Looking westward

7 May 2009

Mallorcan towns have exotically unfamiliar names. Today, we passed through these:
• Banyalbufar (our start and end)
• Puigpunyent
• es Capdella (where we stopped for lunch of open-faced sandwiches and coffee)
• Andratx
• Sant Elm (nearly the westernmost point of Mallorca)
• Estellencs

Today's route was especially scenic, again passing through the mountainous region of northwest Mallorca. We covered 80 km and climbed (and descended) about 6000 feet, which is more climbing than I have ever done in a day of cycling. None of the individual climbs were that difficult. The roads were well graded as usual and I don't think we were ever more than 500 m above sea level. But the large majority of our ride today was on roads that were either going up at a 5% (or so) grade or going down at a 5% grade. Going up, 5% slows me down to about 10 km/h. Going down, I was comfortable at about 30 km/h. Since the distances uphill and downhill are about the same, this meant that 3/4 of the time we were climbing. Do the math a bit further: half of 80 km means 40 km of uphill riding and if done at a 5% grade, that means 2,000 m of elevation gain (0.05 x 40 km), which equals about 6600 feet. The estimate that we actually did 6000 feet is from Alison's altimeter. Anyway, Ingrid, Gabrielle, and I were all a bit worn out by the end.

Our route involved a clockwise loop first away from the coast, then southwestward through the mountains. Midway through the loop, we did an out-and-back 18 km (R/T) spur to a lovely seaside resort town, Sant Elm. Finishing the main loop, we rode in a northeasterly direction "along" the coast. I put "along" in quotes, because we were as much as 1000 feet above sea level owing to the extremely rugged coastline in this part of Mallorca. The views of the sea were stunning, as illustrated at the top of the post.

Our tour of Mallorca is just about complete. Tomorrow, we ride an easier 70 km back to our starting hotel, just outside of the main city of Palma. On Saturday, we fly to Sevilla and reunite with Daniela and her friend Dana.

At the bottom of this post is a photo of our riding group that Alison took this evening. Take a look. There are some seriously capable cyclists in this group. But seeing these people on the street, you wouldn't know it! Without biking uniforms, we all look pretty ordinary!