Mallorca training 1

All the notes that make up this little 5 day diary were scribbled down after each day so as to capture how I was feeling at the time. Apologies for the tense switching.

Yesterday we arrived in torrential rain but this morning when we woke up the weather was beautiful and sunny. Had a terrible night's sleep though as the villa, although a lovely place, was absolutely bloody freezing. Drove down to Pro Cycle Hire in Puerto Pollenca to pick up my bike. They were rushed off their feet so there was little time to chat but they put my pedals on for me and I got my saddle height set and I was away. At first I was kicking myself because they had a wide choice of bikes but I didn't look hard enough at the options. I ended up with a Giant TCR which despite being a carbon frame was no lightweight and it was a double so I'd be running a 53x39 around the mountains. I thought I'd stick with it anyway - all part of the challenge.

I knew I wanted to stick to my training plan for the day (2x20) but apart from that I didn't really set out on any kind of route. The Tramuntana mountains was what I had come for and I knew that the big climb was around Soller somewhere so I just followed the signs for Soller. It wasn't long before I saw the sign for my first ever col, the Coll de Femenia. Almost immediately I was down on the small chainring and then the lowest gear and I could see myself back at the shop asking to swap the bike over for a compact. However, I persevered and with Rich's words in my ears ("..enjoy climbing hills") I got into a nice rhythm and that's exactly what I did - I really started to enjoy it. The higher I got the more beautiful the views were and my family were waiting at the top anyway so I wasn't going to flop in front of them!

Going over the top was a great feeling and there was a short descent before some more climbing. In fact I kept climbing, just following the signs for Soller and then took a short break to eat an energy bar at a junction where there was a big crowd of cyclists gathered at a cafe.

The worst part of the route was having to cycle through 2 unlit tunnels I guess a couple of hundred meters long. No high-viz, no lights, just praying that cars would see me.

Not long after the second tunnel I hit a long descent. Looking back at the Garmin, this went on for 14km. It's an amazing feeling overtaking cars as you zip down touching 60km/h. I met up with my family at the bottom and although I felt really good and wanted to ride some more I came under domestic pressure to call it a day so I put the bike in the back of the hire car and my first ride on Mallorca was over.

It wasn't until we looked at the map to see where we were that I realised I had been over the island's biggest climb, Puig Major. There is a closed military road up to the summit so it's not possible to get too close to the top but it's a stunning climb. I was going to save that for another day but banked it gratefully anyway.