April 21, 2013
To Lluc monastery and back: an incredible ride, but too many two-wheelers!
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Climbed 781 metres, 2562 feet
Weather: mostly sunny, some clouds and cooler at monastery, high 18 C
Today dawned mostly sunny, so shortly after breakfast we set off to the Serra de Tramuntana and the Lluc monastery. The ride was beautiful as we got closer to the mountains and rode through the hills on scenic small roads into the tiny picturesque villages of Moscari and Caimari.
We had the roads pretty much to ourselves except for the occasional sheep until just past Caimari where the switchbacks to the pass above Lluc started, and groups of cyclists began to appear. It was 8 km to the top, with a very manageable grade of 5%. After a few peletons had passed us, we pulled over so that a very large large group of riders could go by, but more and more and more kept coming. Then we noticed that most of the riders had numbers on their backs, and shortly afterwards, the support car for the Czech cycling team drove by. We seemed to have stumbled into an international bicycle race! Soon hundreds more cyclists streamed by, and we decided to carry on among them at our slower pace. Some of the riders looked annoyed, but mostly the tide just flowed around us. Since cars had not been excluded, the road was very congested, and we were glad to finally get close to the top until we rounded a turn and could see what awaited us there.
Three roads came together at the pass, one heading east down to the Lluc monastery and Pollença, another going to Soller on the northwest coast, and our road up from Caimari. The only petrol station for miles was by the side of the road, and it was jammed with hundreds of motorcycles. For some reason, the bicycle race organizers had also located a feeding station right in front of the petrol station, causing a huge bottleneck. Cyclists were milling about, cars were gridlocked, motorcycles were gridlocked, all at a standstill.
We cautiously walked our bikes through the congestion and slowly headed downhill for a few hundred meters until we reached the turnoff to Pollença and Lluc. It was then that we noticed the phalanxes of motorcycles massed at the intersection, coming from the west coast road and heading our way. Yes indeed, as our tired legs welcomed the downhill grade, motorbike after motorbike screamed past us. Some of them were BIG, with riders to match, they were all extremely loud, and they were going at top speed considering the curves in the road. It felt like a long 2 km to Lluc, and we heaved a sigh of relief when we turned off the road at the monastery gates and the motorbikes continued on toward Pollença. Unfortunately we had been too frazzled to stop and take photos of the bicycle race and the motorcycles.
By now it was definitely lunchtime and we rode through the monastery grounds looking for the old monks' refectory which, according to the guidebook, was now a restaurant called Sa Fonda. There were loads of tourists about and the only visible eating places were several very crowded fast food snack bars which did not look appealing. We thought we'd have to settle for one of those, but rode on a bit further and came to an imposing stone building—Sa Fonda. We were glad to find it and parked our bikes outside. The weather had turned cool and cloudy, and we were looking forward to warming up. Inside was an impressive hall complete with wooden beams, stone arches and marble pillars. We asked for a table by the window so we could see our bikes, but were told they were all reserved, and soon realized that we were lucky to get a table at all for Sa Fonda's popular Sunday lunch. Groups of people kept arriving and soon the restaurant was full of festive families and quieter older couples taking their food seriously. We were the only cyclists and were not appropriately dressed, but nobody seemed to mind.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Lunch was excellent. We shared a large portion of tumbet, the traditional Mallorcan vegetable dish to start, then Eva had lamb chops and Al had pork with cabbage, very warming. We took our time and enjoyed watching all the people. These seemed to be mostly locals—we heard not one word of German. We each had a glass of wine with our meal and coffee to finish, and felt totally recovered from the stresses of the morning.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
After lunch we ambled through the monastery buildings and checked out the botanical garden before heading off for a truly lovely ride along the height of the range to Pollença. The racing cyclists and motorbikers were long gone, and the road was quiet and peaceful with great views of the mountains. We had to cycle up again a few hundred metres to another pass and then it was gloriously downhill for a long run almost to Pollença. We had thought of riding up that way to Lluc, but were glad we hadn't especially when we met cyclists labouring up the long grade. We couldn't pass by Pollença without stopping at Il Giardino to pick up an apricot pastry, and then it was back “home” to our hotel by our favourite lanes.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 770 km (478 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |