Mallorca 312

[Julian Scott]

Meant to post this beforehand, but as I'm sat at Palma airport waiting for a delayed flight home, anyone else do it?

My first time, pretty bloody brutal.

[Sebo]

Julian Scott said:

Meant to post this beforehand, but as I'm sat at Palma airport waiting for a delayed flight home, anyone else do it?

My first time, pretty bloody brutal.

Never done it, it's on the bucket list. what distance did you do, what training / level of fitness are you?

Recommend it ?

[Julian Scott]

Sebo said:

Julian Scott said:

Meant to post this beforehand, but as I'm sat at Palma airport waiting for a delayed flight home, anyone else do it?

My first time, pretty bloody brutal.

Never done it, it's on the bucket list. what distance did you do, what training / level of fitness are you?

Recommend it ?

Full 312, reasonable level of fitness, didn't really alter my training but already do at least 10hrs a week. All the others I went with missed the cutoff and were diverted to the 225, and they are reasonably fit. We can all do 3hr 100km on modest elevation levels (my best ever road 100km time was 2hr 44). I can also break 6hrs for 200km if that gives an indication.

Would I recommend it? It's brutal. I underestimated how brutal. I averaged 27.4kph (Contador averaged just over 30!). Cut off was about 25kph ave.

But....the 225 is every bit as good, just misses the Arta party at 285km.

[Sebo]

Fark me you are quick / fit. Chapeau to you.

[Julian Scott]

Sebo said:

Fark me you are quick / fit. Chapeau to you.

Casquette doffed...

[Harpoon]

I've never ridden on Mallorca, so what are the climbs like?

Rode the Tour of Flanders sportive last month and that was a very hard day out (it rained pretty much all day) - 250km, 2200m (ish) of climbing. I was speaking to a Dutch guy on the shuttle bus back to Brugge and he reckon L-B-L was the best of the spring classic sportives. That's 250km but 4200m of climbing.

[andySC]

Harpoon said:

I've never ridden on Mallorca, so what are the climbs like?

Rode the Tour of Flanders sportive last month and that was a very hard day out (it rained pretty much all day) - 250km, 2200m (ish) of climbing. I was speaking to a Dutch guy on the shuttle bus back to Brugge and he reckon L-B-L was the best of the spring classic sportives. That's 250km but 4200m of climbing.

The climbs on Mallorca make for great riding. Nothing too severe as regards gradient. The longest would be Puig Major which is around 14km from the Soller side. Sa Calobra is fairly legendary & brilliant to descend & ride up. It’s a dead end so when you hit the bottom it’s a u-turn & back up, around 8% for 9km. The majority of the climbing is on one side of the island & riding the length of the Ma10 road from Andraxt to Pollenca is a great day out (catch the bus one way to Andraxt). There are inland lumps & bumps, the climb up to Randa or San Salvador are good. Sobremunt is a difficult climb & doesn’t feature on most folks radar, it gets very steep in parts on a ste surface. I love it on Mallorca & go a couple of times a year, a great place to ride your bike.

[nofuse22]

I did the 225km ride. Absolutely fabulous route through the mountains and along the coast with stunning views and great tarmac. The sun coming up over the bay near Pollensa is a memory that will last for a long time

Would say the following:
- the organisation was shambolic: the first feed station at c. 100k was likened to the hunger games… hundreds of cyclists fighting over a few water taps
- it didn’t help that the feeds were mostly off road on gravel; would have been very upset to get a puncture there..
- the organiser’s attempt in last few days to blame the shambles on unregistered riders is simply ridiculous…
- the time cut-offs made no sense: used same average speed cut off despite the fact that the second half was much flatter than the first half…

My bike didnt turn up on Thursday (thanks BA!!) and it was pretty tricky eventually extricating it from Palma airport on the Friday evening… not an ideal start to the weekend…

[Julian Scott]

Harpoon said:

I've never ridden on Mallorca, so what are the climbs like?

Rode the Tour of Flanders sportive last month and that was a very hard day out (it rained pretty much all day) - 250km, 2200m (ish) of climbing. I was speaking to a Dutch guy on the shuttle bus back to Brugge and he reckon L-B-L was the best of the spring classic sportives. That's 250km but 4200m of climbing.

Pretty much what Andy said.

It's got possible the best roads in Europe (thanks to Europe/The EU), mostly billiard table smooth, although the further inland take on a more crumbly farm road flavour.

As said above, the hills are pretty much all to the west (North-West)) of the island. The climbs are all pretty easy, mostly 4-6%. The 312 tackles the highest ascent from the North so it's even less steep....quite easy to big ring from Pollenca to the tunnel summit, then drops down the Soller side. The hills south of Soller are a little bit punchier, but not much, seldom break 6%.....Deia > Valldemossa > Banyalbufar/Coll de sa Bastida > Andratx but very dramatic scenery.

Head back North-Weast from Andratx the climbs get a little more punchy still, but still very seldom see over 8%.

Two outlying routes are the two most famous - Sa Colabra and the Formentor lighthouse run. Both dead-ends but both iconic for a reason. Define box tick stuff.

If you want a full big day, the 225 route is probably the best day's riding you'll do. Follows the above route from Pollenca, over the Puig, down to roller, then down to Andratx, then heads back north through and over the Galilea climb, then pretty flat back to Pollenca - 200km and about 3500m.

If you want to halve it, hang a left at Soller, up the Col de Soller and loop back. Only about 100km and 2000m.

We actually like staying in Soller and doing loops from there - North over the Puig to the lighthouse and back, or south to Andratx & back via Galilea and Valdemossa itself - two fairly big days of 150/160km and 3500m.

As with most rides, distance is manageable, it's the climbs that hurt.

The only downside, but a significant downside, is it every busy with cyclists.

But, you must go! It's fabulous.

[anonymous-user]

Julian Scott said:

Full 312, reasonable level of fitness, didn't really alter my training but already do at least 10hrs a week. All the others I went with missed the cutoff and were diverted to the 225, and they are reasonably fit. We can all do 3hr 100km on modest elevation levels (my best ever road 100km time was 2hr 44). I can also break 6hrs for 200km if that gives an indication.

Would I recommend it? It's brutal. I underestimated how brutal. I averaged 27.4kph (Contador averaged just over 30!). Cut off was about 25kph ave.

But....the 225 is every bit as good, just misses the Arta party at 285km.

Those paces sound similar to what I could do a good few years ago now. What I found when transporting my “south of England fitness” to things like Liege Bastonne Liege, La Marmotte and HIM Mallorca is that it doesn’t travel that well. Proper mountain climbs or even the unrelenting up/down/up/down of Belgium are hard to train for in England. For me the thing that enabled me to hold those paces - strength - wasn’t an adequate substitute for not being say 10kg lighter, which makes a huge difference on long climbs.

Oh, and the heat. The heat will screw you into the ground if you’re not trained for it, at least IME.

[Julian Scott]

nofuse22 said:

I did the 225km ride. Absolutely fabulous route through the mountains and along the coast with stunning views and great tarmac. The sun coming up over the bay near Pollensa is a memory that will last for a long time

Would say the following:
- the organisation was shambolic: the first feed station at c. 100k was likened to the hunger games… hundreds of cyclists fighting over a few water taps
- it didn’t help that the feeds were mostly off road on gravel; would have been very upset to get a puncture there..
- the organiser’s attempt in last few days to blame the shambles on unregistered riders is simply ridiculous…
- the time cut-offs made no sense: used same average speed cut off despite the fact that the second half was much flatter than the first half…

My bike didnt turn up on Thursday (thanks BA!!) and it was pretty tricky eventually extricating it from Palma airport on the Friday evening… not an ideal start to the weekend…

I'd agree with all of that. The 225 is the best route, the 312 doesn't add a great deal apart from the party in Artà.

The first feed stop was carnage, I was a little ahead so didn't see the worst, but it was still awful. The friends I went with were around 45min behind me at that point and they'd run out of water.

I didn't see ANY bikes without reg numbers on.

I didn't see any of the cut off riders, but that part was well organised from those that did - my same friends missed the 225/312 cut off, but were riding almost along with the green spotted cut off riders for a while so they could have dug deep and gotten ahead.

The biggest issue, IMO, is not having start waves, all 9000 riders starting together is bad enough but when everyone's time (and the cut off time) is from the official start time, everyone wants our start as near the front as possible. We got there just gone 5.30am and still rolled over almost 30mins after the start.

If I ever do it again, I just won't rely on feed stations until the latter ones (Galilea onwards) which were quite AND better organised. I carried food anyway, and it was easier (and quicker) to stop in air-conditioned cafes/bars to fill up with chilled mineral water at the earlier stops.

[darrenheysham]

I completed the 312 this year, and feel that a little more positive message should be heard. The first food and drink stop was very busy; it is in a poor location that is too small. It was possible to get water, it just took 5 minutes. I can’t comment on whether it ran out of water for later arrivals. The other stops were busy, but as mentioned by others, we used some shops to grab water and snacks.

Otherwise, the route was well managed, with lots of volunteers and support from local police etc. I would recommend the event to anyone considering it.

[Harpoon]

Cheers for the comments on the route / climbs. It sounds like a most of them are steady / long enough to get into a rhythm and "tempo" up them.

I just read a Cyclist magazine write up of an older 312 and that was very wet. I presume the comment on this thread about the heat getting you is more in the summer? I can still remember the end result of 40+ degrees during a ride in Provence a few years ago, so nice but cooler weather is my preference!

[Julian Scott]

darrenheysham said:

I completed the 312 this year, and feel that a little more positive message should be heard. The first food and drink stop was very busy; it is in a poor location that is too small. It was possible to get water, it just took 5 minutes. I can’t comment on whether it ran out of water for later arrivals. The other stops were busy, but as mentioned by others, we used some shops to grab water and snacks.

Otherwise, the route was well managed, with lots of volunteers and support from local police etc. I would recommend the event to anyone considering it.

Yeah as I said, when I got to the first feed stop it wasn't at its worst, but was still poor (I got there about 3hr 20 into the ride, so about 10.20am), it was 45mins after that it was dire and run out of water.

It's just a poor set up, riders still too close trying to squeeze into a small, traveled area - not helped by the water being right next to the 'pissoirs' and there only being space to park 100 or so bikes.

Definitely agree on the rest of it though, marshalling and police help was superb - seemed to be a teenage girl every 500m with a 312 t-shirt and flag helping the route directions.

My greatest tip would be to use shops not fee stations, quicker and easier.
My second tip would be to do the 225, I think it's the better route.

[Julian Scott]

Harpoon said:

Cheers for the comments on the route / climbs. It sounds like a most of them are steady / long enough to get into a rhythm and "tempo" up them.

I just read a Cyclist magazine write up of an older 312 and that was very wet. I presume the comment on this thread about the heat getting you is more in the summer? I can still remember the end result of 40+ degrees during a ride in Provence a few years ago, so nice but cooler weather is my preference!

It was mid/late 20's for the 312 this year. First half was a bit more cloudy, but the latter parts were very hot & sunny, only after Arta with a cooler headwind did it cool down.