The Fabulous Five on tour – with one more joining, to make it the Sensational 6!
Baroudeurs on Tour
With qualification races for the UCI world championships just around the corner, a group of Baroudeurs upped their training with a week of big miles in the cycling paradise which is Mallorca. Five of us flew out on the Friday, along with a poorly Jonny Wilkinson who still kindly obliged to give us an autograph and a photo despite being under the weather, and we arrived safely at the apartment in Puerto de Pollenca late that evening. The 6th Baroudeur was already clocking up the miles in Soller and joined us on Sunday.
Lockgate
Bikes were built late on Friday so we were good to go Saturday morning. But first breakfast! We headed out in search of food and after a successful mission we arrived back at base. We’d had a bit of trouble with the keys the night before but this time all of us were flummoxed. “Its like there’s a key in the other side of the door”……….Uh oh. That is exactly what the problem was. We were locked out! A neighbour kindly allowed Ollie to attempt a break-in by clambering over the balcony, but alas, we’d made sure it was locked up nice and secure. Nothing for it but to call the locksmith who arrived quickly and cheerfully tried to knock the key out with a hammer. No luck. Undeterred the cheery fellow went to his van and returned with more tools. Still no joy. He went away again, looking a little crestfallen – it can’t be an easy task with five hungry cyclists all keenly awaiting your success. Round three and the big guns came out. The lock was drilled out and replaced. We were in! Breakfast was has and we set out on our fist ride of the week.
Yes, more of that please
Selva, Sa Batalla, Lluc
The first ride out was approximately 70km through the foothills and into our first major climb of the trip, Coll de Sa Batalla, a cat 2 climb over 7km of switchbacks with an average grade of around 5%. We stopped at the monastery for a coffee and ice-cream, soaking up the warm Mallorcan sun before heading back for the evening. After leaving the monastery there are a few kilometres of rolling road before the spectacular and sweeping descent of Coll de Femenia.Enjoy the views if you have time, but watch out for sheep! The descent finished with a long false flat back down to Port de Pollenca, not that you’d know, with the wind coming in from the coast making it hard going all the way.
Collective distance cycled 350km
Petra & The Light house
On Sunday Debs was due to arrive after having spent a week tackling the climbs out of Soller and beyond, so Becks and Lauren went for a morning run to make sure someone was in for her, while Kostas, Tom and Ollie went out to stretch their legs with a fast 100km out across the plains to Petra and back in a long the coast road. Once again the wind, which was to become somewhat of a feature for the week, picked up and made the boys work hard to get home, looking a little worse-for-wear when they did. A home-cooked lunch to refuel and it was back out on the bikes, this time for a leisurely group spin to Cap Formentor and the lighthouse. This starts with a challenging climb up to the first car park, followed by some beautiful sweeping roads and then the last climb up to the lighthouse for some spectacular views before retracing our tracks back to base.
Collective distance cycled 875km
In part 2, we take on the longest ride of the tour, the 130km of the Randa; take on the Sa Calobra and rack up a collecctive distance of 1695. Bring it on!