Hi, Planning a holiday to Puerto Pollensa, Majorca in September.

Just wondering if anyone had any good descriptions and more importantly maps of trails in the area. Looking for serious stuff that would suit my Orange 5 if possible, so technical, challenging.

Can also be emailed through wa202 at yahoo.com

Thanks

Ben

I dont know of any, but I’m going in November for a long weekend, so am looking for the same.

There are lots of tracks on http://www.gpsies.com , but I have no idea which are good or bad.

Even as a mountain biker, I’d say take a crosser or road bike instead. The road riding is sublime. Lovely climbs into the mountains, smooth roads, not huge amounts of traffic. The off road I’ve done was definitely on the rocky lumpy side of things. Tramuntana Tours in Soller can help with routes. The GR route is a possibility for you. Dan Milner wrote about it in What MTB last year. I’ve sneaked off onto off road sections on the crosser and drop bar 29er but given how good the road routes are, particularly the mountain climbs and descents, I tend to just ignore the off road stuff.

Oh and expect hike a bike for up to an hour at a time on the GR route…..

There is an old pony track that goes from Pollenca to Lluc Monastery. You could then do more off road by following the trail from Coll De Sabatia to Caimari then take back roads back via Campanet.

Not wanting to start another road vs mtb thread or drift off the original topic – I hate riding up hill, I only do it to get to a decent downhill, so theres no way I’d go through the effort of pedalling up some of the roads in the mountains of majorca just to waste the altitude and ride back down on the road.

Thanks for the route advice though re the GR route and the pollenca to lluc route – will check those out.

Cheers

+1 for Andy at Tramuntana Tours, he can give you all the info you need. I’m not sure how far Pollenca is from Soller, which is where I’ve done all my mountain biking on the island.

Lots of good techie, switchbacky routes, pretty much what you’d expect in southern Spain.

I found myself doing a long road descent on my mountain bike, as above, the roads are fantastic and some of those descents lead to the beach.

I’d recommend the GR trail from Soller to Deja, the trail out to the lighthouse near Soller, the gorge descent to the east (there’s a nice 1,000m climb to get there if you fancy that, half on road…or pay for an uplift). There’s some man made stuff on the otherside of the road pass back to Palma.

You wont see many other mountain bikers!

+2 for Andy @ Tramuntana Tours. He’ll sort you out a hire bike, route maps and / or guiding / uplifts. He’s based in Soller, which is a better bet for mountain biking than Pollenca. I’ve stayed (and ridden) in both and Pollenca has a very good bike hire shop – might have to look back through my threads for the name but it’s Pro something or other. It’s spectacular for road riding – out to the lighthouse at Formentor is staggeringly good.

Pollenca is a fair way (through the mountains) from Soller, so it would be one or the other – though if you fancy a great road ride, the MA-10 (I think?) through the mountains, taking in Lluc, several tunnels, Fornalutx, Soller and the like, is stunning, and you can then come back along the flats of the plain in the middle of the island. They love cycling / cyclists there – and there are loads of mapped, quiet road routes available to you.

The mountain biking from Soller is to be recommended, but what comes down, has to go up…

Whichever you do, you’ll have a great time!

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Thanks for all the advice guys! Looks like I need to take both bike!

+1 for Andy at Tramuntana Tours, he can give you all the info you need

+2 Hired a road bike last week for a day whilst on holiday with the family and had a fab ride – thoroughly recommended.

You could also head inland a bit from Pollensa. Many years ago (2001) a few of us did a week in Majorca self-guided, we picked up a route guide book in German and using vaguely remembered GCSE German, the sketch maps and local OS equivalents we got some really good rides around the SE of the island, mainly starting in Arta, no hike-a-bike, just really nice, rocky, techy routes without too many big steep climbs and no road descents. Would post pics but they’re not digital – suffice it to say, similar to the ones above.

I was in Pollensa a month ago. I used these guys- http://www.procyclehire.com/ as I opted not to take my road bike because I wasn’t sure if I could handle the heat+riding.
They have extensive knowledge of the area, road & mountain and im sure they will be able to point you in the direction you need or sell you a map.