is off season and most of that is closed--some of those areas are like riding through a post apocolyptic experience. Empty streets--all that's missing are the tumbleweeds.

As papaver states there are roads of all flavor on the island. You see other cyclists on the road and as you pull into a small town you know where the cafe is--it is building overflowing with colorful lycra. Mallorca is probably the most cycling friendly place I've ridden--I climbed my first mountain on Mallorca so I have a soft spot for it.