Ooooooh...the excitement of it all.
I have just finished my second day in Mallorca, my first time here, what an eye opener and huge learning curve.
These are only my opinions and I am naive when it comes to cycle touring so take from it what you will .
I bought my Koga World Traveller with me from Denmark and had intended to ride it from Palma to Port de Pollenca in the North of the Island, 62km if you believe the GPS. That is providing you can get out of the airport and find a road you can cycle on which actually goes in the right direction.
It didnt help that my plane had been deltagende 2 hours to start with.
I got as far as Binissalem before I decided to put the bike on the train to Sa Pobla. And here starteth the first lesson. Mallorca has a very nice and clean State subsidised train system which takes bikes. It runs from Palma to Sa Pobla and the other leg goes to Manacor. I had written down all the stations before leaving Denmark and so knew where to head for.
Getting off at Sa Pablo left me about 20km to ride to get to the hotel. 16km to go the hills started. 10 km to go it was pitch black but the bike has great lights. Had I not got on the train, I would still be on the way here now.
Hotel Capri on the Bay front. Very clean, nice rooms, a bath...thank god, the best view in town and great breakfast.
The weather for today was rain in the afternoon and looking at the sky this morning it was coming sooner rather than later. Her is the author presenting the weather forecast. Look at that sky!!
Todays plan was to go to Cap de Formentor, the most Northern point on the island and a round trip of about 50km. Now to some of you experienced guys what follows will sound as though I am an idiot. And I may be an idiot but I am a tough idiot.
Almost all the bikes on this mountain were road bikes or hybrid sports bikes. If the maps says 6% hills with hairpin bends and tunnels for 6km then it really is not the place for a 55 year old, Kickbiker on a bike that weighs a ton. I dont just mean one hill, I mean loads. Just to make things interesting it also comes with rain and gale force winds off the sea and then you turn round and come back the same way, and it is worse.
But great views and I like hills, it helps you to examine whats in your head.
On the way I got chatting to a lovely couple from Sunderland. They told me that they had hired their bikes for €10 a day from a bike shop in Pollenca who mainly supplied road bikes for teams. The bikes they had were 2 sports hybrids and they thought they were very good for the mountains. They told me they found 3 bike shops in Pollenca all supplying road bikes to teams but they do have plenty of sports hybrids and MTBs but they dont advertised them as that is not their main aim.
Now I know what I know I would not have brought my bike, I would have hired a road bike a couple of days at a time. It would save the expense and hassle of bringing your own bike. I did not know the standard of bikes that would be available here, which is one of the reasons I brought mine. The Sunderland couples bikes were very nice. Unless you are a very serious cyclist or a masochist, you will not want to ride these mountains 7 days out of 7.
My intention, tomorrow, was to ride Sa Calobra but that is a 100km ride through the mountains and included a single streichers 10km climb. Its not often I admitter defeat, but it is too much for me. No problems, plan 2 kicks in and we go to my other love, motorbikes. I will be hiring a Vespa scooter for the day and so I will still get to ride Sa Colabra and will post the photos. I wish it had been a Moto Guzzi, but at least it is Italian.
With regards to the Sunderland couple. I was supposed to meet them for a beer in a bar but I stopped to fix a bike for a pair of German girls's and missed the beer. On the off chance that someone on here knows them tell them to get in touch. I didnt get his name and I think the wife is Jackie.
I hope this wasted 5 minutes of a cold, dark, autumn night.
Steve
