My rider view of Day 3 of the 6Points Mallorca in May 2019, organised by Bryan Visser, with my group (one of four) led by Philip Crawford. We rode from our overnight stay at Castell de Mar in Cala Millor back to our starting point in Santa Ponça, about 165kms, flatter than Day 1 (also 165kms) and longer than day 2 (115kms).
The morning part of the ride took us to the southernmost point of Mallorca, the lighthouse Far des Cap de ses Salines, before lunch, and then the afternoon ride back, skirting Palma to the north, to Calvià and then to our finish at Es Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
In my view the 6Points Mallorca is the best way to ride around the whole of Mallorca perimeter, in 3 days, and have the time to smell the flowers, so to speak. Lunches, coffee stops (of which you can see a couple in this video) and great dinners at the overnight hotels.
We visit the 4 compass points, the Lighthouses in the extreme West (Sant Elm), North (Cap Formentor), East (Capdepera) and South (Ses Salines) of Mallorca, plus the highest point (Puig Major) and the lowest – any sea level point, Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça in our case at the beginning and the end of our 425kms ride, with 7000m of climbing. A great 3-day weekend of cycling!
Six Points is a charity ride for Asdica, on behalf of disabled children in Mallorca, so if you’d like to donate, there’s a JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundi… . Please mention my name!! We met some of the Asdica Charity beneficiaries at the finish of the Mallorca event, at the Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
My rider view of Day 2 (the easiest, shortest day!) of the 6Points Mallorca, May 18th 2019, organised by Bryan Visser, with my group (one of four) led by Philip Crawford.
On this second day, we started at Tolo’s, visited the Cap Formentor lighthouse (the northernmost point of Mallorca) and then back to Tolo’s for coffee and cake before the next leg.
The easternmost point was another lighthouse, the Faro Capdepera at Cala Ratjada, before finishing the day at our overnight hotel at Cala Millor, the Castell de Mar.
In my view the 6Points is best way to ride around the whole of Mallorca perimeter, in 3 days, and have the time to smell the flowers, so to speak. Lunches, coffee stops and great dinners at the overnight hotels.
We visit the 4 compass points, the Lighthouses in the extreme West (Sant Elm), North (Cap Formentor), East (Capdepera) and South (Ses Salines) of Mallorca, plus the highest point (Puig Major) and the lowest – any sea level point, Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça in our case at the beginning and the end of our 425kms ride, with 7000m of climbing. A great 3-day weekend of cycling! Six Points is a charity ride for Asdica, on behalf of disabled children in Mallorca, so if you’d like to donate, there’s a JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundi… . Please mention my name!! We met some of the Asdica Charity beneficiaries at the finish of the Mallorca event in May, at the Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
My rider view of Day 1 (the hilliest day!) of the 6Points Mallorca May 2019, organised by Bryan Visser, with my group (one of four) led by Philip Crawford.
The whole day was about 165kms, with 3500m of climbing. We rode from Santa Ponça to Sant Elm to the most westerly point of Mallorca, and then up to Andratx for the Ma10 road all the way to Port Pollensa (via coffee and cake at Restaurante Son Tomas in Banyalbufar, for our first overnight stop, preceded by dinner at Tolo’s (of course!). Although we diverted to Fornalutx for lunch, Puig Major is a long steady climb!
The view from the start of the climb!
It was a pretty windy day, and quite damp in the afternoon, after lunch in Fornalutx, at Restarante Es Turo, and at the highest point of our ride (and the three days) at the summit of Puig Major, it was 4˚C – brrhh!
In my view the 6Points is the best way to ride around the whole of Mallorca perimeter, in 3 days, and have the time to smell the flowers, so to speak. Lunches, coffee stops and great dinners at the overnight hotels. We visit the 4 compass points, the Lighthouses in the extreme West (Sant Elm), North (Cap Formentor), East (Capdepera) and South (Ses Salines) of Mallorca, plus the highest point (Puig Major) and the lowest – any sea level point, Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponsa in our case at the beginning and the end of our 425kms ride, with 7000m of climbing.
A great 3-day weekend of cycling! Six Points is a charity ride for Asdica, on behalf of disabled children in Mallorca, so if you’d like to donate, there’s a JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundi… . Please mention my name!! We met some of the Asdica Charity beneficiaries at the finish of the Mallorca event in May, at the Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
Day 1 of our 6Points tour of Mallorca, all compass points, and the highest and lowest
We have lunched on the tree covered patio at Restaurante Es Vergeret MANY times and it’s very well worth a visit (view to Cala Tuent attached). It’s very easy to go down there for a dip. As some will know, When descending Sa Calobra, I always stop at the turn to the left a few kms before Sa Calobra and point it out, but most want to go to the cafés at Sa Calobra. This article by Mallorca Cycle shuttle might change that…
Here are some our Cala Tuent pictures from 2001/2, from the patio of Es Vergeret and also down at the little bay itself.
This video is about the 2018 Mallorca 312 I rode with Leslie. We did the 225kms version, and, as for the full 312 kms, most of the interesting riding is along the Ma10 road along the north of the island, through the Tramuntana mountains, and then through the western Tramuntanas, where most of the climbing, apart from Puig Major, is located.
The return to the east of the island, unaccountably, DOESN’T go though the beautiful Orient valley, which I think is a pity, but instead follows a succession of minor roads from Esporles to Lloseta and Sa Pobla, running parallel to the Orient valley (which would have had some good climbs, such as Coll d’Honor and Orient itself) and the Palma-Inca main road.
After that the route goes down to Arta, on a loop that adds the necessary 80kms or so to bring the 225kms route up to 312kms. I have ridden those roads before, and didn’t miss them!
Consequently most of the video covers the start of the 312, the north and west of Mallorca, and the finish.
Leslie’s and my 2018 Mallorca 312 adventure
A shorter video collage version
I published a shorter video clip earlier, comprising a collage of Apple Photos pics and short clips, in my blog post on Sep 24th, 2019, about Cycling in Mallorca generally, which is also on YouTube. See it here:
Collage of photos and clips from the 2018 Mallorca 312
Hello Sunday Zwift 6Pointers! Our Zwift training ride is on as usual at 11.40am UTC on Sunday (see link). It’s not such a tough one, 2 laps of the Zwift Watopia Waistband, flatter than all official routes except Tempus Fugit and Tick Tock. The only noticeable uphills are the rise outside of Saddle Springs, the ramp out of Ocean Boulevard and the climb to the Italian Villas which follows, the volcano kicker and the shallow climb back into the desert.directions.
Watopia Waistband
We look forward to seeing you and your avatar there for a hilly 27kms, a tough rolling course with sprints and KOMs, with very little flat riding. Prompt regrouping to the yellow beacon (riding at ~2.5w/kg) after each sprint section, please; and the closing minirace is to start at or behind the beacon, with the fence in use to assure that. David Smith is your beacon leader this weekend
This perimeter route covers portions of Watopia’s three “flat” routes, (Tick Tock, Volcano Flat, Watopia Flat). It’s called “Watopia’s Waistband” because it nicely encircles key landmarks in Watopia proper including downtown Watopia, Fuego Flats, the Italian Villas, the Volcano, and the Fishing Village.
We begin on Fuego Flats at the spawn point. Just after the start is the first marked sprint section.
The we ride clockwise around the desert loop until it drops us off on Ocean Blvd. Take Ocean Blvd toward the Fishing Village (away from Downtown), turn left toward the Italian Village, then another left at the fountain to head toward the Volcano.
Ride around the Volcano clockwise, make our way through the downtown start/finish line and onto Ocean Boulevard before a quick left back to Fuego Flats.
At the end of the first lap, we sprint on the sprint marked section again.
The we do it all again, but this time, when we turn left off the Boulevard, we finish the ride with a 4km minirace to the end of the ride, which finishes at the sprint finish arch.
Veloviewer profile of Watopia Waistband
Our 6Points Mallorca events are every Sunday at 11.40am UTC, over 8 different courses – nearly as varied as Mallorca riding!
As always, please leave time for any Zwift and Companion updates, (there was one today) and don’t use a TT bike for group rides or races, except for TTs, unless you want to work even harder! TT bikes don’t draft.
A very large turnout for this event this week, must be the change of leader, from me to David Smith! Amazingly 284 booked to ride, with 253 actually riding, including late starters, and 108 finishing. Well done David!
We see 284 booked to ride on 2 laps of the Waistband, 53kms in total
Mid-ride, this picture shows the number riding, 253, with an aerial shot of the peloton:
And the full results on Zwift show the 108 finishers in order…
Highest placed regular rider is PP Valois; the last of the pages shows 108 finishing.
Finally, we can see the results for those registered on ZwiftPower, which is generally those who sometimes race on Zwift, so that they get more detail on their performance
Looking back at our 6Points ride to the 6 Compass points of both Formentera and Ibiza over the weekend of 4/5/6th October. Quite different in their nature – Formentera is flatter and smaller but a delightful island which we enjoyed a lot. Ibiza has one or two quite stiff climbs and quite a bit more elevation overall. Take your pick!!
A reminder of our wonderful 6Points weekend in Formentera and Ibiza in early October
You can also see a short video of our Ibiza/Formentera visit by Anja Ulrich (our photographer) on YouTube at:
The 6Points Ibiza/Formentera visit, official video
What a tough course! Its also quite complicated, so I had to give and repeat quite a lot of information at the outset!
Instructions I gave to quite a large starting group, 88 at 2 minutes. We had 146 eventually
There is a 14% wiggle (the Strava segment is the Pot Bank reverse wall (in this direction)) at the stream at the western extent of the course – see it here:-
14% incline…and quite a long, steep hill altogether
This is quite apart from the two sprints, the first KOM (the Harlow climb) taken at tempo as a peloton, and a second, reverse KOM taken as part of the 10kms minirace to the finish. Probably a good thing my HRM wasn’t working, I might have frightened myself! All ride data is at https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=262499 for those registered, and on Zwift Companion for everyone.
1st page of ZwiftPower results
We had 162 booked to ride, with 146 riders and 64 finishers which says something about the difficulty of the course!
162 booked to ride – I just beat the hour!
Companion dropped out three times in this ride, but David was able to
keep communications going on screen. He, Sean Ekblom and I were on
Discord which is a BIG help in coping with any tech issues!
It’s a difficult course to keep a peloton together, as it is so undulating with stiff climbs, as we saw in the “wiggle” picture above. This figure 8 course also has the sprints and KOM too close together to regroup easily in between. Eventually the course flattens for the last 4kms run into the finish, but by then the damage is done! I did have a little group to sprint with to the finish! I beat Bisani, but the “nearly” philosopher Nitschke beat me!
The little subgroup I sprinted with to the finish (but that beacon chevron isn’t very “aero”!)
I lost too many to the fence for my liking, some quite near the beginning, as the first sprint is only 2kms from the start, and the fence needs to be tight for the lead-in to that.
21 removed by the fence in this picture, after only 5.6kms, just after the first sprint
Maybe two forward or two reverse laps would be better – to be researched! Congrats to Christiaan Stange for his win (he suggested this course and now we know why!) and to Sean Ekblom for his podium, both regular riders of ours. Sean will get his Tron bike on his next big ride later today, following the 490m(!) of climbing on our 6Points course. Here are all the results:-
Christiaan and Sean, 1st and 3rd, are two of our regular riders
As we can see above, this week I was actually slightly under the advertised pace, averaging 2.3w/kg and 177 watts. To be honest, I was having to peer so closely at my pace notes to make sure where the sprints and KOMs were, I couldn’t press on as hard as I might have done.
Clockwise from bottom – Companion on iPad, annotated map, sprint/Koms, and all distances
Our Zwift ride this weekend, at 11.40am UTC, is over one lap of the Royal Pump Room figure 8 circuit, a very undulating course. As Zwift Insider says at https://zwiftinsider.com/royal-pump-room-8/:
From the start, we ride under the start banner, then north to the Queen’s Highwayloop. This is the smaller, northern loop of the Yorkshire course, and we ride it here first in a counter- clockwise direction. This northern loop contains the Yorkshire sprint segments (a different segment in each direction), and this time around we will hit the longer sprint, the Hereford sprint.
Next, we proceed through the start/finish banner and onto the much larger, southern loop portion of the course, in a clockwise direction. Ride up the forward KOM segment, then catch your breath as you descend to the next portion.
Now it’s back to the northern loop, this time in a clockwise direction, with the Yorkshire sprint to the same sprint arch as before but in the reverse direction. This small loop makes up the Duchy Estateroute. Finish this loop and head south for one more lap of the big loop, this time in a counter-clockwise direction, beginning with the reverse KOM segment. The route finishes at the start/finish banner.
The following map shows the essentials of the route:
Royal Pump Room 8
The blue arrows show the direction of travel on the sprints and KOMs for the first half of the ride, and the yellow arrows show the corresponding sections for the return loop of the figure 8. Distances are shown in kilometres in red figures, to a total ride of about 27.2kms (~17 miles) for an elevation of 480m (~1500ft).
The first “Hereford” Sprint starts at about 2kms; the first (forward) KOM climb starts at about 11.5kms, and is 1.2 kms long at about 5.5%. The second “Yorkshire” sprint starts at about 14.6kms, and the second climb, the reverse KOM, starts at about 17kms, and is 1.2kms long, at 3.8%.
We look forward to seeing you and your avatar there for this hilly 27kms, a tough rolling course with sprints and KOMs, with very little flat riding. Prompt regrouping to the yellow beacon (riding at ~2.5w/kg) after each sprint section, please; and the closing mini-race is to start at or behind the beacon, with the fence in use to assure that.
I will likely start that minirace at the bottom of the second KOM ascent, with roughly 10kms to go.
The starting pen for the 6Points Mallorca Sunday Zwift ride
Another record ride today, with 195 bookings, 159 starters (of whom 98 on ZwiftPower) and 93 finishers. Watopia’s Sand & Sequoias is certainly a lovely route, probably my favourite at the moment, starting and finishing in the Fuego Flats desert:
Heading for Zwift’s Las Vegas equivalent, Saddle Springs, past the dinosaur…
and taking the forest route back to the start through Titan’s Grove, which takes riders up and down the KOM.
Alerting riders that we start racing here second time aroundThe full map of the route shows the varied terrain
David was my backup beacon, and all went very well; my averages were 2.5w/kg and 183w, spot on as advertised.
The closing minirace on the second lap of this course is, if anything, tougher than London 8 up and down Box Hill – it’s longer (10kms), and as well as the KOM itself, it’s quite undulating both before and after the KOM.
