how tough is Sa Calobra ?

anyone ?

10km long, 668m of altitude gained.

I’ve driven up/down it a number of times, but I wouldnt want to ride up it.

http://mallorcacycling.co.uk/mallorca-cycle-climbs/sa-calobra/

It’s not too bad.

EDIT if you need a guide…

How to ride Sa Calobra

It’s steady away, the steepest bit feels like it’s right at the top just after the loop. If it’s a hot day and there’s no cloud then it could be a bit of a grind. Taking it steady and talking to a mate for pretty much all the climb I took around 50 minutes. Best tip is to get there early so you are back at the top before the coaches arrive.

Its long, but not especially severe. “How bad” depends on what you consider to be a hard climb, and what sort of ride you wrap around Sa Colabra itself.

thanks 🙂

It is probably the most revered climb on the island. It can be hard as it can get very hot and windless, plus no trees to give a bit of shade. Coaches can also be a problem on the many bends as they have to come over to your side of the road to get round them. Its a great climb though but one you have to commit to ‘cos there’s only one way out (unless you cheat and get the ferry).

Did it 2 weeks ago.

Views are stunning. Was 30 deg when we went up it so was tough. Mostly 8-10%.

I went up early in the car.Parked at the bottom ,rode up 45 mins no traffic, Back down 15 mins held up by pesky slow cars, but what a descent. It’s a great ride not mega effort but you wouldnt tackle it midday.Be sure to get your souvenir ‘sa colobra 5c’ from the cafe at the top!

It’s not really that bad, just find a rhythm and plod up it. It isn’t that steep, I think I used a 42 x 25, on it, but a 39 might have been slightly nicer. Wiggo has done it in 26 mins apparently 😯

Iv’e done it so that makes it pretty official that anybody can.

( I actually found going down harder )

EDIT: What mudplagga said….It gets very busy in the afternoon, do it as early as you can manage.

There next week and thinking to ride from Pollenca and back. When people say ‘early’ – what does that mean? Crack of dawn sort of early?

The coaches start arriving about midday so ideally you want to be back at the shack at the Lluc-Soller road junction by then. If it isn’t a weekend then there might not be so many of them and you can see them on the approaches to most of the bends from a reasonable distance so ease/speed up to avoid meeting them on a bend

It should only take an hour or so to get there from pollensa, if I was going to ride it next week I’d want to be on my way back by 10:30 as it’ll be tourist and coach hell any later.

As climbs go it’s not so bad, probably the hardest on the island but compared to the Galiber, Stelvio, ventoux, gavia or glandon (ones I’ve ridden of note) etc. it’s pretty easy.

It’s 39 chainring territory rather than 34.

Sub 12 minute descent and about 55 minute climb.

As an indicator, it has over 6,000 people logged on Strava, so it is clearly very do-able.

I might currently be the 13th fastest down according to one of the Strava segments 32.3 mph avg 😉

There is a small climb before the descent, so if a coach has passed you while you were going up there. I would wait at the top for as long as you can(i.e. set off in front of the next coach) to give yourself a clearer run, though the coach drivers know it is busy with cyclists and (most) are happy to let you overtake.

It’s not that bad. The ‘official’ climb is 9.4km at a 7% average so not really much by alpine standards – strava reckons I did it in 36 mins in 2012 (when I was fitter!) on a pretty chunky hire bike – think I was in the 34/21 most of the way.

Agree with everyone else re: timing and Buses. You’ll need to make an early start to get there and back up before they arrive at this time of year.

Current KoM on Strava is David Lopez (Sky) in a shade under 25 min 😯

From pollenca you’ve got two significant (by UK standards) climbs before you get there: the Coll de Femenia (OR the much nicer Col de sa Batalla if you go the long way round) then the Coll dels Reis.

GrizeDaleF – We were there last week, its a damn fine climb. The worst feeling part is the last part after the 270deg bend.

Traffic wise – it was ok, The Buses are generally patient and only a problem on the way down, bare in mind there are some tight corners for the buses.

We rode it about 2pm or so, and it wasn’t that busy. But its approaching the start of peak season.

If the early morning hangover option doesn’t work, ride it later in the day after the Coaches have shipped all the peeps back to their hotels.

If riding from Pollenca I’d recommend going via Campanet – much nicer climb towards LLuc from the Selva side, even if it does add some distance.

Lecht if you here at mo will be riding it fri or sat.

At hotel duva in pollensa.

If anyone else is here and fancies a ride…

Here’s a tip….when you get down to the bottom, don’t stop but come straight back up, you won’t want to climb with café legs.

Get into your own rhythm and enjoy the views.

Fabulous climb and descent
Done it a couple of times…….but not on the same day!

According to Strava .. its a 6mile climb at 7%.
I did it this April in 35min 49secs .. so if a half fit 40+yr old can do it in that time, it cant be too bad.

Arriving on Wednesday, happy to hook up with anyone. Staying at Azul Suite in Pollensa….

no biggie, I did it as a barely moderately fit 45 year old MTBer on a road bike

don’t get carried away on the way down, I very nearly departed this life smeared across the front of a Thomson tour bus. (go early).

It’s pretty hard, but you’ll get up it just fine, and feel good for doing so.

Thing is, it LOOKS awesome, so I’m pretty sure a lot of the reverence comes from that. Certainly, I love it both because it’s a challenge and it’s visually stunning.

B (39mins ish on a 34×25)