April 7th: Andratx to Club Del Sol

Waking up early, we ate breakfast in our room, which had a kitchenette so we could make instant noodles and a couple of coffee pods. Mallorca is on the far end of the central European time zone, which meant it would be dark fairly early in the morning, but in exchange it stayed light enough for cycling until 8:00pm.

The bus ride was  uneventful. I’d always assumed that people taking the bus were all going to do the gorgeous coast route, but in fact, the English cyclists who shared the bus with us were planning to use the easier inland route. They were very impressed when they heard that Stephan and Otto were also going to do the coast route.

The coast route to Estellences starts with a 1000’ 5% grade. Joe was worried about his battery lasting the entire day, so he chose to do the first couple of climbs without battery assist. Once past the first climb, the ride develops an undulating character, swooping up and down the contours of the terrain, granting beautiful views of the mediterranean that rival California’s highway 1. What made it better, of course, was that first, the road was in exceedingly good condition, amost perfectly smooth, as though repaved only in the past year or so. Mallorcan drivers are also far more polite than their California counterparts.

We stopped for coffee early on, and ate Empanadas and had coffee to fight jet-lag. After that we rode to Esporles and then towards Deia, where a supermarket lunch was the order of the day. At this point, the group was broken up—Xiaoqin, Joe, myself, and Mark Brody in the forward group, with Arturo providing support for Stephan and Otto on the backend.

Past Deia, the road does one final climb before descending to Soller where rather than ride Puig Major we would ride Col Soller, itself a 1600’ climb from almost sea level. What sucks about Soller is that the road pavement is terrible, and up until the auto-only tunnel, cars and bicycles share the same road. At the tunnel entrance, however, bicycles get to ride the old road rather than the tunnel. While this adds 1000’ of climbing, in the mid afternoon the shadows were long enough to provide ample shade, and there’s a café at the top that wasn’t there the last time I rode by 7 years ago.

I was feeling bloated and mildly nauseated from having eaten so much over the day, so all I did was order a lemonade to share with Xiaoqin. Mark came by, and then we all elected to ride together the rest of the way. Mark had routed us through Bunyola, where we did decide to give the Orient valley a pass for lack of time. From there, it was not 10 miles of riding before we hit the bike path we saw 2 days ago. Since I now knew all the short cuts I took over navigation duties. I even had enough energy for a finishing spring kick.

We made it back to Club del Sol just in time to take a shower before dinner with the kids., who had gone for a ride with Adria Bauza, a guide highly recommended by Brad Silverberg. Ironically, the kids had ridden the Orient Valley via ar shuttle (which had newly paved roads) , and they would be the only ones to ride the Orient valley on the trip. Bowen even had a flat which highlighted that his front tire had worn out. Good thing we had a spare tire with us!

Arturo, Stephan and Otto would make it right after dark, giving themselves 15 minutes to load up their plates for dinner. That night, Arturo's call for an after dinner walk got no takers.

The kids had had a great time with Adria, and they considered the ride with him one of the two best rides on the trip.