Cycling in Mallorca

If we take the city of Hamburg for example. I was one of the thousands who were moved by bicycle every day, with an average temperature of 12 degrees, about 190 rainy days per year and three months of ice during the winter. One can imagine that I had the illusion of riding in Mallorca when I moved here ... average temperature of 21 ° C, only 74 days of rain a year, plenty of sunshine and only a lowland hills of Palma.

But the reality is different. Seven years ago now that I'm driving around Palma motorcycle or car. Palma is the city with the largest number of vehicles per capita in Spain, and the numbers keep growing. The reaction of the planners is to build more roads and car parks, and cities and villages of Mallorca lack adequate infrastructure for cycling to help reduce traffic congestion. The bicycle as a mode of transportation is virtually nonexistent, both by politicians, the mayors of the cities. The lack of bike paths, combined with precarious roads and aggressive drivers, makes cycling in Mallorca is very dangerous.

The few existing bike paths do little to change the situation in general. Now you can for example, biking along the bay of Palma, Magaluf Arenal in a newly constructed road cycling. But this track is only good for quiet walks and there is no connection to other sites.

Recently the city of Palma has provided several parking users can rent a bike for free if you park your car under or near the Cathedral Avenues, can have a free bike - a new model of the system of "Parking and you walk "! Also available child seats, helmets and bike baskets. But when you leave the park and is in the midst of heavy traffic in Palma, it may be frightening. The only place to feel safe is in some of the narrow alleys in the old town center.

If you do not want to use your bike for transportation, but want to enjoy cycling as a hobby or sport, are conducting a series of improvements and options expand. Only recently the Balearic government has built about 235 kilometers of new roads, cycling, allowing you to explore an area of ​​flat field between Inca and Fields with a bicycle safely. While this is being done to tourism and racing bikes, there are also special trails for mountain biking. You will find excellent conditions in all parts of the mountain, road routes moderate to very difficult ..

Mallorca is an ideal training site for professionals. While Northern Europe fighting the cold and ice, pours cycling in Mallorca for its exceptional cycling conditions. Year after year, teams race bike, as the team T-Mobile, come here to train for the flat stages in the interior, and the mountain stages in the Tramuntana. In addition many important part in the tour around Mallorca in January to begin the new race season.

Mallorca has managed to train a professional, and is proud of its cycling team that will represent the Balearic Islands as they compete in the Tour de France.

The Balearic Tourism Department estimates that 70,000 tourists visit Mallorca each year in organized cycling. Tour operators are groups that vary by level and number of daily miles, s which are usually run by professionals.

We have seen in the old and new ways of Llucmajor, on steep and winding roads of Cap Formentor, or in the streets of Palma.

Mallorca is simply a paradise for cyclists and gives hope that the facility is better to encourage motorists to be patient a little more of our leisure and amateur cycling.