Categories
Cycling Mallorca

The 2018 Mallorca 312

The GoPro video version

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
Categories
6Points Cycling Watopia Waistband Zwift

Sunday 8th Dec 6Points Mallorca Watopia Waistband!

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

Route details are at https://zwiftinsider.com/watopias-waistband/

Route is 2 laps of:

Distance: 25.5km (15.8 miles)

Elevation Gain: 83m (273′)

This perimeter route covers portions of Watopia’s three “flat” routes, (Tick TockVolcano FlatWatopia 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.

https://zwift.com/events/view/268075

Results

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!

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…

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

ZwiftPower results
Categories
6Points Cycling Formentera Ibiza

6Points Ibiza and Formentera

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
Categories
6Points Cycling Yorkshire Zwift

6Points Mallorca meets Yorkshire

The Royal Pump Room 8 course

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:-

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