Route: Hotel, Campanet, back road to Selva, Lloseta (Roys sprint), Binassalem (rush hour), Consell, Santa Maria, Bunyola, Soller. Puerto Soller – FERRY – Sa Colbra, Pollence, Hotel 85 miles.
Write up by Simon Hughes.
07h30 and the dinning room opens for breakfast and two staff members nearly get trampled in the rush. The EARLY CREW are in! We have a date with a ferry so cannot afford to dawdle in sleep or sustenance so after a very brief breakfast we are on the bikes for a start at 08h00 (eight o’clock does occur twice a day despite what Peter says!). We take the familiar route to Campanet and it is a bright, somewhat crisp start to the day. Our group (Jeff Graham, Mark McGovern, Gordon Dunsmore, Sue Chesters, John Cann, Roy Taylor , Simon Hughes) are a hardy bunch – except for John and Gordon who are wearing arm warmers and in John’s case, a gillet – nancy boys!
John took us on a loop north around Selva which we had not been on before and what a nice road and pleasant change that made. Into the small town of Lloseta where Roy Taylor has a flash back to his racing days and all of a sudden he’s up on the cranks and off and sprinting. Within five seconds he is half way down the street with the bike swinging back and fore until in his minds eye he sees the finish tape, takes his seat and raises his arms in triumph – absolutely priceless and a joy to watch. You see, in his pomp, he did that in real life, in real, serious races – but he won’t talk about it as he is a modest man. He was fined at the fines committee evening for showing off though.
Excitement over we glide on through Binassalem and into Consell which is another town I had not visited before. It was a bit “main road in traffic” but a really good main road so no problems. On through Santa Maria and into Bunyola for a quick coffee and refuel at a regular stop. John “The Mechanic” McCann naturally has running repairs to do to his bike but this is we discover, situation normal (he got his fine as well).
Now it’s up and over the climb to Soller – some of us (well, everyone except John) were in a degree of trepidation at the thought of this climb but no, it was easy. We went up at a steady 11/12 mph but with plenty in the tank. No gasping, sweating or ridiculously high pulse rates, we just took it easily and all of us finished within a minute or two of each other.
Now the decent was another matter - for me anyway. I should be known as “the brake block salesman’s friend” whereas Roy Taylor is definitely not (ask Chris Bush about the decent from the monastery at Randa later in the week!). Roy went down in half the time that I did, and in truth, Gordon was not far behind him which amy be something to do Gordon’s superior weight!
After a gentle cruise through to Peurto Soller we bought the ferry tickets (Euro 16) and chose a nice café for our lunch. We had an hour to spare so took our time and just enjoyed a good meal and the very pleasant surroundings.
Onto the ferry for a 45 minute trip to Sa Collobra and sight of some quite lovely coastal views on a bright, clear and warm day but we all knew that we were about to get to the business end of the ride.
As soon as we docked, it was on with the shoes and on the bike. The climb out of Sa Collobra is about eight miles long with an average gradient of 7.5° - definitely the hardest climb that we have done in Majorca. The road twists and turns on itself and you can see traffic way above without being able to see the road by which they got there. The last mile or two definitely kicks up and I would think the gradient is 10° - 12°. Here I made a tactical error – I was riding with Jeff Graham and Mark McGovern and Roy Taylor; Roy was “half-biking” me on my right. The road was narrow at this point and it made me a bit nervous so I said “Roy, this is no place for two abreast, drop back or go forward” – he went forward, a long way forward and Jeff said – “many thanks Simon – we just lost our taxi”. After a while, and to teach Jeff a lesson I increased the pace and caught Roy and we jockeyed for position until about a mile to go and then Roy backed off so as to let me finish with him. We arrived at the café in somewhat of a lather but very satisfied with finishing a long, difficult climb in style.
The road back to Lluc Monastery is a little lumpy but quite fast and here the group split for a while as Gordon, Mark and Jeff pushed on while I ditched a broken water bottle and Sue and John followed. We regrouped at Lluc and began the 10 mile descent to Pollenca. Roy as usual was off like a scalded cat with Gordon on his wheel. Mark, Jeff and I followed with Sue looking after John at the back. It is a fabulous descent if you like that sort of thing but all good things come to an end and as it flattened out we caught up with the advanced guard. The plan was for John and Sue to catch us and we would wend our way back to the hotel. Lets put that plan away for a moment as like a bat out of hell Sue came past us as if we were standing still – John had a bemused/amused grin on his face (was it something he said we wondered?) but we though, better get our skates on, cant get dropped like this. So our resident strong man, Gordon puts the hammer down but we just couldn’t catch her. To stop the madness I feigned a wrong turn at a roundabout which made further chase futile – anything for a break!
It was a fine finish to a really good day out – a tale of two rides totalling 87 miles with a two hour break in the middle (which brings both parts of the expression “cycling holiday” into play). Next year we will do the same but in reverse; we can’t wait.