Thursdays Ride

A ride from Santa Maria.

The forecast was good again.  We had considered a ride from the apartment upto Lluc but for a a few hundred metres more of ascent we did a route to Soller instead. I had planned to start near Bunyola but Lyn thought it would be a good idea to warm her legs up before the climb up the Coll de Soller so we started about 5 miles away in Santa Maria.The road to Bunyola is not too busy and the gentle ascent to Bunyola gets the legs nicely warmed up. We did not stop for a coffee in the square but instead continued up the Coll de Soller, 5.1 km at around 5.2%. Most to the traffic goes though the tunnel so the road only had the occasionally car. A steady stream of cyclists wound their way to the top and the switchbacks offered good views over to Palma. The top to the Coll was the point of no return.  Descend to Soller and climb back or descend back to the car. We opted for the former. The descent was long but had to many bends to get a good speed up. Lyn preferred to descent at a slower pace and admire the view. The last 2 miles were busy as the road joined up with the traffic who had gone  though the tunnel.
We turned off the Soller road towards Dela. The road climbed out of Soller and offered good views back to the town. After approximately 200 m climbing there was a short descent followed by another 100m of climbing to reach the village.  We stopped for a late lunch in a bar before starting the climb upto Valldemossa another 280 meters of assent with a Short section at 10%. Lyn was being to wonder if the ride was such a good idea but the effort was rewarded with some splendid views over the sea and countryside.  We eventually reached the pretty monastery village stopped for coffee and cake. Tops we put on for the descent back to towards Palma.  We spotted a minor road for the first part of the descent which eventually joined the main road . We turned off towards Santa Maria and had around 8 miles of gentle peddling to get back to the van.    A trip of around 42 miles with 1065 metres of ascent. A excellent ride on  sunny day.