Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.Hermes
10-20-08, 04:14 PM
Last year, Velodiva and I did a Tuscany tour organized by Santana Cycles, the manufacturer of our tandem. We had so much fun, we decided to do a similar cycling vacation on our tandem joining Santana Cycles on a tour of Mallorac Spain. Mallorca, an island east of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea, is a well known destination for Europeans but little known by Americans. It is very cycling friendly and all of Europe’s pro cycling teams start their season in Mallorca. Mallorca offers cyclists many choices of terrain but features hilly venues and routes and climbs that are truly epic.
Santana offers a pretour commencing in Madrid, Spain, but we did our own "pre-tour" and spent two nights in Mallorca before the actual tour started on Saturday (Oct. 11). All of our flights inbound and outbound were flawless and on schedule. We had a tight connection from Madrid to Palma so our tandem came on the next flight - it was delivered to the hotel by 5 PM the same day, so in some respects that "glitch" saved us hauling it from the airport to the hotel. On Friday (Oct. 10) morning we built the tandem on the tennis courts and did a nice 25 mile ride on our own. That evening we ran into another couple who were on the Tuscany trip with us. They are a very strong tandem team around our ages. We got together with them Saturday morning for a 25 mile ride before the group arrived at noon from Madrid. They built the bikes poolside (while Velodiva relaxed at the pool)) and I assisted others in assembly. Then we all did a 25 mile intro ride, so we did 50 miles that day. The hotel was fantastic and sat on a hillside overlooking the sea - meaning each ride ended with a nice short steep climb.
We stayed in three different hotels - all five star, and the other two were right on the beach. They had fantastic spa facilities (sauna, steam, combination steam/sauna/salt rooms, etc. - all very upscale) which felt great after the rides. There were only 10 couples total and that included us. Four of the couples were from our area (the SF Peninsula/Santa Cruz). We rode primarily with the couple we met with on Friday. Mark, who is a great cyclist, really pushed it on the flats where we averaged 22-24 mph and we pushed it on the climbs. Since lunch and other events were scheduled based upon average speeds of 10 mph, we left later and stopped for coffee often, It was last out/first in scenario. The hardest day was Sunday when we did the epic Col de Soller with dozens of switchbacks - we did 55 miles and 6500 feet of climbing. That day we had lunch atop a cliff overlooking the sea. We really got lucky with the weather – we were really bummed out the week before - the 7 day forecast for Palma was rain, rain, rain, wind and thunderstorms. We packed our foul weather clothes and were prepared for the worst. The weather started out unsettled with one morning of wet roads (Monday) but it cleared to sunshine by lunch. The rest of the week was high 70's and partly sunny to sunny - perfecto! Interestingly, we encountered no other American tourists the whole week - mainly Germans and some Brits.
As you can see from the photos below - there was no lack of cappuccino stops! The food was good but could not compare to Tuscany - Italy is the best for food! We did enjoy some fantastic Rioja and Mallorcan red wine. We stopped at a nice leather factory and Majorcan pearl factory along one of the rides for some interesting shopping. Friday we also toured a cave. For us the best ride day was the ride to the Formentor lighthouse on Wed. - After a 3.5 mile challenging climb with switchbacks, we did another climb called the Devil's Tail along these craggy mountains to the lighthouse - it was breathtaking. Most of the people took a ferry out and back to avoid the first climb. We did take the ferry back knowing we had a 55 mile ride the next day. We ended up doing 350 miles over the 8 days with over 35,000 feet of climbing. We would definitely go back and highly recommend a Mallorca cycling trip.
View from our hotel balcony in Palma.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0019.jpg
Building bikes
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0027.jpg
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0036.jpg
Switchbacks of the Col de Soller. There were 32 switchback to climb and descend the Soller. The average grade was 5.75%. The climb and descent over the top into the valley was truly epic and culminated in lunch on the cliffs by the sea.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0040.jpg
The four of us at the top
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0043.jpg
View from our lunch table.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0054.jpg
Lunch at the harbor on a sort of recovery day after the Soller.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0075.jpg
Climbing on the way to Cape Formentor
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0094.jpg
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0098.jpg
The goal of reaching the lighthouse via the Devil’s tail.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0124.jpg
Santana offers a pretour commencing in Madrid, Spain, but we did our own "pre-tour" and spent two nights in Mallorca before the actual tour started on Saturday (Oct. 11). All of our flights inbound and outbound were flawless and on schedule. We had a tight connection from Madrid to Palma so our tandem came on the next flight - it was delivered to the hotel by 5 PM the same day, so in some respects that "glitch" saved us hauling it from the airport to the hotel. On Friday (Oct. 10) morning we built the tandem on the tennis courts and did a nice 25 mile ride on our own. That evening we ran into another couple who were on the Tuscany trip with us. They are a very strong tandem team around our ages. We got together with them Saturday morning for a 25 mile ride before the group arrived at noon from Madrid. They built the bikes poolside (while Velodiva relaxed at the pool)) and I assisted others in assembly. Then we all did a 25 mile intro ride, so we did 50 miles that day. The hotel was fantastic and sat on a hillside overlooking the sea - meaning each ride ended with a nice short steep climb.
We stayed in three different hotels - all five star, and the other two were right on the beach. They had fantastic spa facilities (sauna, steam, combination steam/sauna/salt rooms, etc. - all very upscale) which felt great after the rides. There were only 10 couples total and that included us. Four of the couples were from our area (the SF Peninsula/Santa Cruz). We rode primarily with the couple we met with on Friday. Mark, who is a great cyclist, really pushed it on the flats where we averaged 22-24 mph and we pushed it on the climbs. Since lunch and other events were scheduled based upon average speeds of 10 mph, we left later and stopped for coffee often, It was last out/first in scenario. The hardest day was Sunday when we did the epic Col de Soller with dozens of switchbacks - we did 55 miles and 6500 feet of climbing. That day we had lunch atop a cliff overlooking the sea. We really got lucky with the weather – we were really bummed out the week before - the 7 day forecast for Palma was rain, rain, rain, wind and thunderstorms. We packed our foul weather clothes and were prepared for the worst. The weather started out unsettled with one morning of wet roads (Monday) but it cleared to sunshine by lunch. The rest of the week was high 70's and partly sunny to sunny - perfecto! Interestingly, we encountered no other American tourists the whole week - mainly Germans and some Brits.
As you can see from the photos below - there was no lack of cappuccino stops! The food was good but could not compare to Tuscany - Italy is the best for food! We did enjoy some fantastic Rioja and Mallorcan red wine. We stopped at a nice leather factory and Majorcan pearl factory along one of the rides for some interesting shopping. Friday we also toured a cave. For us the best ride day was the ride to the Formentor lighthouse on Wed. - After a 3.5 mile challenging climb with switchbacks, we did another climb called the Devil's Tail along these craggy mountains to the lighthouse - it was breathtaking. Most of the people took a ferry out and back to avoid the first climb. We did take the ferry back knowing we had a 55 mile ride the next day. We ended up doing 350 miles over the 8 days with over 35,000 feet of climbing. We would definitely go back and highly recommend a Mallorca cycling trip.
View from our hotel balcony in Palma.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0019.jpg
Building bikes
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0027.jpg
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0036.jpg
Switchbacks of the Col de Soller. There were 32 switchback to climb and descend the Soller. The average grade was 5.75%. The climb and descent over the top into the valley was truly epic and culminated in lunch on the cliffs by the sea.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0040.jpg
The four of us at the top
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0043.jpg
View from our lunch table.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0054.jpg
Lunch at the harbor on a sort of recovery day after the Soller.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0075.jpg
Climbing on the way to Cape Formentor
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0094.jpg
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0098.jpg
The goal of reaching the lighthouse via the Devil’s tail.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u250/rallen94402/2008%20Mallorca%20Cycling%20Vacation/PICT0124.jpg