London Airports

[Thorn]

Condo? What a coworker! Oh, that's really cool! Where on the island is the condo?

Have you been on Mallorca before? When we arrived in March, almost every passenger had a helmet strapped to their backpacks. So many bikes come airport through that they have special luggage carts just for bike boxes. We've always rented, but we travel with a local group that gets a group deal. The bikes we get are well-maintained aluminum/carbon Shimano 105 level. Nice enough for me for vacation--I tend to move slower and spend time "smelling the roses".

The absolute must-do ride is the ride from Port de Pollenca (or there abouts) out to the Cap de Fomentor. It is challenging but doable (I think one of the sections is rated as a Cat2) yet you are rewarded almost constantly with views. We had overcast skies and still it was stunning.

Second is the western mountain range (up through LLuc, Deia and further south) and, for your recovery, the roads just east of the western mountains are gorgeous. You ride with the big mountains on one side and hills to the other. Riding the plains is nice, easy riding. It can start to feel like you're all alone and then you pull into a little town and there a 50 brightly clad cyclists at the local cafe. Oh, and the roads near Binnisalem and through Orient are considered awesome (two trips and we still haven't made it there).

For challenging routes look at the Mallorca Challenge web site ( http://www.vueltamallorca.com/ ). Almost any backroad makes a good route. Find some good maps and just go! The Mallorca tourist board has had a slew of road repaved and signed, particularly in the western 1/2 of the island ( http://www.cassandrathorn.com/PhotoR.../TheHorses.JPG ). The board had a map of all of the marked routes (a .pdf). It was really helpful to plot routes, but impossible to find on-line. You might want to contact them to get a copy.

To keep you motivated for those cold winter rides....
http://www.cassandrathorn.com/PhotoR.../2006Mallorca/

In case you can't tell, I have a special place in my cycling heart for Mallorca. Our first real cycling trip was to Mallorca and, for a flatlander those mountains (ok, they're only 3000'-ers) were huge. I got hooked.

[Thorn]

I found a bitmap-ish version of that route map:

http://www.illesbalears.es/downloadS...005654&table=1

No link off the english-language version of the site, just the spanish version.

In general those roads are low volume and will have signage to help you navigate. But we used the general background network when we travelled from Port de Polleca over to Porto Cristo.

[quint41]

Hey, Thorn! Just got back on TE ... haven't been able to get here in a while. I am SO EXCITED! Check this out: www.ourmallorcaescape.com

It's my coworker's website for the condo.

I would like to send you my home e-mail address to make communication easier. Please PM me. I can't PM to you. Thanks!

Louise