First day and what a day to greet us with a clear blue sky and 20 degrees...fantastic!
With Kev, Christine and Glen not arriving until Tuesday, myself, Marcus, Warren & Spenno decided to try for a decent but steady ride into the hills to make use of the good weather, with a route planed to go via Palma, Santa Ponca, Andratx (lunch stop), up the coast to Espories and then drop back to Palma and onto the hotel. Good plans always get screwed up, and this was no exception, after negociating the busiest bike path in Europe with skaters, dog walkers, joggers and mountain bikers along the Palma promenade it was a relief to get onto the roads and weave our way over to Santa Ponca, where the trouble began! We just couldn´t find a way out, back tracking, up side roads, it was turning into a mission. Eventually after only what could be described as a ´helta-skelter´ series of sharp climbs and descents...we escaped :) All I can say is, lucky it wasn´t raining, that would have been a case of ´who dares, may stay up´!
Spenno and Marcus was enjoying the constant climbing with Warren digging deep, searching for his climbing legs, but hey, he was never far behind, giving good licks on the down hills!
We stopped at Andratx for lunch, a nice spot where we could sit and soak up the sun and enjoy a Spanish omelet and a refreshing coke. Warren was impressing us with his German...not...by asking for tomato ketchup, what he got, was mayonnaise! The waitress was giggling, so I would imagine she and her buddies in the cafe, must of thought, ´we´ll show that Englander we know English too´!
In hindsight this was not an ideal place to stop for lunch as the route from there was a long...very long climb to reach the coast route. Despite the relentless ups and downs the views were spectacular, well worth the hard riding and great for some photo shots. Eventually, we made it to Espories and the run down to Palma was so quick that we were back on the promenade cycle path in about 40 minutes, where once again it was a case of ´ducking & diving´to make any headway, unless that is, you were looking at the scenery, if you know what I mean :)
After quick cafe con leche on the front we made our way back for the evening meal, a good choice of salads, hot food and deserts which satisfied even the biggest of appetites...evens on that count, albeit Marcus can certainly eat a good mixture!
Ride summary - route: hilly, 128km, training segments: none
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