Mallorca

Club member Thorsten Klassen recently visited Mallorca, aka Majorca, for some early season training. After a short break from his successful cyclo-cross season, Thorsten was racking up the miles in the sunshine. Here he explains more about his time there, the roads, the climbs, the weather and even a suprise encounter with another club member.

Kingston Wheelers racing specialists Will Meers and Thorsten Klassen spent one week and two weeks respectively on Mallorca for a training camp.

Will went with a group from his university while Thorsten met up with some old cycling mates from Germany. Despite having travelled independently from each other, Will and Thorsten met several times, including at the famous spot of Sa Calobra (see picture above))

Before one gets to the beautiful bay of Sa Calobra there is a nice 10k downhill with lots of turns which is really fun to bomb down. When arrived at the end one might realise that the road to more or less a dead end and one has to climb the 10k back up (unless one wants to take the boot to Soller). Suddenly the view isn't as nice. Below is the photo:

However the climb is relatively steady and has no real steep sections and you never climb alone. Usually there are tons of cyclists around and so someone's rear wheel to hold onto for a moment.

When Will and Thorsten climbed up there the German National Team was as well around, the female one...

Will and his group did the major climb of the island on their very first day: the Puig Major, which takes you up to over 1000m high. Will managed 430 miles in total in six days to double his mileage since Christmas while Thorsten did 1750km in 13 days.

Other highly recommended and scenic climbs are the way to the mountain village of Orient which will did the day after he met Thorsten in Sa Calobra. Thorsten went twice with his group to Orient because the climb from the North and the South are quite different. Starting from the South in the village of Bunyola is at first very steep and flattens out after the village and than rises steadily for the next 8km with some small and tiny s-bends at the end followed by some downhill hairpins to reach the valley of Orient. From the North the climb goes through to big mountains so a strong wind is almost guaranteed. The climb itself is steady but a bit steeper than from the South and after having passed the village of Orient the South route offers a couple of serpentines to climb to read the highest point of the Tour. While in that area it is worth go to Valdemossa with is a long climb that starts on a road which goes more or less straight for about 12km from Palma and than starts slightly to rise. The wide street however is ideal for a racy downhill ... but be aware of cars and tractors!

For cyclists like Thorsten, who enjoy more the flat terrain with only one hill, tours to Cura and Sant Salvador are nice. Cura is a former monastery, now a cafe and a base of the Spanish Army. The hill is located in the center of the island and the surroundings are mostly flat. From the village of Randa a signed small road winds up to Cura for almost 5km. The rise the steady and really not steep however, because of the exposed location of the hill, it is very likely to find some heavy wind. Once up there one has a stunning 360 degree view! And for the sprinters: the 500m to finish are flat...

Sant Salvador on the other side, more to the East of island, is a rather nasty 5km climb. Starting from the village of Felantix going into direction and one makes a left onto a rather wide road that barely rises. After around 1km the forested area starts and the road gets smaller and steeper. The longer the climb gets the shorter the distance between two serpentines and the steeper is gets, quite logically if one looks at Sant Salvador from the far distance. The reward for all the pain climbing up there is a gorgeous view of the Easter part of Mallorca. Sant Salvador is a monastery with a cafe as well. However nor the view nor the climb, nor the cafe are the real reasons why one should do this. The exceptional thing to see there is a small collection of (cycling) World Champion jerseys!