After months of training and a great ride to the lighthouse at Cap de Formentor, the big day had finally arrived, we were going to be riding Mallorca 312! The ride starts at 7am, with gates opening at 6am to queue. With the cutoff time being fixed at 9pm, it was advantageous to get as near to the front of the queue of 8000 riders as possible. I’d heard that it could take 45 minutes to get to the start line if you were at the back of the queue! This all meant an early start to the day, waking before 6 after a nervous sleep, then trying to get some breakfast down in the midst of more nerves and a decent amount of excitement!
I was very glad we had picked a hotel only 1 mile from the start of the ride, this made it easy to get to the start line by 6am when the gates opened. It was a cool morning and the sun had not yet risen as we stood with our bikes in the crowds of riders that had already arrived, the queue rapidly extending behind us. The early start was worth the effort, we were a few hundred metres from the front of the queue and the official start line! We waited, chatting amongst ourselves, frequently checking the time. Just as 7am passed we were treated the the sight of the sun appearing on the horizon and shining through the start banner.
Riding Mallorca 312
Shortly after sunrise we began to make our way toward the start banner, by 7.15am we were off! You could feel the excitement all around as we headed along the flat coast roads at quite a pace. It was a pace I was certain I wouldn’t be holding for the whole ride. It continued all along the coast until Port de Pollença where we turned inland towards and beyond Pollença. At 16 miles into the ride we started the first main climb, Coll de Femenia. Shorty into the climb I was astonished to see someone riding a handbike!
Coll de Femenia took around half an hour or so to climb at a steady pace. I didn’t want to go too fast and burn out, but I was also mindful of the time restriction to complete the ride in – 14 hours. Riding a steady climb is such a pleasure, you really get into a rhythm. That’s something that’s hard to do in the UK with our generally much shorter and often steeper climbs. A second shorter climb took us to 2 hours ride time from the start line. This brought us past the top of the road of the famous Sa Calobra climb! I still had a smile on my face at this point 🙂
The High Point (Literally)
We had a brief stop here to eat and take on fluids. There wasn’t much rest after getting going, the road heading upwards again. This would take us to the highest point of the ride, at the top of the Puig Major climb. We were still a group of 3 out of 8 at this point, the other 5 being quite a way back in the start queue from messaging at the start of the day. So, the 3 amigos headed to the high point! Ryan, Simon and myself (left to right).
The Big Descent!
2 and a half hours, and 35 miles done. Now it was time to descend for 9 miles, dropping 2800 feet. Apart from a couple of very slight inclines, it was downhill all the way! For the next 17 and a half minutes I averaged 31 miles an hour as I swooped downhill and around bends. There was never a point where you couldn’t see other riders, but the pack had thinned out nicely from the previous climbs. Descending was absolutely fantastic! This was due to a tremendous combination of sunshine, beautifully smooth tarmac, and closed roads that enabled the whole width to be used.
Crazy Feed Stations
The first stop on the ride was fluid only, no food. We made the decision up front to attempt to skip this stop so that we could press on with the ride, saving a little time. We did this easily with a small shop bought disposable water bottle that we tucked into our jerseys. This 500ml extra was enough to get to the first of several feed stations without having to stop earlier. The feed stations were quite a surprise, a mad bustling mass of hundreds and hundreds of cyclists all attempting to get food and water. For us, this feed station was 4 hours into the ride.
Shortly before we left here we spotted 2 more of our party that had caught up with us! We waited a short while for them to get food and top up water before pressing on as a group of 5 :-). Over the course of the feed stations I lost count of how many ham sandwiches I ate and cans of Coke I drank. The savoury nature of the sandwiches were very welcome alongside sweeter snacks. I don’t normally drink full fat Coke, but on this day the energy boost was very welcome.
Green Polka Dot Jerseys
Riding on for another half an hour brought us to Coll des Pi. Shortly into this climb we again saw a group of riders who were wearing green polka dot jerseys. This group of local riders are part of the event, they ride with the aim of reaching the end at the cutoff time of 9pm. Basically, if you stay in front of these guys then you’ll finish in time! They seemed to be having quite a party with music playing from a speaker as they rode along. This made for a pleasant break so we sat behind them for a short while to enjoy the beats before riding on ahead.
An Unexpected End
The ride went on for a few more hours. Up climbs, down descents, along flats, stops at feed stations. Our legs starting to tire but our spirits staying lifted by the thrill of the event. While paused at a later feed station we saw the green polka dot riders arrive. They were lightning quick at the stops, in and out in a matter of minutes while we stood eating and drinking, taking a break. As they left ahead of us and rode away, little did we know this would be the last time we would see them.
This is where our dream of the 312 fell apart. The whole ride had been on closed roads, no doubt of which way to turn at any point in the ride, all junctions had barriers to guide the riders around. For this reason, I didn’t have the 312 route loaded on my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt, only using the map screen on occasion to scope out upcoming bends on descents.
After a long flat section, we reached another junction, barriers in place as always to shepherd the riders along the correct route. We turned left with everyone else, well, all but one rider who went straight on and dodged around a barrier that mostly blocked the road. Strange, I briefly thought, and then focused back on the task at hand – catching back up with the polka dot jerseys.
Reaching the End of Mallorca 225
We never saw the polka dot riders again, instead arriving at the finish line several hours earlier than expected. What had happened??? It turns out that as the polka dot riders passed the route split for 225/312, the barriers were closed behind them, we had missed a cutoff we were unaware of. The one guy who went straight on when the rest of went left must have had the route loaded. I think If we had have done the same then we would have caught up with the polka dots and completed the ride in time. We had done nearly 12000 ft of climbing at that point, the bulk of the hard work.
Hitting the finish line brought quite a mix of feelings. Some slight relief to have finished riding, but mostly disappointment that we had not succeeded in our goal. Upon finishing we collected our drink and food tokens, trading the food token in for the worlds worst luke warm noodle pot instead of the lovely pasta dish we were expecting!
The only thing that remained was to recover and replace some lost fluids and minerals!
Retrospective
At the time it was bitterly disappointing to not finish Mallorca 312 as we had set out to do. It really feels like unfinished business that I would love to go back and complete one day in the future.
There were many positive takeaways from the event
- The weather was incredible! Days beforehand it had been cold, wet, and windy – much like the UK weather for most of the year! I felt lucky that the whole time we were there had fantastic weather.
- The road surfaces are amazing! The tarmac is smoother than the UK, and almost entirely pothole free. I’ve heard people say that the roads are “faster” there, and from experience it’s true.
- Closed road events are fantastic! Not having to worry about cars and other motor vehicles makes the ride so much better. Not having to stop for traffic at junctions makes the ride flow so much better too.
- Riding with friends is the best, as always! Riding an event with good mates is the best way to do any ride. It wasn’t only the event day, but all of the training rides that I also did with friends.
- Getting out of your comfort zone can be scary, but also liberating. This was the most difficult ride I had ever attempted, and still is. It’s great to push yourself to see where your limits are and have the pleasure of reaching once unobtainable goals.
- Getting to the start line early. This was a massive help as the ride is capped at 14 hours from 7am, even if you’re at the back of the queue and don’t pass the start line until 7.45am
- Hydration is key, as you can see from the photo above! I lost a lot of salts through sweat! It’s vital to keep these topped up during the ride by adding supplements to your water. I typically use SiS Go Hydro Electrolyte tablets, they come in various flavours, I prefer the lemon ones.
There we also some negatives to learn from
- Fuel management. I was struggling a little by the end of the 225 to be able to eat. I got to the point where I could chew food… for several minutes before being able to swallow it. I’m not sure if that was down to being dehydrated (a had drank a LOT),or if it was simply a case that my stomach was struggling to do its job with all the blood going to my legs! One to look at for the future…
- Feed stop strategy. In hindsight, we spent far too long at the feed stops. One of them for around 30 minutes. That was way too long an ultimately meant we were behind the polka dots when we could have been in front of them. In future, I would probably grab food and refill bottle, then ride on ASAP, possibly eating as I rode along slowly. After all, even 10 mph gets you a lot further than zero does.
Overall, the event day was an incredible experience that I’ll never forget. Given the chance, I’d do it again in a heartbeat!
The Climbs of Mallorca 312
Here is a list of the Strava segments for the main climbs of the Mallorca 312 event in 2019:
Coll de Femenia – The first major climb of the ride, Cat 2, 4.7 miles climbing 1374 feet.
Mallorca Klassik – Cat 3, 2 miles climbing 541 feet.
Puig Major – Cat 3, 3.17 miles climbing 854 feet.
Coll den Bleda – Cat 3, 2.57 miles climbing 764 feet.
Deia to Valdemossa – Cat 3, 4.19 miles climbing 945 feet.
Col Ferrandell – Cat 4, 2.45 miles climbing 470 feet.
Coll des Pi – Cat 3, 1.76 miles climbing 686 feet.
Es Grau (Norte) – Cat 3, 2.18 miles climbing 563 feet.
Carretera De Capdellà – Cat 4, 1.61 miles climbing 429 feet.
Pujada Galilea – Cat 3, 2.24 miles climbing 665 feet.
Es Grau – Cat 3, 1.87 miles climbing 704 feet.
My Ride on Strava
Here’s my ride on Strava, along with more photos from the day.
