Majorca – Puerto Pollensa Cycling Advice Please

Hi folks – We’ve a week in late May booked in Puerto Pollensa primarily for a cycling holiday.

Please could you offer some road and mountain cycling recommendations ?

TIA 🙂

Road
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_de_Formentor

Lovely ride to the top of the island .Just follow the road up the hill at the back of town its about 12 mile to the end .If its hot go at about 6 am to beat the heat

Felanitx about 35m
.san salvador monastry.
awesome climb.

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Try Rock and Ride Mallorca null

I bought the book for £10 and did some of the routes last September. Thers’s a good off-road from Pollensa to Lluc Monestary. Lots of good tarmac as well.

Classic road ride is to Sa Calobra .. 60miles there and back from Puerto Pollenca.
Then theres a longer route to Soller, Bunyola, Orient and across back to Pollenca .. thats about 90miles.
Plus Randa ..

Or even a ride around the Island .. thats 190miles.

spot on – fancy the ride to Soller – looks characterful.

I did Formentor last year when holidaying at Puerto Pollensa. I wanted to do Sa Collabra but didn’t think I had the time before it got too hot. Was a stunning ride. I set off around 7:30 am, went to Formentor then round the bay to alcudia and back. 34 miles and 5,664 ft of climbing. Was a stunning ride, well recommended.

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It’s the perfect base for road riding. Formentor out and back is a must, as is adventuring up the Ma-10 towards Soller. One ride I’ve done is up to Pollenca old town, then head east a bit towards the golf club. Take the road towards (and through) the Coves de Campanet, through Campanet, Moscari and Caimari. Head up the PM-213 – it’s the Col de sa Batalla and a top climb.

The ride back towards Pollenca back down the Ma-10 is a blast. Formentor and Alcudia peninsulas offer some good 2-3 hour routes – I think this was an early morning ride up from Port de Pollenca – great little workout…

You’ll have a brilliant time and I’d highly recommend calling in to see Bruce and his team at Pro Cycle Hire[/url] on the outskirts of the town. Not only are they a top bunch with some excellent hire bikes, but buy their map from them. It’s very neat – grading roads by traffic volume, so you can plan your routes. There are some very good suggested ones on there too – and it’s on waterproof paper. #genius.

wow – superb folks- we’re deliberately heading to Puerto Pollensa as we’ve heard good things about Bruce and his team and we plan to hire from him too…..

anyone else ?

A couple of nice routes here

Puig Major

Sa Callobra

This map is well worth the money, used it last year to do all the main climbs and a lot more as well. It may be on sale cheaper elsewhere but this is just showing which one. 🙂

Just copy & paste into browser.

http://www.stanfords.co.uk/Home/Product-Detail/Mallorca-Cycling-Map_9788480903639.htm

+1 Formentor for road cycling.
Mtb’ing in Mallorca isn’t as straightforward, best to go with a guide company who know the legal trails. Last time I was out there the closest to puerto pollensa was a good hour’s drive away.

Both the Puig Major and Sa Collobra rides listed above are hard but quality. The Sa Collobra descent is awesome. The lighthouse ride (Cap Formentor) is a great little afternoon leg stretcher, if you come in on an early flight. There are some nice flatter rides if you head south from Pollensa, good for recovery rides.

Theres a lot of decent mountain biking in majorca, but A lot of it is hard to find, and I reckon would be better with a guide & van.

We went for a long weekend a few years ago, and we cobbled together some routes by trawling the internet & buying a guide book from tramontana tours in soller .

A particularly memorable ride was one known as the pilgrims steps, you start high up next to cuber reservoir (having a car/van to get you up there makes life easier) , and make your way down towards soller, via hundreds of steps. It wasnt exactly fast flowing singletrack , but was worth doing just for the journey.

If we go back we also talked about riding the GR221 trail that runs the length of the island through the mountains. It’s probably a 2 or 3 day ride, but I guess you could just pick sections of it to ride. Just google for GR221.

There’s probably more routes on the internet these days than when we went, so just have a look around and load them onto a GPS.

mallorcadave on here is guiding in the area and there is a helpful thread here

As far as I’m aware the vast majority of land is privately owned and there may be access issues to exploring by yourself. The maps already mentioned seem like a good guide but I’m toying with the idea of tagging along with friendly locals to get the most out of a few days in September.

Been before without the bike and now plan on exploring new areas of the island by bike 😀

I’m heading there first thing tomorrow and doing all the rides mentioned – 1st afternoon is a ride up to Sa Balata and back to Pollensa, then Sa Colobra on Friday, big ride on Sat (Pug Major, Bunyola to Orient, Col D’Honor) and the lighthouse ride on the last day.

The lighthouse ride is the only one on Majorca that has a poor road surface – it’s a bit of a rattler!

And if this pic doesn’t get you in the mood, nothing will!

Shibboleth – It does, where is it?

I’m over at the end of May also!

Guess where I’m heading earlydoors tomorrow morning… good thread timing.

Shibboleth – If you’re on the early flight out of bristol, we’ll be in the same plane…

kenkyujo – i arrive on the 28th May if you fancy buddying up. will be hiring out of Pollensa Pro Cycle Hire.

Shibboleth – looks great 🙂

That pic is the top of Sa Colobra. It’s a fantastic 11km descent down to the beach, and a properly satisfying switchback climb back up again.

Col de Sa Batailla is beautiful. By far my favourite climb. I like heading out early morning i.e. sevenish(avoids the crowds not that it is a problem), up the Col de Feminea, down the Sa Batallia then ride back up it – ride it and you will understand. Beautiful! The lighthouse ride is great too. Others to consider are the climb up Puig Major or extend by riding a big loop down to Soller then up over the Col de Soller to return via Orient. The orient valley is pretty special too.

The valley ride to Campanet is lovely too. I never head inland as for me, flat equals a bit dull!

I’ll try to remember to post up some run lists I have when I can get to my computer.

That said, Sa Colobra and Cap Formentor are the classic light/rest day runs, and variations through Soller and Puig Mayor are your solid end to end mountain runs – we almost always included Bunyola and/or Orient either out or on the return, although there’s also the option to return on the flat.

highly recom. all the above.

only thing i would say is do them dawn or dusk, when the coach tours and people like me in a rental car (and the heat) is out of the day…
alternatively go out of season (bit late now!)

Shibboleth – If you’re on the early flight out of bristol, we’ll be in the same plane…

I’m flying out of Manchester… 6.30am flight 🙁

But at least we get a good ride in in the afternoon. And yep, the pic I posted is Sa Colobra. Amazing descent. 🙂

Anybody got an Open source map of Majorca?

I’ve got a garmin 800, so I’ll be doing a lot of the route planning in advance but would like map to follow on the garmin?

Only got OS uk mtb mapping at present?

Majorca Road Mountain Runs[/url]

Majorca Road Intermediate Runs[/url]

Well it’s raining here at the moment… Might catch a cheeky spin in a bit but we’re gonna plan the next few days riding instead.
Feel your pain with the early flight – ours was at 6, so up at 3… Staying in viva tropical

You can down oad OpenSource maps of anywhere in the world from the Garmin site.
I have got a second memory card for Majorca as I was unable to get the UK and Majorca to work on the same one.

Anybody got an Open source map of Majorca?
I’ve got a garmin 800, so I’ll be doing a lot of the route planning in advance but would like map to follow on the garmin?
Only got OS uk mtb mapping at present?

Anybody?

Well, back to reality… Day one was atrocious weather, driving winds and hail on the tops. Rode Selva/Coll de Sa Batalla (garage ride) and ‘gingerly’ descended back down to Port De Pollensa (Christ, those roads are slippery when wet). Day 2 was gale-force winds but lovely in the afternoon, long, flat, fast ride round Alcudia, Petra etc.
Did the big ride on Day 3, Sa Batalla, Puig Major, Soller, Deia, Valdermosa, Bunyola, Orient, Selva and home. 100 miles and 10,000 feet in glorious weather!
Highlight was the descent from Puig to Soller – absolutely magic! 14km of constant downhill, huge sweeping bends, perfect tarmac and very few cars. It has to be one of the best descents in Europe…

nice Shibbo – will be there myself in 7 weeks.

i’ve bought the popular cycle laminated map which is excellent and got my bike hired from Pro Cycle Hire.

looking forward to it 🙂

They’ve just moved into new premises with a big café haven’t they? Right opposite the Pollensa Park Hotel where we stay. Really good guys – helped me out with a stem last year when I sheared a ti bolt. Unfortunately it was bright red and I told him it looked like an Alsation’s cock. I believe they still refer to red stems as dog’s cocks!

We use that map, it’s probably a good idea to have a more detailed one so you can work out where the hundreds of little single-track roads go.

If you’re hiring, just give yourself loads of time for setting up, stem swaps etc… I talked to a few people who loved the riding but didn’t feel comfortable on their bike, so make a real nuisance of yourself when you collect it!

And if I was hiring, I’d take my own saddle and get them to swap it…

Did Cala Bona to Formentor and back last year. Superb roads with cars giving you plenty of room to enjoy the climbs and descents. Looking to return next year.

Did Cala Bona to Formentor and back last year.

The Formentor ride is spectacular, but I wish they’d resurface it! It’s by far the worst road surface on Majorca, which admittedly, isn’t bad by British standards.

I overtook a car on a descent last week and as I stopped at the bottom, the car pulled up along side. I was expecting a telling-off, but the driver gave me a thumbs up and shouted “brillante” before driving off laughing!

Completely different attitude to the UK, they actually like cyclists as we bring so much money to the island and extend the season by a month at either end.

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hey folks – anyone got anything else to add ?

Just stumbled on this thread – and as I’m currently on hols in Port de Soller, where I’ve been out on the MTB, thought I should contribute 🙂 There are loads of mtb routes around the Soller area, and its all dusty, rocky fun. The trails between Soller, the Mirador, Fornalutx, Biniaraix and Deia are all really good. Def worth getting yourself over to Port de Soler, where tramuntanatours have some hire bikes and guide books etc.

What is the availability of water like? Shops or public toilets available?