It’s not the good-humoured from Tour De France winner Stephen Riche as he whizzes past that’s hard to take. Or the manner in which the Irish cycling ace soon dissapears from view into the Sierra De Tramuntana, the Mount Ainos backbone that frames Majorca’s north coast. It’s the creeping Exhaustion as a steep incline looms on the horizon, creating an exclamation mark between my road bike and the first coffee break of the morning...
Being overtaken by one of the all-time greats is a true pinch-yourself moment,especially when replayed in slow motion. It works like this: the ride begins, your gears lock, your buttocks squeak on the saddle, a white-knuckle descent comes into view, and still you know what’s coming. But you can’t do anything about it. So you wait for the peloton whoosh – that’s him sailing past from behind you. Then for the sigh, which is when you realise that you haven’t a hope in hell of catching the barrel-chested 57-year-old.
“How do you feel?” Stephen asks me later, after I catch up with him on a terrace in the palm-shaded village of Estellencs. It’s only the first morning of a mini cycling tour of this Balearic island, and my legs have already turned to jelly – but I’m not planning on telling that to one of the sport’s best ever racers. Fine, I reply, gasping for air, then collapsing into a seat. Just fine. “Great,” he says, standing as if to leave. “Only another 35km before lunch. You ready?”
If you’re going to be overtaken, whether by a former Tour pro like Stephen Roche, or by your own family or partner, you might as well do so in Majorca, the road cycling capital of the world. It’s where Chris Froome and Team Sky spend their winters laying the ground work for the season ahead (last year they based themselves out of Alcudia on the northeast coast). Sir Bradley Wiggins described it as being like a “Scalextric track for bicycles”. It’s home to the Palma Arena, the best velodrome in Spain. And it’s where Tour de France and Giro d’Italia winner Stephen Roche set up his world-renowned cycling camps in Palmanova (stephenroche.com). Taken together, such attractions add up to a destination that’s the ultimate for helmet heads and cycle nuts.
For a novice like me, the cloudless skies and temperatures that hover in the mid-20s help, of course. So, too, do the gloriously quiet roadways and doodling ribbons of asphalt that weave through sun-dappled farm towns, hilltop nooks and citrus groves, before dropping down rollercoaster-style towards the sea. The climbs may sometimes be long and punishing, but the descents are fast and the winding hairpin bends are the perfect excuse to stare longingly at beaches hugged by gentle Mediterranean waves.
“Cycling first took off here around 10 years ago,” says Stephen, after we stop a further 12km along the route for a water break. “Ever since Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France the season has kept growing. This has meant that the profile of cyclists continues to change and we get everyone from complete beginners to riders who come just for a weekend. Before, that would have been unthinkable.”
When Stephen Roche first retired, the former Tour winner wanted to open an enthusiast’s paradise offering a pro experience for amateurs. The idea was to give something back to the sport that had given him so much, he says, and Majorca, with a road infrastructure unlike anywhere else, seemed the obvious choice.
Since those days, dozens of fellow ex-pros, operators and bike companies have arrived, while some 120 hotels across Majorca have popped up, offering everything from workshops for maintenance and repair, to storage and special carb-loading menus. True, the split-second gear shifts and tight Lycra shorts with sponge cake-thick padding lead me to raise an eyebrow, but I’m in the minority. Last year, rather incredibly, the island wooed a record 140,000 cyclists between February and May, the peak season before the hot, hazy summer arrives.
For enthusiasts, this spring is more significant than most. Not only is it a hard-to-believe 30 years since Stephen won both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia (he plans to release a new tell-all book to tie in with the anniversary), but 2017 will see the biggest ever Mallorca 312 road race taking place on 29 April (mallorca312.com). This ambitious fixture includes some of the island’s toughest climbs through the idyllic mountain towns of Valldemossa, Deià and Pollença – trips that feel a little bit like you’ve cycled through a time warp to the 1950s.
As we roll along a sliver of north coast road to the pretty town of Andratx, it becomes clear that Majorca has everything. In one afternoon we pass through typical villages flanked by lemon gardens and almond orchards in full bloom, wheel down Roman-era roads, and cross a deceptively hilly mountain range studded with miradors. “The bicycle just makes sense here,” says Stephen. “Besides, it gives us an excuse to explore a side of the island most visitors don’t ever see.”
Still, people are sometimes surprised that, while these classic routes have made Majorca famous for drawing cyclists out into the countryside, the island’s love of the bike isn’t replicated in Palma. The capital continues to suffer from limited parking facilities and traffic jams that slow right down to a crawl, but a handful of low-key, high-tech operators are starting to make good on a promise to change all that.
Among them is Urban Drivestyle (urbandrivestyle. com), a vintage bike and e-bike store breathing life into the traffic-congested back streets of the Old Town. The brainchild of Ossian Vogel and Thorsten Schoof, two German ex-pats, the sustainable concept store opened in August to help solve the city’s urban mobility challenges. And after climbing the Tramuntana hills, an easy afternoon’s outing is the perfect tonic for my sore knees and aching calves.
“You really have to be on two wheels to be manoeuvrable in Palma, and these bikes operate independent of infrastructure,” says Ossian, when I join him on an e-bike tour of this fair city the next day. He has kitted me out with a bumblebee-yellow Triumph Bonneville-style e-bike with a battery pack and bug-eyed lamp. “You can be a little anarchist,” he continues. “Drive anywhere, park anywhere. This is about changing people’s mentalities.”
As the sunlight fades, we buzz from the Cathedral of Santa Maria of Palma to Parc de la Mar, zip along the harbourfront, then spend the late afternoon flitting between the shadowfilled lanes eating tapas and drinking cold beers. It’s enough to inspire a deep-rooted love of not just the bike, but also Palma, a city few cyclists ever really get to grips with.
“You’re hooked, right?” Ossian asks, as we return to the showroom later that evening. He’s not wrong. The only drawback I can see with cycling on Majorca is that you get wet if it rains. But on an island that boasts 350 days of clear skies that’s no deal-breaker: the promise of sunshine is never far away. I may become a Balearic biking addict after all.
On your bike!: Majorca’s ultimate cycle routes, whatever your level
1. FOR EXPERTS: The Snake Charmer
When the going gets tough, pro riders pedal to Sa Calobra, a legendary 10km-long dead-end drop with more hairpins than Beyoncé’s hairdresser. It has 26 snaking bends, an average gradient of 7.1 per cent, and it demands either commitment or sheer lunacy (the only way in is down and the only way out is up).
2. FOR INTERMEDIATES: The Carb Loader
The bustling market town of Santa Maria del Cami is a flat ride from the south coast along quiet roads. It’s worth it for Sa Sini (cellersasini.net), a fantastic cake shop with meringue pies, cheesecakes and fruit tarts. Go out and back from Palma, and you’ll have done enough pedalling to more than justify that cake...
3. FOR BEGINNERS: The Coastal Route
Palma’s coastline-hugging cycle lane weaves from the Paseo Maritimo past the witch-hat spires of Palma Cathedral to the resort of El Arenal 15km to the southeast. Along the way, you’ll pass plenty of cafes to refuel at and ample beaches where you can linger for a swim. The perfect family day out.