Day 10 - Lat Day of riding -

The B Group and the Cappuchino Group went for a leisurely ride to the Caves of Arta in the beautiful bay of Canyamel.

By special request, proof that Dennis really was in Spain.

Thanks for following .

See you all next year.

Oliver

Day 9

Highlight of this years tour was a climb up to or ride down to Sa Calobra, located in the Tramuntana mountains 60 miles from the HQ @ Font de Sa Cala. Taking the north west corridor through the very busy
towns of Can Picafort and Alcudia, we started our climb with a 7.8km uphill to the Monastery of  Lluc.
Winding roads through a beautiful canyon up to the top, followed by 9km a roller coaster ride to the junction to Sa Calobra. Unfortunately for the peleton, not enough time to ride down or back up.

The Cappuchino group took the support vehicle and were able to ride down the switch backs to the beach of Cala Sa Calobra.

Another great day!

Day 8

Rained out in the morning, rain means rest!
Most of us went to the nearby city of Capdepera for some shopping.

One small group went for a ride back to San Salvador, another for a neighbor ride around Bethlem.
Cleared up nicely in the afternoon.

Day 7

Race Day

Monica, Mathew and Mike had their big day today.

First annual Ironman 70.3 Mallorca, challenging bike course
with a ton of climbing, we showed our support and 10 of us
rode to Muro to cheer our friends on.

Day 6

Its taking its toll

First signs of tiredness is showing for the first time.
Group size shrunk from 10 to only 4 riders today.

Ralf, a very good friend of mine from Germany, came to
visit for a couple of days, he has been to
Mallorca many times and knows his way around, he intruduced us
on our todays ride to a "Mallorquin Powerbar", a monster pastry filled with
a mix of chocolate cream and Marzipan.

Day5

There are not enough hours in a regular day.
Swimming, breakfast, riding, sight seeing, shower, dinner.
Unfortunatley times flies by too fast and we have only 5 more days
to ride left.

Riding to the north west region of Alcudia today, we enjoyed
astonishing views of the  vistas, riding through
fields of planted vegetables sided by old wind mills and Malloquin farm houses.

Short stop for Cappuchino on the beach in Can Picafort.

Pigs hill on the way back. Definition of "Pigs Hill", long, hot, head winds, 6-7% grade
for about 3KM, I heard a lot of complaning in the back of the field.

Somewhat early arrival back at the hotel, took the tram to Cala Radjada for some
change of mind, pupus or Tapas in Spanish at a hip restaurant, yummy.

What day is it? Wearing no watch has become somewhat of a challenge or maybe blessing.
Most of the time I have no clue what time or what day it is, does it matter, NO. We are
on vacation. Still waking up at regular Kona time 5.10am, ready to roll.

6.20am 20 laps in a nice heated pool all by myself, feels good!


All what I know was when I woke up today was it'll be an easy day. riding on the
Queen K Highway, even on a scheduled training program by Coach Steve won't come even
close to what we are experiencing every day, so today we are going to lick our wounds.

Clear blue skies, 72F, we are living the dream again another day.

I was the leader today, Uwe our tour guide needed the day off.

On the way to Porto Christo, one of my favorite spots on the island we past Cala Millor,
which conviently had a bike shop, shopping time, always need a cool outfit from another place.

Cleared that place out. Back on the road toward Porto Christo.

Cappuchino, Coca Cola, Sandwiches and Hamburgers tasted extra good today, easy tempo,
perfect temperature and a view you won't even believe made a great lunch.

Back at the hotel we treated ourself with a couple of cold ones and some monstrous ice cream.

Day 3

Cyclists go through a lot of challenges every day, one of them is to pump up about 20 bikes in the morning before we head out on our daily journey of punishing our body for several hours.

Another beautiful day in the saddle, Group B going to San Salvador, 1509ft above sea level, 4.8km of switch backs, my Garmin showed between 4-11 % grade.

On top, best views of all Mallorca and best cup of coffee.

Julia had a bad day in the office due to a bike that just doesn't fit her.

Franz tried to do his best to help.

Uwe at Work

Day 2

Another beautiful day, crisp temperature at 6.00am again, warming up to 85F during the day, loading up with fresh fruit, yogurt, multi grain bread and some nice cups of coffee at breakfast, we were all ready to conceur another ride through the lovely country side. Cappucino group was planned to ride to the Caves
of Arta 42 miles, Group B lead by Uwe headed toward Petra 59 miles.

I could remember some nice side roads from my past visits with less traffic and convinced Uwe to mix my and his routes together, worked just great, everybody had a blast.
Stopped for a coffee break at a square in Petra, must be one of the bike friendliest places around,
the plaza was filled with countless groups of cyclist, it was too cool.

Wonder why there are no pictures, well, someone forgot to recharges the camera batteries, duh!

I'll try to get some from other fellow cyclist tomorrow.

Day 1

Woke up at 5.10am, well rested, quite room on the second floor, morning temperature, nippy...
9.00am bike assemble, got everybody done by 10.30am with help from Uwe our master mechanic and tour guide.

 Let the pictures speak for themself...