Last week was a busy one, packed with cycling, running, swimming, hiking, and all sorts of other things. I was down on the Spanish island of Mallorca, a short 2ish hour flight from home in Amsterdam, putting in the miles. Over the last decade-plus living in Europe, I’ve often used Mallorca as testing grounds for all sorts of gear. From action cams to drones, bike computers to power meters, GPS watches to other sensor types. It offers pretty much everything I need in a testing location, while doing so at usually a very cheap price.
This time of year cyclists flock to the island by the thousands, for both casual riding as well as training camps (both cycling and triathlon). The hotel I usually stay at was packed full of cyclists and triathletes, and even has an onsite bike shop, outdoor lap pool, and more. It even has an all-you-can-eat buffet, though the food quality has notably declined post-COVID. But hey, after a 5-hour ride, most people aren’t noticing anyway I guess. More on that later, since so many people have asked about it.
In any case, here’s what I was up to. I posted a bunch of stories on Instagram this past week, and many asked for a more detailed post. Thus…this post.
Monday:
We actually got in late Sunday night, so we stayed closer to the city for this one night. I say ‘we’, because it’d be both myself and my wife. We had a few meetings in the earlier portion of the week sprinkled about, plus she wanted to get in some sunnier weather training. The kids had their regular sitter for a few days, who happened to be on school break – which worked out perfect.
For Monday morning, we both had long runs slated – roughly 2 hours or so. I was a wee bit nervous about this run. Not so much the duration, but the heat. Long-time readers know that I am not a hot-weather runner. And while the temps in Mallorca are not ‘hot’ by their normal definitions, they are ‘hot’ by Amsterdam’s definitions.
We decided on an out-and-back course, to keep things simple – and ultimately just ran along the ocean.
It was a great morning. A bit of a breeze, which was somewhat thankfully a headwind, and then changed directions over the course of the run to also become a headwind on the way back. Normally I wouldn’t be a fan of this, but it kept my body temp at a pretty comfy level. There were also water fountains to fill up our water bottles along the way.
I turned around a bit after the 1-hour marker, and ultimately clocked in 25.5km/16mi in a touch over 2 hours at a nice easy heart rate. Here’s the route/file up on Strava.
After the run we grabbed lunch, and then had some meetings in-town the rest of the day before making our way up to the other end of the island where we’d stay the remainder of the time.
Tuesday:
Tuesday morning was planned as a longer ride day, with both myself and The Girl riding together. We had initially planned on riding a large loop/climb up to Lluc, then back down to Alcúdia, before heading out/back on Cap de Formentor. However, that plan got dorked up two different ways. First, due to the big snowstorm a month ago, they had the road closed up to Lluc for tree damage cutting/removal. So that killed the main loop plan. And then, out on the cap, there was both tree damage removal and road works at the very end. A double whammy.
So, we tweaked things as we went along. First were some nice quiet rolling roads – packed with just cyclists.
Then from there, it was onto the flatlands across toward Alcúdia. There are better ways to cross this section with less busy roads, but for a last-second detour, this was a popular route with cyclists. From there it was past the hotel’s front door along the beach towards the Cape.
And then, up into Cap de Formentor. We weren’t really sure how far we’d be able to go. We knew about the construction at the very end likely blocking a bit, but we also knew that we’d be otherwise able to cycle out the majority of it (usually about a 2hr ride round-trip).
Sadly, tree trimming got in the way of that just after the beach turnoff (where the road now closes to cars). We could have waited out the tree trimming in what looked like 10-15 minute batches to get through, but then we’d only have ridden another 5-10 minutes before having to turn back around again and wait again. So we meandered back instead and added time/distance elsewhere.
All of these tree-trimming acts are done as of this past weekend on these routes, but if you’re headed there, you can look up road maintenance on this site here, which helps plan a little bit.
Oh, and here’s our ride file on Strava. Well, my ride file anyway.
Wednesday:
Wednesday morning we had meetings back in Palma, before I dropped off The Girl at the airport mid-afternoon. After which, by the time I got back, it was about 5PM and I wanted to get a ride in. So, I headed up the roads to Lluc that were closed the day before. In fact, they were closed this day too – but only till 4PM. After that, it was open season. And since most people didn’t pay attention to the exact closing times, it was awesomely desolate of cars (or even cyclists).
I headed up past Lluc, a climb that takes about an hour from the hotel, and then went a bit further till I figured I should get back before it was dark-dark. Plus, it was getting a bit chilly by that point.
Because Cannondale hadn’t swung by yet to pick up their loaner Synapse bike with the lights built into it, I figured I’d “test it” a tiny bit more. This is one of those scenarios/weeks that works exceptionally well for that bike. I did a number of sunset rides. And not having to worry about the sun/light is awesome. I just went out and rode, and knew I had lights if I needed it.
Overall this ride clocked in a bit over two and a half hours.
Thursday:
As much fun as cycling Mallorca is, there are actually other things to do. Namely, hiking. And swimming. But for today, we’ll start with hiking. I did a loop around the peninsula near Alcúdia. It was mountainous at first, and then more tame for the second half.
I was giving the newly released Amazfit T-Rex Ultra a whirl, including with mapping and navigation. More in that review very shortly. It’s exceeding my expectations in some areas, but falling short in others.
After about an hour, the views were absolutely epic:
Albeit, it took a little bit to get up to this point to look down, I started this section down at the water.
After the views simmered down, I had hoped to eventually go to the end of the peninsula, but couldn’t quite make it that far. It was slated as about a 30km hike, but this shorted that. I had wondered why when I created the route on Strava, it kept failing to go beyond a certain point when the trails clearly showed going beyond that point. Turns out, this is that reason:
Sigh. Bummer. Looked stunning that way.
Instead, I had lunch I brought with me on a cliff here:
Also stunning, so, it worked out. Though, the beach that I had intended on going to would have been nice. Here’s my full route on Strava for that, it lasted about 4-5 hours.
Later that evening I decided to head back up that way for a ride. The col/climb is known as Victoria, and despite having been in that area countless times, I’ve somehow never done it before.
After which I went and found a very short/steep section of road on a small dead-end farm road that included a 20% incline to test a few more things. Finally, my day was done. Strava link here.
Friday:
For Friday morning, I dedicated that to trying to catch-up on e-mails, etc… But once that was set, it was off for a swim.
I’ve previously just swam either across the street from the hotel (when I’m really lazy, it’s not pretty), or in Port de Pollença, a short little 5-minute pedal/drive from the hotel. However, this time I decided to drive about 10-15 minutes to go swimming. Merely cause it looked pretty on the satellite maps. Which, is basically how I figure out all my swims.
My plan was to just make a loop around the two bays. I had brought my wetsuit with me, as the water temp was only 60°F/15°C. This is actually the coldest time of year for the water in Mallorca, but it’ll quickly heat back up over the next 4-8 weeks. The water temp basically spikes in September, and then slowly cools all winter, to a low in late March.
In any case, there were plenty of people in the water sans-wetsuits just splashing around. Thus, it was kinda hard to put on the wetsuit and head in. And honestly, after a strong 15 seconds of swearing, it was all good, and off I went.
The water visibility/clarity was great – with a surprising number of fish around. No sharks. No stingrays. And no gators. So, a win. There was a handful of small jellyfish I saw towards one corner of the swim, but they were all a bit lower than me, so I kept chugging. These were relatively small ones, so it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, more just annoying. I manage to get stung by jellies every few years – with the last time being last fall in Honolulu. Sigh.
In any case, my lazy swim wrapped up a bit over 2,000m. Here’s the Strava for that. Also, the nifty picture:
Afterward, I went back to the hotel to get a sweat test done. This was mostly due to wanting to cross-validate some of the numbers I’m seeing on the Nix Hydration sensor (a review process that’s gone on FAAAR too long for something that simply doesn’t work – but hey, I guess I’m thorough).
I’ll cover how the test works in that Nix review post. But this medical-grade/certified data only further cemented my position on Nix. The test was done by Precision Hydration, cost 120EUR, and also gave me a bunch of data for actual training/racing. The lady doing the test seemed moderately horrified at my current hydration/nutrition strategy for long training/racing (which, was basically one gel an hour and maybe half a bottle of water).
With that set, I headed out for another sunset ride. This included some countryside rolling hills, eventually a climb up to a monastery, and then looping back around the flatlands. All in about 3 hours, coming in a wee bit more on the darker side of sunset. This shot earlier on at the start of the ride.
Here’s that Strava ride.
Saturday:
This was my last day on the island, and it’d be absolutely jam-packed. After haphazardly collecting all the crap strewn about my room and squishing it into plastic Jumbo and Albert Heijn grocery bags and suitcases, I checked out and drove about thirty minutes to the start of my first ride. This morning ride would be the famed Sa Calobra. But first, I’d have to climb for an hour to get there.
Here’s a photo from one of the various photo services taking photos that you can buy online later on for 7EUR, you’ll find these services along a number of popular cycling routes:
Then, once you reach the top, you actually descend down 10KM to a tiny seaside village at the end of a one-way road – surrounded by staggering cliffs. The road twists and turns, just as you’d expect from something etched into a landscape it wasn’t designed for.
The road includes favorites like this gap in the rocks, or these switchbacks:
Once at the base, you can enjoy generally horrific tourist-trap food (trust me, I’ve tried in the past), but – beer seems totally viable. Albeit, that’s the rub: Now you’ve got yourself down there, you’ve gotta get yourself out. That’s the *actual* Sa Calobra climb. There’s only one way out, going up that road. I mean, I suppose you could hire a boat, but it’d be a heck of a boat ride as there’s nothing else nearby on that coastline.
In any case, the actual climb really isn’t that bad. A touch under 10KM, and about 650m of elevation gain, it averages about 7% grade, with no meaningfully long steep/spicy sections. By epic European climb standards, it’s actually pretty tame.
For today I kept it chill, and just enjoyed a nice easy cruise up, lasting about 50 minutes. This photo was taken a minute or two from the top:
Once that was set, you’ve got some descending followed by another short ascent before more descending back to town. All in, my ride was about 4 hours, inclusive of a bunch of photo/video time.
Oh, and I stopped at two different “fresh orange juice” stands on the way back. The first, with a parking lot and plenty of people around, was questionable. The cup was brought out from the back, and the oranges were clearly not ripe – if freshly pressed at all. The second, a tiny hole in the wall – literally, a cutout in the cave on the side of a road, was amazing. The lady cut the oranges and pressed it, all right in front of me.
With that ride complete, I threw the bike in the car and drove towards the airport. Well, actually, past the airport – to the town of Andratx. From there, I pedaled up into the hills again, this time on a super quiet stretch of roadway. I ascended for about 30 minutes or so, before descending into a section of rolling roadway along the northern coastline.
Then I got some drone shots. Which…ended poorly when the drone got stuck in a tree above the roadway while in Active Track. Technically it had paused in ActiveTrack, and then while trying to get out of the pickle, it went into the tree. Either way, I spent the next 30 minutes throwing stones at it to try and dislodge it (it was just barely caught). While I managed to get it on the second throw, it only moved to a different branch. The remaining 30 minutes were spent trying to re-enact that second throw.
But fear not, persistence won out, and it fell down without any obvious external damage. Internally there appears to be a ribbon cable somewhere that’s dislodged, causing the GPS and a few other systems to report as not present (though everything else acts fine), but despite taking it apart, I can’t figure out which one isn’t happy. No worries, I paid for the premium warranty replacement service, so I might as well use it. Filled that out last night and it arrives tomorrow (so much better than the old days of DJI replacement services, which were a nightmare).
With that ride finally done, I packed my bike bag on the side of the road, then took a shower on the side of the road, and then bolted for the airport. Somewhere in there I also stuffed everything else floating around the rental car into either the bike bag or my carry-on roller bag. This was very non-optimized.
My plane had been showing as 2.5 hours delayed. So…umm…I used some of that time to ride. Then, on the way to the airport, it was showing as on-time. Obviously, I know better than to assume it’ll stay delayed. But frankly, this is the first time in a decade of European flights where the substantially delayed flight actually got back on-time (at an out-station no less). Go figure.
By the time I got home, it was near midnight – but a solidly successful week for sure!
Oh, that hotel:
A lot of people have asked on Instagram about the hotel I stayed at, as it “looks Amazing”, and yes, it largely is. I’ve been staying there a number of years, all the way back to 2017 when Wahoo held their media launch event for the first Wahoo BOLT computer there. Since then, it’s become my go-to place to stay. For the most part, I only tend to go to Mallorca in the fall (Sept-December, mostly Oct/Nov), and then again in the spring (Feb-March). I don’t usually go during the summer, merely because the weather is quite nice elsewhere in Europe by then.
Anyways, the name is PortBlue Club Pollentia Resort & Spa, and it is located near Port de Pollença on the eastern end of the island. As I learned this past December, they close from December till February due to lack of customers. The resort is a sprawling ground full of smaller two-story buildings with perhaps a dozen units per building, and I’d imagine dozens of buildings. The entire resort length approaches nearly 1KM long, and is across from the ‘beach’. I put ‘beach’ in quotations because it’s not a beach you’ll go into. This particular spot lacks sand, though you can go just 2KM up the road in front of Port de Pollença for nice sandy beaches. However, people do kite/windsurf here, and I have done openwater swims here (but again, they’re better to do elsewhere).
Here you can see the outdoor lap pool – they also have an indoor one too – packed with triathlon teams doing training camps.
The main pros of this hotel:
A) Huge rooms, with equally huge covered balconies where you can leave your bikes/bike bags outside, as well as drying racks for your cycling gear
B) The grounds are really nice, backs up against some sort of reserve, and water across the street
C) Directly on one of the busiest cycling thoroughfares
D) Quick access to some of the main/big cycling routes/destinations
E) A 25m multi-lane lap swimming pool outdoors (heated)
F) A bike shop/rental place onsite, as well as a secondary bike maintenance area
G) It’s really cheap, especially for all-inclusive food
There’s plenty of other benefits and things like a spa and whatever else I’ve never used. Same goes for the onsite windsurfing stuff/etc – looks cool, but never used it.
The main cons of this hotel:
A) Front desk staff are friendly, but not so much restaurant/room staff
B) The food has notably declined post-COVID
C) The food is basically the same at all the restaurants, which are buffet only
D) The road it’s on is busy with not just bikes, but also cars/trucks
E) No sandy beach across the street
Like the pros, I’m sure there are other cons, but the main one to me is the food. Basically, they have two buffet restaurants that offer breakfast/lunch/dinner, plus one pool-side place you can order à la carte lunch items (mostly pasta/burgers/pizza). As one who is a foodie, someone who has spent thousands of nights in hotel rooms over the years (including my previous job), and one who has come to this place for years, the food is my main sticking point. Keeping in mind, most people pay the extra 10-15EUR a day to have all the food included.
Previously, the buffet food was mostly ‘just fine’. Nothing special, nothing to write home above, but good enough to do the trick. That’s especially notable for me, where most of the time I’m there I’m slammed with work and tight schedules. So sitting down for a multi-hour meal just isn’t in the cards. In this case, it’s mostly just calories-in. And, there are usually plenty of fruit/veg options to keep it mostly healthy. Plus a good bread selection. Drinks are extra – including water.
And all that’s true today, except post-COVID the quality of the food is basically approaching school cafeteria levels on some meals. This is fine if that’s your expectation, but it’s just something to keep in mind. The good news is going to town is just a couple minute pedal or drive away, and there’s plenty of good (and reasonably priced) restaurants there. Plus, if you do the half-board option, you get breakfast plus a second meal of your choice – either lunch or dinner (which is the meal-plan option I choose). So you could do lunch at the hotel after a ride, and dinner in town, or vice-versa – changing it on a daily basis as you see fit.
Speaking of which, we ran into some of our friends there, and did dinner nearby at BISTRO in the Son Brull Hotel & Spa. It was awesome.
Wrap-Up:
Ok, I didn’t set out for this post to be so long. My bad. In any case, as is usually the case around these parts, quiet weeks on the site are usually followed by crazy busy weeks on the site. The usual ebb and flow of managing the time to actually test the things I write about, rather than just writing or publishing reviews after a single use of a device.
So while the days are exhausting, my goal is to cover as much ground and edge cases as possible – especially in either new features, or areas where past devices have been problematic.
However, devices and data aside, Mallorca continues to be a stunning place to ride/swim/bike/hike. Sure, there’s a crazy amount of touristy things that occur closer to the city, but thankfully with a sports focus on my trips there, I’m able to completely avoid all that and just enjoy the outdoor aspects.
Feel free to drop any travel/logistics-type questions below, and I’ll do my best to answer (though, I’m sure many locals can also answer too). Speaking of which, thanks to everyone that said Hi, or sent over suggestions for things to check out on Instagram.
Thanks for reading!
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Fantastic read! You should make travel blogs like this every time you go out to test watches 😉 I’m looking for a place to go in September/October and wondered what you recommend mainly for hiking and beach visiting – Mallorca or Tenerife? All the best!
Thanks!
Both are great spots, similar yet very different. With Mallorca, you can mostly stay in one spot and then branch out there on bike/hike – or short drive, easily each different day.
Whereas in Tenerife you’re likely going to need to drive a chunk between different areas. For example, you can hike the volcano and a gazillion trails there, but you’ll have to transit up to there from the beaches via car. You can stay up on the ridgeline, which I’ve done, but then the opposite problem occurs when you want to get back down to civilization.
That said, the hikes are epic in Tenerife. Vastly different depending on what part of the island you’re on, from moonscape lava up top, to dense jungle on the east end. And then amazing forests on the ridgeline.
Said differently – if you want to mostly stay in one spot for one beach, and then branch out for hikes, I’d do Mallorca. But if you want to hop all over the place, I’d probably do Tenerife.
Thanks! Then probably will go to Mallorca if kids will come and Tenerife if it’s only me and my wife. That elic Epix review spot made me look for it on Google Earth and I found it, so it’s already waiting in Garmin Connect as a future course 😉
I’ve also been to both and find Mallorca to be better suiting for me. Cycling on both islands is great, but the scenic views and infrastructure on Mallorca is way better. Car drives are more precautionary when it comes to Mallorca. More places to rent a bike. As an island is Mallorca easier accessibly, more tidied up (less garbage on the roads), but also flooded with cycling tourist.
The main reason to visit Tenerife is El Teide. Great, long climb at mainly an easy gradient.
Yup, I’d agree with everything KoenB said.
For the slight extra travel time and cost I’m still surprised you don’t do Club La Santa, even if just for the better pools (I don’t think I’ve ever shared a lane in any of the three 50m pools!). The wind in Lanzarote means almost never being too hot, although I’ve been left very salty and dry on a 6 hour ride
It’s true it’s not too much longer flight-time in pure hours, it’s still almost double the total hours – at 4.5hrs blocked. However, there’s generally only 1-2 non-stops a day there, and slightly worse, those flights are almost always late, especially getting back to AMS (as one who lives directly under the final approach path, for whatever reason, all the evening Canary Islands flights are almost always the ones coming in 1-2hrs late).
However, for Lanzarote, there actually isn’t a lot of major climbs. So while it works well for more stable training, if I’m looking for big climbs or big hikes, it’s kinda late. Tenerife or Grand Canaria tends to be a bet better for those things.
It’s a cool island and I’ve enjoyed my time there, and I love the looks of that resort, but the overall situation doesn’t seem to fit my needs/requirements most of the time. :-/
Now I’m a bit worried what you consider a major climb! Femez is probably the steepest road I’ve ridden and Tabayesco and the north of the island are plenty lumpy. I do see your point around flights though, that is certainly a pain for Lanzarote.
My thoughts were mainly around the big pools, open water swimming lake, running track and all the other sports which would be really handy for watch testing including indoor climbing, surfing, bouldering etc.
I’ve not ridden Mallorce yet, it’s definitely on my list as we used to go there all the time when I was younger for beach hols. Perhaps it’ll be a nice tester for my Oltre Pro when it arrives, I really feel that will need some sunshine.
Out of interest, where do you stand on tubeless? You do a lot of miles and I’m curious what your thoughts are as I have to decide for the new bike
Yeah, Femez isn’t bad if that’s all there is, but it’s only 300m of elevation gain, so less than half that of Sa Calobra. I don’t necessarily need massive climbs, but having lots of options or a few biggies is nice.
As for tubeless, I haven’t bothered. I also haven’t had a flat (knock on wood) in years of riding road. It’s kinda insane actually. I got one MTB flat a few summers ago, but that’s it.
Have been there 3 times and going back in 2 weeks, can’t wait, such a cycling paradise!
There are 2 ways I go there:
I go with or Kortweg ( link to kortweg.be ), a cycling holiday organisation that does everything for you (hotel, airplane, tours, guides, a car for replenishments) even takes your bike there with a truck.
Or we go with a few people of my cyclingclub and than we rent a small house, much cheaper than a hotel and we go eat out almost every evening (dirt cheap in Mallorca if you don’t go to the beach restaurants). If we do we rent a bike, I just don’t want the hastle of bringing a bike.
Thanks for this great write up, pictures and your Insta stories too.
Going there in October, not quite “a short 2ish hour flight from home in Amsterdam” though, more like 30 hours from Australia. But it looks worth it.
October is an awesome time there, it’ll be worth the long flights!
Fantastic places for you edge 540-840 review😜
> ultimately just ran along the ocean.
Be interested to hear what ocean you managed to find near Mallorca 😀
…just keep swimming.
I used to go to Mallorca at least once a year, usually twice. But after my first Ironman in Marbella I felt in love with the area. Not for the touristy stuff (it’s not my thing), but for the authenticity of everything else.
Mallorca has become too mainstream. Cyclists and triathletes there take themselves too seriously, and anything related to cycling is overpriced. Personally, I think that cycling in Mallorca has become too snobbish…
Marbella is a hidden gem when it comes to nature in the interior. Fantastic routes for road cycling, mountain biking, running, hiking… In the towns of the area, they’re not used to milking cyclists and everything is more relaxed.
To everyone that already know Mallorca and feel a similar way to me, I recommend taking a look at Marbella. Not the city, but all the surroundings
Arguably though, “too mainstream” just means well set up for cyclists, and even an expensive bike shop is a win when you need a part in a hurry if they have things in stock. No good waiting for delivery on a week long holiday!
Yeah, I think there’s something to be said for lots of cyclists there, but I think that’s largely a good thing.
It means drivers are all very well aware of cyclists, and the road infrastructure has catered to it. I suppose people take training/racing seriously, but everyone seems pretty friendly out there to me.
As for pricing, honestly, it’s dirt cheap there compared to the rest of Europe. Especially for bike rentals. You can get carbon bikes for under €25/day, Di2 equipped for €30/day. Those are insane prices if you compare to most places in Europe (or the US). And those are the high-season prices (which is basically this 6-8 week span). Everything outside of that is 30% lower again.
I haven’t been to Marbella in years, so not fair for me to comment one way or the other there.
If you ever come to northwest Spain (Asturias and Galicia) you will be amazed at the prices, like “I must me misunderstanding something, this can’t be this cheap” prices. But probably no lodging so well equipped for cyclists in all the area…
Nice report 🙂
did you really stuff the bike bag with everyday items , that wouldn’t fit in the other bag ??
last time I did this the airport made me take it all out ……
Yup, for real. As long as the total weight is under the 50lbs limit, airlines don’t care what’s in there in my experience.
Do ever put CO2 cartridges in your bike bag ?
A great read – many thanks!
Which bike bag are you using these days? You’ve previously written – a looooong time ago – about a cheap softshell. But it looks like you’re using an Evoc model these days. It would be good to hear your current thoughts. I’m in the market for a bike bag right now, it having been a while since I last flew with a bike.
Indeed, I recently switched to the EVOC bag. I’ve got a review I’m working on, both pros and cons of it. Should be up after my next bike trip later this month.
Ooh. Something else to look forward to!
I’d highly recommend bikeboxalan.com if you have the space to store it at home (and do not underestimate this, boxes are big!). Very protective and really easy to move about alongside your other baggage, if you put a tether on it’ll follow you around on flat flooring at airports quite happily. The foam lining is great to store some tools behind without risking them damaging the bike. I also like that they offer a range of stickers and personalisation to make it easy to spot. That said, it does add weight so you can’t put quite as much in there.
Will be interesting to see if the hotel contact you or just let it slide especially if it’s still as popular as ever with cyclists and triathletes. Arguably Mallorca is the top destination in Europe for those two sports and attracts everyone from back of the pack to Olympic level. Aren’t there any other hotels that offer a similar set up?
Undoubtedly Mallorca for sports is best visited in the first 4-5 months of the year and the last 3. Rest of the top it’s super humid and overnight lows in summer rarely dip below about 23C
Have you looked at the Costa del Sol or around Alicante/Valencia. Well served by low cost airlines.
Faro is a popular place to train and normally cheaper than Spain.
I suspect they don’t much care what I think. 😉
That said, they don’t really have a lot of competition in the segment that includes that type of pool setup or onsite bike shop. Many places do have bike tools and such, but having three mechanics quickly help minor things out for nothing more than a tip jar is incredibly helpful. I arguably stay there just for that.
I went down to Faro a few months ago for a SRAM media thing. Super nice, super cool area. Openwater swim wasn’t quite as ideal as Mallorca, merely due to ocean conditions, but not unstoppable.
Agree that I don’t touch Mallorca for summer trips. I see no reason to go there, when the rest of Europe has nice weather. I save Mallorca for when the rest of Europe sucks.
great….massive eyeroll….I just can’t win. I took a chance and just yesterday ordered my Nix from the feed. Guess I’ll see what their return policy is because I’m not even going to open a package of anything Ray says just simply doesn’t work
Sorry, yeah…it’s not good. It’s bad in many ways, and I’ve tested myself, my wife, and others too. The data is simply inaccurate, and the app is at best finicky, at worst I lose days of data.
I’ve given it 5 months worth of chances and god knows how many patches I’ve bought. I really want it to work, but you’re better of simply weighing yourself before/after a workout and calling it done.
Thanks Ray, I appreciate the response as well.
Can’t wait for you review. I bought one a hit back after my last marathon implosion. Lol. I had one app issue but for my other runs, about 8, it had recorded well. The true value through is the accuracy. I’m not only looking at sweat rate, but more so at sodium/electrolyte loss. Hoping your review covers that in some way. For me I am using it as a baseline, I don’t intend to wear it to tell me when to drink, just let me know my “average” sweat and sodium loss rates and I’ll adjust my fluid/nutrition. Mine has told me I sweat slightly more than average but I have a very high sodium loss. So I’ve started to use LMNT to see if it has any impact on performance. The good news is, even if Nix was wrong, I enjoy LMNT. So I found a new product that gets me to drink more. And that’s good.
Fabulous review. I am going out in 10 days and cannot wait. You have well and truly whet my appitite.
What are your thoughts of the Cannondale Synapse 1 RLE? Were you “testing” it? Is there an upcoming review…I would like to hear your thoughts of the *SmartSense* system, especially as it relates to similar tech (radar) systems. I thought I was a pretty close reader of the site but I missed this bike so it is *NEW* to me. did I also miss a review on the DC Rainmaker site? I am considering a Canyon or Synapse for my next bike so my motivations are purely selfish. Either would be a big spend for me (don’t laugh-I know they are not ENVE Custom bikes). I guess you don’t really do “bike” reviews but bikes today are becoming increasingly inseparable from tech. Thank you for another great article and informative view of such an amazing location!
Ask and you shall receive: link to dcrainmaker.com
I love it, and am still very tempted to buy one. Just not that model, that’s too expensive, but some other lower priced one. I really love the concept of having the lights built-in, so I just charge one thing via USB-C, slap it on the bike, and I’m good to go with all the safety stuff I want.
It’s a good place to test new Solar models. 😉
Ray, if looking for biking, swiming, kite boarding, sailing … paradise in Spain you should also tgo to La Marina Baja, Denia, Oliva some pro cycling teams know do stages un that área. May be Alberto Contador Gran Fondo challenge is a good excuse
link to granfondoalbertocontador.com
have you ever been to nearby Menorca – is it a good location for similar sport activities?
Thanks for a fun read
Can you give a more specific location for the orange juice stand with the fresh juice?
I’m going there at the end of April and would likely stop by the viaduct after going up the Puig / Sa Calobra – so a better alternative would be worth knowing!
Thanks for that link about the road closures. I am currently in Mallorca and I just found out that the road I was planning to take tomorrow (between Lluc and Sa Calobra) will be closed for the rest of the week.
Note that we managed to get through that road yesterday (Monday 10) even though the road was indicated as closed in Sóller. Possibly because it was Easter Monday though (hence no roadworks).
It was nice meeting you briefly at the resort when you were speaking with Armando. Cheers.
You too as well! Glad you swung by to say hi!
Lots of cool photos! Since you seem to often read comments and fix typos, I’ll just say that I was surprised how often you used “myself” when in fact it should have been “me”. When in doubt, the proper pronoun is almost always “me” or “I”. “Myself” is a reflexive pronoun and should only be used self-referentially (when you are the object of the sentence), as in “I kicked myself for using poor grammar”. Lol. This is a widespread misconception and I always cringe when people refer to themselves as “myself”!
Ray, where is the Nix review? It’s way way way overdue!