CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Menorca, lovely cycle destination.

(10 posts)

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  1. DaveC
    Member

    I'm out in Menorca at the mo staying at the folks house. The cycling is quite good here, not too many hills but rolling country instead. The island has ~5 main land owners and one of them has taken to cycling in a big way and surprisingly loads of cycle paths and routes are springing up everywhere. There are new tarmaced country roads with cycle friendly signs and maps showing routes all over. They even distinguish between road and mountain biking with signs indicating which the route is suitable for. Some roads are still a little rough in places but they are slowly getting there. I'm based in the SE of the island and at ~30 miles long its not hard to explore most of it even from this side.

    The downside is its pretty hot during the day so I'm out of the door at 6am and back in time for breakfast. In Spring its very beautiful here with lots of greenery and flowers. Now in July there are fruits out on the trees for you to pick, incl oranges, limes, black currents and red currants. I hired a Specialized Tarmac carbon road bike but there are lots of mountain bike trails round the island also, next time maybe.

    You can find my rides here, look for beginning July 2014.

    Dave C

    http://www.strava.com/athletes/421683
    http://www.bikemenorca.com/cms/index.php/lloguer
    http://www.velosjoan.com/index.php/en/bike-rental-menorca

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. DaveC
    Member

    There is another CCE ppster in Menorca just in the next resort from me. Who would have thought it. Bet I don't catch up before I leave on Saturday.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. DaveC
    Member

    Well that was a nice holiday. I usually get bored and want to come home after 10 days but this was good. My wee boy went from having to be pulled out the pool deepend by grandma on day 1 to swiming lengths of the 7m pool without armbands on the last couple of days :D

    I had a bike from Bike Menorca for 10 days. 150 Euro. Nice £2000 bike and it all worked faultlessly. Met a couple of good cyclists on the island on my rides and kept my cycling regeime up so I didn't loos fitness for the Highlander in 7 days [gulp!]

    Never did meet the other chap but did converse through strava and may see him on a coffee meet up in August.

    Dave C

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. acsimpson
    Member

    I'll guess the highlander will cover more distance than all the roads in Menorca combined. Good luck.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. PS
    Member

    I had a bike from Bike Menorca for 10 days. 150 Euro.

    That sounds like a good deal. One day's hire of a Trek Madone in Colorado last year cost me US$80.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. DaveC
    Member

    Some pics:
    Cami d'en Kain looking back to Mahon heading Alaior.


    New road from Alaior to Cala en Porter road.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. DaveC
    Member

    The island council have made a load of local roads cycle ways. Essentially norhting has changed except lots of new maps on boards and signs, with some new tarmac. They have created a network of lanes which cycles can use to get round the island. The old central road from Mahon to Ciutudella called Cami d'en Caine was a bumpy track when I first visted ~30 years ago. All traffic used to use the new main trunk road to the south. Now its been upgraded but so has the main road so its mainly traffic free, and smooth. Lots of branches off this trunk woth signed ways to places of interest.

    Also on the island is a ring route of MTB tracks which hug the coast and offer routes for MTB riders/walkers.

    There is one main hill on the road going out of Es Mercadal from 66m to ~340m ni ~3km.

    One thing I found is there is no macho car culture on the island so drivers give you loads of road, infact the new law states you must give cyclists 1.5m space and huge signs state this everywhere. Vehs stay back until they can safely get passed. Its very plesant to cycle on the island.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. LaidBack
    Member

    Looks good. Very quiet road and cycleway in shots there. Think you said you cycled early morning?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. Rosie
    Member

    Sounds good. I was wanting to try my first foreign cycling and this looks like a possibility. I've been told Majorca would be okay as well - anyone know anything about this?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. fimm
    Member

    Boyfriend has been to Majorca for a couple of cycling holidays/training camps. Apparently the north has good hills and is a popular warm weather winter training area for pro cyclists and triathletes. The Sa Colabra climb in particular is one he mentions. It sounds particularly evil because it is a road to a village down on the coast, so you do the descent first and then have to climb back up to get home! He says it was quite funny coming through the airport as there were all the people coming to sit on the beach for a week and then a completely different set of people collecting bike boxes & so on...

    I don't know about bike hire as he took his own bike, but I would expect it is possible. I also don't know about less strenuous cycling options!

    Posted 10 years ago #

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