Mallorca 2012 Day 7

Rest Day

7 continuous days of riding finally took its toll.
We needed a rest day, as we called it "active recovery"

As most of recovery days turn out, we won't slow down.
Visited Colonia St Pere, a sleepy fishing village 17 miles north of us
for some great views and coffee.

Mallorca 2012 Day 6

Another perfect day.

Clear skies, only a little wind, it's been like Kona lately with a brisk head wind both ways,
heading strait north today to the famous Cap Formentor, riding along the bays of Alcudia and Pollensa on the bike route of the weekends half Ironman 70.3.

Word was not to ride all the way to the Lighthouse at the end of the Cap due to the  road condition,
I was looking forward to the last part because of its beauty, last time I saw the Lighthouse was 20
years ago!

So we stopped at the first platform after a really nice 5k uphill at 7%.

Absolutely mind blowing are the views every where you ride.

Mallorca 2012 Day 5

Last day of airport transfers!
Cynthia and Tom arriving today from Oregon, this is it, vacation starts today.

We woke up to blue sky and little warmer temperatures on our 6th day in Mallorca.
A promising 78 degrees was announced by the local weather man.

Due to another transfer day I only had 2 1/2hrs to get a ride in.
Decided to ride short and hard, another climb up to the Bethlem Monastery.

Mallorca 2012 Day 4

Another short one today for me,
more riders to pick up from the airport, so no time to ride long, Julia, Franz and a our fellow cyclist from New Zealand Scott planned a longer ride to the monastery on top of San Salvador at around 1600 feet.

I took advice from Peter and rode on a new to me road to Cala Torta, not far from were we are staying.
It was a beautiful road with a new black top. winding up a small mountain with 8-10% grades all the way to the first top and 12-14% on the second part, so I call this road from now on "Small Kaloko".

Mallorca 2012 Day 3

 A mixed bag of weather waited for us today.
Our  planned ride of 70+ miles turned into a wet, cold and windy 35miler.

Brr, under shirt and arm warmers plus the "just in case" rain jacket were necessary today.
It was still ok at the start of the ride, but coming into the second roundabout in Arta, rain began to hit,
well, than we just turn left toward Port Cristo where it look promising warm and sunny.

Only to find out that 2 miles down the road, the rain picked up even more.
Fighting a stiff head wind we made our way to Porto Cristo and found shelter at one of the board walk cafes to warm us up with hot cocoa and coffee.

Amazing how small the world is, taking a picture of a business across from the coffee shop.

The weather never got better, so we made the decision to ride back and bite the bullet.
Darn...headwind and more rain and a flat, by then we looked like coal miners, so much grid and grime
on Spanish roads.

A hot shower and the afternoon in the restaurant watching the Giro made up for the miserable morning. Before 5pm it all cleared up.

Mallorca Day 2

We woke up to another perfect morning, no clouds and a crisp 64 degrees.
After a hefty breakfast Franz, Julia and I went for a, lets say, quick ride, due to the fact that
we needed to pick up more riders from the airport.

It was a long day with hours of delays, but I tell you, lots of things to see at an airport,

we spent exactly six hrs until we had every body in the van and made our way back to the hotel, right in time for dinner.

Mallorca 2012 Day 1

The first day started with bad news from our friends and fellow cycling vacationers Sue and Dennis.
What? They are not coming! Serious health issues with Dennis' leg, that turned out later not being
life threatened. Thank God, we'll miss them dearly. Get well soon Dennis.

Besides that, Julia and I went for a nice first day of riding through the beautiful country side
around Petra and concurred a short but steep climb to the Santuri di Betlem at a mere 1000 feet elevation.

The weather has been great so far, not as warm as usual, 69F in the morning with a stiff breeze more feeling like 60F. Tomorrow Franz and Lisa are coming, so short ride in the morning with an afternoon airport pick-up.

Mallorca 2012 Getting there....

On our way

In general, traveling today via air is as you know, especially if you live on the most remote island in the world, not only stressful and annoying, it is indeed extremely time consuming.

So getting to Europe is a 26+hr adventure on its own.

With much anticipation and countless hours on United’s web site, trying to book a flight, as well as carefully planning our route to Mallorca we came to the conclusion that using miles is a big pain in the rear.

But we got lucky and found a Fist Class/Business class ticket using less miles than  in economy,
Explain that to me!

No explanation necessary, fly with a partner of a lesser quality than United, yes read again,
there is a step lower in service and you quickly find out.

This is a simple observation, or for my sake, I am picky.

US Airways, wow, First Class seats are as big as United’s, but the space to your  fellow traveler in front of you  for the next gazillion hours is as small as in every other Economy Class seat. Not to mention that the seats wont recline passed 15 degrees.
I’ll cut through all the “observations” like flight attendants and their terms of service etc.

So 7 ½ hrs later with one quick stop in Phoenix we landed at Dallas / Forth Worth international airport. Yehaa, what an airport, huge, clean, with concourses lit in natural light and
plenty of things to do and great restaurants.

2:45hrs of lay over went by more like 30 minutes,  that had to do with the fact that the menu
of the Irish restaurant “Bennigan’s” topped every menu in our town for what I would guess half of the price.

So do me a favor if you ever get to DFW and check out this cool place.

Lufthansa, now this is an airline, well its German, nothing else to explain.
Fortunate enough we were able to travel for the next 10 hrs in style.
Almost lie flat seats, plenty of personal entertainment, great food and spirits.
But even 10hrs is style is a frikin’ long way in the air.

Finally we arrived in Palma, Mallorca’s capitol city after a 45min delay at around 1pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Ahhh finally vacation.

I have been to Mallorca about 10 times, but every time I get back here I am amazed of the beauty of this island, pretty soon you’ll find out yourself.

A short 45min drive got us to our “pad” for the next 2 weeks.
Regina and Sonja, the rest of the Sauerland Team greeted us at our favorite place, the restaurant by the pool.

Tomorrow, bike fitting and a short 80k ride.

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!