mallorca cycling

carrock

just got back from mallorca, where mrs carrock and I hired a pair of bikes for a few days in between lying on the beach and drinking cocktails

Fantastic time was had- great cycling, fantastic roads, great weather, considerate motorists

Fair enough we will never have the weather, but why cant we, in the UK, in one of the worlds richest countries, have roads that are better than a cart track in comparison

It makes my bloody blood boil

And can recommend the hire company velosportmallorca .com run by a German ex pro who has a hire fleet of 120- anything from basic hybrids to top of the range road bikes

We had specialized hybrids which were actually maintained and had lube on the chain!!

BigDarbs

Unfortunately the truth is, our roads are poor because of the weather. Yes, there could be a lot more spent on maintenance (especially when the amount of tax we pay is taken into account), but our roads suffer because of the volume of water and range of temperatures thay have to endure. I have done many miles on road bikes in Mallorca, and some of the mountain roads, under the trees where any water remains for longer, are just as poor as the worst UK roads (ride the main road from Inca to Lluc, and then tell me all of Mallorcas roads are great!)

Having said that, I am horrified at the state of some of our roads, as a road cyclist, motorcyclist and high mileage car driver I thunder across my fair share of potholes!

mrushton

did you go on the Cap Formentor road? It's lumpy and broken and as rough as the roads in Islay (Scotland) where I was the other week. To be fair, a lot of the roads i n Majorca are good. Depends how quick they get repaired and how much money in the budget

carrock

no mainly round cal a dor, santanyi, up to porto cristo

DaSy

I too just got back from Mallorca, and hired a bike from Pro Cycle Hire, I was staying in Palma, and rode two days out of seven, as this was supposed to be the holiday with my wife that made up for my Geneva to Nice bike holiday in June!

I rode over coll de Soler, over the Puig Major to Lluc and down to Inca, then back to Palma. The road from lluc to Inca was indeed a bit rough, but no worse than a standard Berkshire main road sadly.

Second day I followed the coast out of Palma toward the airport, up to Llucmajor and then Randa and the climb to Cura, then back down and onto Montiuri, Algaida and a circuitous route back into Palma.

Riding in and through Palma was the highpoint for me, an insane city of millions of tiny streets and a maze of oneways, but chasing buses and scooters was great. I drafted one scooter for about a mile, he was even trying to lose me by weaving across the street, it was like the run in on a sprint stage, I took him out at a tight squeeze between a couple of buses...

It is a great place to ride, but for me, the roads in the Sierra Nevadas in Spain were the most amazing, they were perfect, all the cambers were right, and all this for about 20 cars a day when I was there.