From what I’ve seen it’s riding up the side of a busy road or being stuck in a cluster **** on Formentor.
However yesterday we’ve drove on gloriously surfaced, twisty , empty roads from pollensa to lluc.
It looked superb.
On the way down I let some roadies pass me after a hairpin and I followed them down. It was just like being in the tour de France.
There’s not many places to stop and look at the view in a car but hopefully you can make out the bends in this picture.

One of our solo rides in Andalusia recently we did about a 15 min road descent on Whyte t130s, it was the highlight of the week. Pinned in top gear trying to hold my mates wheel and almost t boning him a few time hard on the brakes, cracking fun!

A friend and ex colleague now lives in Puerto Pollensa. She does guiding and sport massage.

Her Facebook posts always make it look a terrible life

http://www.ottiliequince.com/p/oq-in-mallorca.html

That’s one of the really nice climbs on Majorca especially since there’s a cafe about 10 metres over the top of the climb 😆

Formentor’s a pain unless you do it really early in the morning and avoid the traffic. Sa Calobra can be the same if you don’t get back up before the coaches start again.

If you’re doing formentor, just accept that you’re going to struggle to get your best strava because of traffic.

Also because you don’t have a 400 watt FTP.

Hit the northeast and middle of the island for some amazing car free roads with the best surface ever! Only time I’ve ever had “flow” on a road bike!

Cap de Formentor and Sa Calobra will soon be closed to cars I believe.

Also, the Germans will ride all day in chaingangs along the main roads – as you will see while driving them, but there are tons of quieter roads that everyone else uses to ride on.

The photo above is a great climb, not a good descent for Mallorca. Great loop from Pollenca is to take the back roads to Campanile and across to the foot of that climb, ride up it, turn right just after the top (cafe and petrol station) and then take the descent back down to Pollenca past Lluc 🙂

Andalucia advantages include:
hills of the Sierra Nevada and Andalucia
low traffic density and excellent road surfaces
best climate in Europe, allowing year round road cycling.
fantastic scenery
lower cost of living than many of the traditional road biking resorts, such as Mallorca.
Road cycling

My sister has done a couple of trips but they always go early May as I think there is less traffic and it’s cooler

We went in February, nice and cool and the big rides were quiet.

I’m going in four weeks time. Can’t wait.

Any suggestions as who to book a trip with ?

Just arrived today, got a few days in alaro then a few in soller. Looking forward to getting a few rides in, hope the weather holds out. Can highly recommend the route described by the ginger one above, spectacular and the descent into pollenca is great fun

Campanile

Campanet.

Nice little 2hr loop that from Pollenca.

Better still is out through the lanes to Campanet, then on to Bunyola via Moscari, Lloseta, turn right before Alaro and over Orient. Come back via the Col de sa Batalla (Lluc). Stunning road.

My favourite is the coast road from Andratx, through to Valldemossa, Deia, Soller and back over Puig Major to Pollenca. Quiet, stunning and testing.

@peteimpreza – we’ve always done it ourselves. Book accommodation at the Duma and also a transfer from Palma to Pollensa. One of the bike hire shops does a map of the Island with the good loops marked.

@blazin-saddles – Only done the Valldemossa- Andratx road once, nice and a lot quieter than those further east.

If you want something different, there’s a cracking climb from Es Pujol up the Puig de Randa (it’s one of the sharp summits near Palma that has a monastery on the top). The Es Pujol climb is basically shut to cars and is super twisty up through the trees.

Just remembered I have a video of the descent down to Pollenca from Lluc:

If you get chance, incorporate the road from deia to soller into a ride, it’s incredible, in either direction. Do it both ways if you can.

It got decent mountain biking too. I can recommend the 3 day off road ride from andratx to pollenca run by tony at tramuntbike (http://www.tramuntbike.com/ruta-la-travessa/)

its a 3 day ride, staying in various hotels along the way, day 1 is andratx to banyalbufar, day 2 is banyalbufar to soller, day 3 is soller to pollenca.

Long hard days riding.