Mallorca is a top cycling destination as demonstrated by several cyclist oriented hotels and the presence of pro peleton teams training there. The Tramuntana mountains provide the roadies with short and punchy climbs to train on as well as kilometers of relatively quiet well paved roads.

Mountain biking does not have the same presence in terms of bike rental or organised rides but the island certainly has a lot to offer for knobbly tyres.

I took my own bike and as I was wheeling it through the airport I was reminded that I was in a roadie enclave by the large animated billboard informing me of the recently opened Rapha concept store in Palma.

I had arranged to meet Toni from TramuntBike who was going to show me around the local trails just a 20 min drive out of Palma. Toni is the owner and only permanent guide for TramuntBike and as no one else had signed up for the dates it was just me and him. The price for the day was 100€ for just me but would be lower per person the larger the group.

Toni picked me up from close to my hotel in the city centre and took me to Esporles in the foothills of the mountains. The ride included gut busting climbs, serious technical climbing over jagged rocks where the tree line gave way and best of all a fantastic descent with a mix of rocky trials littered with baby heads, loamy turns and rooty chutes and dropoffs. The Tramuntana are not spectacularly high but they offer a real mixed bag of trail conditions that change as you gain/lose meters.

Toni was a great guide and despite suffering from a cold was always ready to explain what we were looking at when yet another spectacular sea view appeared. After the ride he took me to a local bar to try a Pa amb Oli, a mix of locally baked bread topped with tomato and a mix of local savoury delacasies like “sobrasada” (a sort of spreadable chorizo) or smoked salmon.

If you don’t take your own bike then Toni also has a fleet of Canyon Spectrals for visiting tourists.

This may read like an advert but I just wanted to share the great experience I had with Toni and let others know about other possibilities on the island than getting sh*tfaced in Magaluf!

If you get the chance check out his website: http://www.tramuntbike.com/

Seconded – I used Tony/tramuntbike a couple of years ago to guide 4 of us on a 3 day mountain bike trip from the south end (puerto andratx) of the tramuntana range to the north(puerto pollensa).

It was a well organised trip, with lots of decent riding.