Every year at this time we get images of professionals training on this wonderful island, and Mallorca is considered one of the most popular cycling destinations in the world, not only for amateur cyclists who travel to the island to enjoy their vacations on the bike, but also for professional teams such as INEOS Grenadiers or Movistar Team.
Its popularity does not come from nowhere, but Mallorca has certain attributes that have made it a cycling paradise, the first, the climate; although it has all the seasons of the year, the minimum temperatures do not drop below 2ºC in winter and have sunny days most of the year. The second reason is undoubtedly the landscape and the variety of routes it offers, the island has the beautiful Serra de Tramuntana where you will find ports with steep slopes, sea views and endless plains. And finally, over the years, the island has been adopting different services for cyclists, such as bike lanes, stores specialized in the world of cycling, hotels adapted to them and even restaurants focused on cycling.
We had the opportunity to have a conversation with Albert Torres, Menorcan of the team Movistar Team who currently lives in Palma de Mallorca, and who better than him to tell us one of his favorite routes for training on the island.
He tells us that it is a route of 120km with a little more than 2,000m of elevation gain, it is a route that he does often. Mallorca doesn't have any long mountain passes other than Puig Major of 14km and Sa Calobra of 9.5km, but this route has shorter passes and the best views of the island.
The route starts climbing Coll de Sóller, which is about 5km of ascent at 4.5% - 6%, you go down to the port of Sóller, which is a descent with many paellas and curves, once you reach the village you climb towards Deià, a very nice village in the Serra de Tramuntana, then you have another climb of about 7km and once up the route goes to Coll de Claret, a short climb, and then make the road by which you will have an incredible wealth of landscape, as you are elevated but all you see is the sea. Following that road you reach Banyalbufar, another of the most beautiful villages of the island, and finally comes the last descent to reach Andratx, once there you will only have one last climb, this time to Capdeià, then you just go down to Puigpunyent, the last stop before reaching Palma.
The good thing about Mallorca is that there is a great variety of mountain routes, which allows you to have many options of routes within the same area.
