This video is about the Sobremunt climb, especially near the top of the climb which is quite hard to find amongst the various agricultural estates up there – such as the Sobremunt estate itself. I added new music to it, and some more commentary and stills.
Sobremunt, bottom to top, and some exploring
Here is some mapping for the ride:
Here are some views of the profile of the Sobremunt climb, from GCN and Cycle Fiesta:
I have also added the Strava analysis for the climb segment (with the embarrassingly slow time!) from the Ma1041 junction to the top of the Strava segment (not actually the top of the climb, but where I met Niels & Peter (in the video).
And finally, just the route for the climb, some landmarks, and start of the descent:-
The climb from the Ma1041, and the start of the descent past La Posada de Marquès
Dame Sarah Storey, British Olympic cycling champion, led our 6Points Mallorca Sunday training ride today. See the live stream at YouTube at
For those that enjoyed the ride, we also highlighted the 6Points Mallorca charity JustGiving page which helps a disadvantaged children’s charity, Asdica in Mallorca.
See more about Asdica, and our other charities and sponsors, at the 6Points website. Over €66,000 has been collected through 6Points events over three years.
The ride today, a mixture of peloton, sprint and minirace riding, was over 2 laps of Watopia’s Sand and Sequoias course, about 43 kms, with the minirace from the bottom of the Titan’s Grove KoM second time around. It’s a lovely course, and the minirace is a tough one at 10kms, with that KoM to start, with even the descent after that a little lumpy too.
We do the Fuego Flats sprint twice, and then take it again at the end of the minirace, which finishes at the arch on that same sprint section.
It was a very well attended ride today, with a great lead by Sarah at even pace, keeping it very much together, until the minirace start 10kms from the end at the bottom of the Titan’s Grove KoM.
I was, of course, taking my red beacon duties very seriously, and had a good little group around me for a good part of the event.
We had 218 booked to ride, with 171 riding and 133 finishers. Our podium included a son and father combo, the Scotts, divided by Bruch Wu, always at the pointed end of our miniraces.
Regulars and locals riding included (roughly in finishing order): Jed Scott (Draft, a very rapid 1st, well done!), Bruch Wu (a regular podium in our 6Points and GGCC events, 2nd), Hamish Scott (Jed’s dad, a regular and strong rider in our events, 3rd), Tony Romo (4th), Martin Smith (5th), Sean Ekblom (GGCC beacon and 6th), Beth McIver (CryoGen), Alex Fthenakis (GGCC), Del Chattelle (GGCC), Roger Bloom, Alastair Pell (Nightingale), Charlie Farnham (Storey racing), Twinny Styler (Storey racing), Sarah Storey (Beacon and Storey Racing(!)), Heather Mayne (GGCC Zwift race team), Niall Hughes (GGCC), Gavin Stewart, Colin Sinclair (RACC), Derek Brown (GGCC), Leroy Nahay, Andrea McDowell, Andy Cattanach (GGCC), Euan Gordon (GGCC Beacon), Gavin Johnston (GGCC and graphics designer for our stream screen), Scott Ballantyne (GGCC), Leslie Tennant (GGCC), Christine Catterson (GGCC), Brian Sutton (GGCC and red beacon) and Fleury Stoops (GGCC).
All ride results are at ZwiftPower for those registered ZP, or on Companion (but with lots of flyers) for everyone.
I DQd 6 riders on ZwiftPower for being ahead of the beacon at the minirace start.
Sarah will be leading for GGCC again on 6th June, on the 11.30am BST (10.30 UTC) GGCC Saturday morning training ride, and we look forward to that!
My rider view of Day 3 of the 6Points Mallorca in May 2019, organised by Bryan Visser, with my group (one of four) led by Philip Crawford. We rode from our overnight stay at Castell de Mar in Cala Millor back to our starting point in Santa Ponça, about 165kms, flatter than Day 1 (also 165kms) and longer than day 2 (115kms).
The morning part of the ride took us to the southernmost point of Mallorca, the lighthouse Far des Cap de ses Salines, before lunch, and then the afternoon ride back, skirting Palma to the north, to Calvià and then to our finish at Es Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
In my view the 6Points Mallorca is the best way to ride around the whole of Mallorca perimeter, in 3 days, and have the time to smell the flowers, so to speak. Lunches, coffee stops (of which you can see a couple in this video) and great dinners at the overnight hotels.
We visit the 4 compass points, the Lighthouses in the extreme West (Sant Elm), North (Cap Formentor), East (Capdepera) and South (Ses Salines) of Mallorca, plus the highest point (Puig Major) and the lowest – any sea level point, Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça in our case at the beginning and the end of our 425kms ride, with 7000m of climbing. A great 3-day weekend of cycling!
Six Points is a charity ride for Asdica, on behalf of disabled children in Mallorca, so if you’d like to donate, there’s a JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundi… . Please mention my name!! We met some of the Asdica Charity beneficiaries at the finish of the Mallorca event, at the Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
My rider view of Day 2 (the easiest, shortest day!) of the 6Points Mallorca, May 18th 2019, organised by Bryan Visser, with my group (one of four) led by Philip Crawford.
On this second day, we started at Tolo’s, visited the Cap Formentor lighthouse (the northernmost point of Mallorca) and then back to Tolo’s for coffee and cake before the next leg.
The easternmost point was another lighthouse, the Faro Capdepera at Cala Ratjada, before finishing the day at our overnight hotel at Cala Millor, the Castell de Mar.
In my view the 6Points is best way to ride around the whole of Mallorca perimeter, in 3 days, and have the time to smell the flowers, so to speak. Lunches, coffee stops and great dinners at the overnight hotels.
We visit the 4 compass points, the Lighthouses in the extreme West (Sant Elm), North (Cap Formentor), East (Capdepera) and South (Ses Salines) of Mallorca, plus the highest point (Puig Major) and the lowest – any sea level point, Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça in our case at the beginning and the end of our 425kms ride, with 7000m of climbing. A great 3-day weekend of cycling! Six Points is a charity ride for Asdica, on behalf of disabled children in Mallorca, so if you’d like to donate, there’s a JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundi… . Please mention my name!! We met some of the Asdica Charity beneficiaries at the finish of the Mallorca event in May, at the Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
My rider view of Day 1 (the hilliest day!) of the 6Points Mallorca May 2019, organised by Bryan Visser, with my group (one of four) led by Philip Crawford.
The whole day was about 165kms, with 3500m of climbing. We rode from Santa Ponça to Sant Elm to the most westerly point of Mallorca, and then up to Andratx for the Ma10 road all the way to Port Pollensa (via coffee and cake at Restaurante Son Tomas in Banyalbufar, for our first overnight stop, preceded by dinner at Tolo’s (of course!). Although we diverted to Fornalutx for lunch, Puig Major is a long steady climb!
The view from the start of the climb!
It was a pretty windy day, and quite damp in the afternoon, after lunch in Fornalutx, at Restarante Es Turo, and at the highest point of our ride (and the three days) at the summit of Puig Major, it was 4ËšC – brrhh!
In my view the 6Points is the best way to ride around the whole of Mallorca perimeter, in 3 days, and have the time to smell the flowers, so to speak. Lunches, coffee stops and great dinners at the overnight hotels. We visit the 4 compass points, the Lighthouses in the extreme West (Sant Elm), North (Cap Formentor), East (Capdepera) and South (Ses Salines) of Mallorca, plus the highest point (Puig Major) and the lowest – any sea level point, Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponsa in our case at the beginning and the end of our 425kms ride, with 7000m of climbing.
A great 3-day weekend of cycling! Six Points is a charity ride for Asdica, on behalf of disabled children in Mallorca, so if you’d like to donate, there’s a JustGiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfundi… . Please mention my name!! We met some of the Asdica Charity beneficiaries at the finish of the Mallorca event in May, at the Caló d’en Pellicer beach in Santa Ponça.
Day 1 of our 6Points tour of Mallorca, all compass points, and the highest and lowest
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
I have put together more of my GoPro video of Sobremunt, exploring the summit area in more detail, which can be quite hard to find amongst the various private estates up there, one of which IS Sobremunt. This was part of the wider circuit I did, reported previously.
The turn to Sobremunt from the Palma to Puigponent road, the Ma 1041. The side turning here is Cami de Casa Calixtro
Having been riding in Mallorca since 2015 (before that I used to run and swim more, to keep fit) here is a randomly selected set of pictures and video clips (by iOS Photos) showing what a lovely island it is.
A surprisingly good ride today; having not ridden Richmond for quite a while, I was a little nervous beforehand that I might have forgotten the landmarks; but all was well!
I was also concerned that we had moved the start time back to its proper time of 11.40am UTC after the first two events; and also that Richmond is not liked by some Zwifters for some reason, and that this might have affected rider numbers. Again I need not have worried!
Zwift Companion end-of-Ride listing, 153 entrants
Actually, Richmond’s full UCI circuit suits the sprint and minirace structure we use – 2 marked sprints per lap (we only used one of them, twice, but could have used both) and then the closing minirace over the three hills that Zwift’s criterium racers like as a finish.
The group was good – particularly just before the minirace, they all withdrew from the fence so that I could bring it in to 2 seconds, to give a tight, fair start. No one was within 3 seconds of the fence at that point, great!! That means the finishing order is a true reflection of riders’ performance in the minirace. I did lose 9 riders to the fence in the first half of the event, but they had ignored repeated toggling of the fence off and on three times, to give them three times as much time to get back behind the fence, but they didn’t seem to want to play the team ball!
Fence at 2 secs, just before the start of the minirace, a fair start for 128 riders
All ride data at https://zwiftpower.com/events.php?zid=246258 for those registered with ZP. Zwift Companion shows that we had 153 booked to ride, 128 starters and 79 finishers, great numbers for only our third 6Points Mallorca event. I averaged 2.5w/kg, 190w, right on the money. And there I was, mid-pack!
Many nationalities, and some regulars – David Smith, Gerry Venditti…
And Zwift Companion shows the results for all 79 finishers…
