Mallorca: Four Days, Zero Cooperative Wind Forecasts<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\nThe thing that saved my sanity, and probably my training, was finally escaping Denmark for a cycling trip to Mallorca.
Yes, I know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every cyclist goes to Mallorca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a clich\u00e9.
I went anyway, with zero regrets, because the routes are genuinely breathtaking and having the choice between coast, mountains, or flat open roads all within the same island is basically cycling paradise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, the wind had not been informed of this plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Day 1<\/strong> was supposed to be 120 kilometres including Sa Calobra, the famous climb that cyclists either love or use as a reason to reconsider their entire hobby. Extreme wind had other ideas. We delayed the start hoping the forecast would come true and the wind would ease off, it did not. The wind, apparently, does not check forecasts. We got absolutely battered on top of a mountain on a different route, cut our losses, and called it at 40 kilometres. Technically an “easy” day. Not easy. The wind made sure of that. Silver lining: the retreat route uncovered some beautiful smaller inland roads hiding from the wind, which felt like discovering a secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 2<\/strong> started with overnight rain, a very wet morning, and a lengthy philosophical debate about whether it was worth going out at all. Being time-limited and unwilling to leave Mallorca without doing Sa Calobra, we went for it. Slightly chilly, especially on the descents, but we made it. What a road. Going downhill is objectively more amazing, but grinding 10 kilometres uphill has its own particular charm, I loved it, hated it at various points during, and immediately wanted to do it again. Some of us were grumpier than others on the way back.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 3<\/strong>, the wind still hadn’t checked the forecast. At this point we stopped being surprised and just adapted. Completely scrapped the original plan and found an unplanned inland route with a nice climb to keep things interesting. The Sant Salvador sanctuary delivered stunning panoramic views and enough elevation to feel like we’d actually done something. For most of the route the wind left us alone, which at this point felt like a luxury.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDay 4<\/strong>, the final day, when every forecast promised little to no wind, surprise, surprise, was windy. Of course it was. We’d stopped believing in forecasts around day two, so this was expected rather than disappointing. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIt was my friend’s first time in Mallorca (hopefully not the last, I need someone to suffer with), so Formentor was non-negotiable. We planned an early start but waited for temperatures to come up a bit, which meant as we progressed along the route, the wind was progressing too. On the road we witnessed a few sketchy moments with riders getting caught by gusts, and my own balance was questioned more than once. I’m blaming the rental bike. It was absolutely the rental bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cap de Formentor might be the most beautiful cycling route I’ve ever done. The long climb, the winding coastal road, the cliff views, the final push to the top, nothing I’ve ridden so far comes close. I’ll stand by that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaving Mallorca (Again)<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\nLeaving was, again, a little painful. The weather was improving on my last day, naturally, and knowing I was flying back to sub-10\u00b0C Danish rain while the island was finally warming up was genuinely difficult to process. The “what if I just… didn’t leave” thought made a strong appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news: I’m back in less than three weeks. This time not for fun but for the Mallorca312 race, where I’ll be voluntarily riding 312 kilometres through those same beautiful mountains that just spent four days trying to knock me off my bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why am I doing this again? Unclear. Cannot wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for my optimistic 11-hour target, having now actually tested some of those climbs in person, I think I may have been slightly delusional. But that’s what races are for. Here’s to finding out the hard way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See you in the post-race blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Faster Than Expected: March Chaos, Mallorca Wind Wars, and Why I’m Already Questioning My 11-Hour Goal Somehow it’s a new month already. April arrived faster than my legs recover after a long climb, and it brought with it temperatures that nobody asked for. Either March is genuinely colder than usual this year or my memory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[9,49,10,118,114],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycling-2026","tag-adventure","tag-bicycle","tag-cycling","tag-mallorca","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wheres-marin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}