Mallorca (Part 1)
Last modified:I recently got back from a cycling trip to Mallorca. 4 days. Cycle as much as we can. We were probably too ambitious, but man was it fun.
Day 0: Leave Philly
We left from Philly on a Wednesday evening. The goal was to sleep on the plane as much as possible so we could hit the ground running when we arrived in Mallorca on Thursday afternoon. I even took melatonin (10 mg!) and bought this ridiculous neck pillow. I slept maybe 4 of the 6.5 hour flight to Barcelona and ~30 minutes on the hopper to Palma. I don't think I ever figured out how to properly use the neck pillow.[1]
Day 1: Arrive and Cap de Formentor[2]
When we arrived in Palma we were greeted with a full-size bus to transport all eight of us to our lodging in Port de Pollenca. Once we got there, we immeditately picked up our rental bikes[3], got some kit on, and set out for Cap de Formentor. It was a ~25 mile out-and-back route to a remote lighthouse on the northern coast of the island. Plenty of climbing, winding roads, and beautiful views. And goats–lots of goats. It ended up being a great taste of what was to come.
So many goats that could've cared less that we were there.
One of many beautiful views on the way to Cap de Formentor. I almost missed this one because I was lazy and didn't want to walk 100 ft in my cleats.
Looking south from the lighthouse at Cap de Formentor. Quite the intro to Mallorca.
Day 2: MA-10 to Palma[4]
We woke up early the next morning and got coffee and pastries at the only café open before 08:00. The plan for the day was to do a point-to-point from Port de Pollenca to Palma along MA-10, hang out in Palma for a bit, and take a shuttle back. That mostly worked out, except for taking MA-10 the entire way. We probably spent too much time in cafés along the way.
Morning coffee and pastries at the only café that seemed to be open early.
A cool little rest stop near the top of Coll de Femenia. Maybe it's open when it's warmer?
An aquaduct over MA-10, right before the turn-off to Sa Calobra. There were several of these hidden throughout the island. More on Sa Calobra later. We'd see this aquaduct again, in slightly worse spirits.
Looking out from Port de Sóller. We'd just descended Puig Major, which was awesome, but we were also very cold. Reynes was our first café stop that took too long.
From Port de Sóller we made our way inland toward Déla. I don't recall it being a large town, but it had some interesting buildings.
Coming out of Déla we started a long climb, but I don't know what it was called. We passed some of the Lidl-Trek team near the summit. As in, they were going in the opposite direction. Because I'm sure you thought we overtook them.
From there we descended into Esporles and hung out at Doble. Again for way too long. This is when we realized that we weren't going to make it to Palma in a reasonable amount of time if we stayed on MA-10. We also realized that the only way back to MA-10 was to climb the long descent we'd just done. So we decided to take a more direct route. Kind of a bummer because I think we missed a cool stretch. Next time. Especially if we make Palma our homebase.
The Rapha store in Palma. I bought some merino wool arm warmers, which proved very useful. We also stopped at Mistral Coffee and Reverb, both cool spots.
Day 3: Coll de Sóller. Puig Major. Sa Calobra (Coll dels Reis)[5]
This was our most ambitious day, and we actually completed it. Although it took us longer than anticipated (surprise!). We started with our same morning coffee routine then set out to do 3 of the biggest/most notable climbs on the island. The route took us along the coast for a bit before cutting inland through what looked to be mostly vineyards, olive, and almond groves. After a stop at Cycling Planet we hit the mountains. First Coll de Sóller, then Puig Major (the side we descended on day 2), and finally Sa Calobra. Then we stumbled home. In retrospect, maybe we should have done this loop in the opposite direction, but then we would've repeated some of the routes we'd done on day 2. Nevertheless, we survived.
On the way to the mountains, I believe passing through an almond grove. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves at this point.
At the top of Col de Sóller. Such a fun road to climb and descend. Oodles of switchbacks on both the north and south sides. We ascended the south and descended the north. There was some moss on the road going down, but it was still a great, albeit cautious, descent.
A cathedral on the square in Sóller. It was such a cool town. I wish we could've spent more time there.
After leaving Sóller we immediately started climbing Puig Major, the highest peak on the island. It took about an hour, but was yet another beautiful climb. And that's when we started to crack. It probably didn't help that most of us remembered how much fun we'd had descending it the day before. But having a day to forget how much fun you'd had descending a road before climbing it again would turn out to be a luxury compared to what we were about to do.
So here's the deal with Sa Calobra. You do a little bit of climbing from MA-10 to get to the summit of Coll del Reis (which is actually the name of the mountain). Then you descend into Sa Calobra. It's an amazing descent. Beautiful views, lots of switchbacks, nice and long. You do this knowing that the only way out of Sa Calobra is to climb the very same road you're descending.
It looks like this. Amazing, right?
Sa Calobra itself is very small and nestled into this little cove surrounded by cliffs. There's a small restaurant/cafeteria where I remember us sipping on hot beverages, eating pretty much whatever we could get our hands on, and psyching ourselves up for what we knew we had to do. Things probably wouldn't have seemed so dire if this were the first of the 3 big climbs for the day.
But about 45 minutes later we'd made it out.
And I was immediately greeted by this sheep staring at me. After it won the staring contest, it kept going for a good 2 minutes.
Then we headed back home in the reverse direction of the route we'd done on day 2. Descending Femenia was fun, but I got stuck behind some cars later in the descent. It also started to mist/rain a bit, which seemed like a fitting thing to happen at this point in the ride. I'm pretty sure we were all ready to be done. But still, what a day.
Day 4: The coffee ride[6]
I'm not even sure what route we'd planned for the last day. Probably at least 100 miles and some more climbing. Needless to say, after the prior day, we changed our plans. Instead, we did a bit of a spirited coffee ride through the interior of the island so we could check out a few more cool cycling cafés.
The first one we stopped at was the Sa Mola Café in Sineu. Great vibe. Cool outdoor area. And they even had a basket of blankets waiting for us! I'm not sure any of us got good pictures of this place. Sorry.
The next one was Sa Ruta Verda in Caimari, which is right at the foothills of the mountains. This was such a cool spot. Great beverages. A cool little shop. An awesome courtyard. And great views looking up at the mountains.
The courtyard at Sa Ruta Verda. Cool, right?
Looking up the road towards the mountains from Sa Ruta Verda.
Finally, we stopped for a quick beer at a place in Pollenca proper. I can't recall the name of it, and it was pretty quick because we had to get our bikes back within the hour.
Day 5: Return
The next day we woke up early, got on a more reasonably sized vehicle to take us to the airport, and hopped on our first flight from Palma to Barcelona. Once in Barcelona, we made the mistake of going through passport control too early, effectively limiting our restaurant options from ~2 dozen to 2. We sat at a restaurant simply called "Paul" for longer than I would've liked, then got on our 8.5 hour flight back to Philly. I have nothing more to say about that.
Or bought this even more ridiculous pillow ↩︎
Strava: Cap de Formentor ↩︎
I had a Cannondale SuperSix EVO 2. ↩︎
Strava: MA-10 to Palma-ish ↩︎
Strava: Coffee ride ↩︎