Our hugely popular Autumn cycling camp is back for 2020! We will be based at the Playa Mar and Mar Senses, luxury spa aparthotels in Puerto Pollensa, on the north east tip of Mallorca.

The Autumn cycling camp is an ideal opportunity to wind down on some well surfaced, quiet roads in a temperate climate with some old and new friends before the winter sets in and it’s back to thermal gloves and overshoes.

So why not come and join us? Stay for an entire month or just come for a long weekend – we can cater to whatever suits you.

Packages include

• Half-board accommodation – breakfast and dinner*
• Return transfers from the airport with your bike (prices displayed separately per person when booking)**
• Choice of guided rides each day

 
*The Mallorcan Tourist Tax is not included in our prices and is payable directly to the hotel on arrival. The rates are currently €3.30 per night for the hotels we use for the first 8 nights; €1.65 per night thereafter, and there is a 50% discount from 1 November – 30 April.

**Please note that we reserve the right to use the shuttle service for flight arrivals and departures scheduled to arrive/depart between 10pm and 9am. If this is not possible or you would prefer a private transfer, there will be a £80 per person surcharge per transfer during these hours.

Hotels

Our camp is based out of Puerto Pollensa in the Autumn, with a choice of two 4* hotels – the Playa Mar and Mar Senses.

*** Please note that at the current time, it looks unlikely that the Mar Senses will open in 2020 due to Covid 19. We are therefore only taking bookings for the Playa Mar for the time being.***

The Playa Mar and Mar Senses are about 800m apart, and both have a wide range of excellent food. Vegetarian and vegan options are available at both hotels.

The Playa Mar is our main base – it is the bigger of the two hotels, it is family-friendly, our staff typically stay there, and our hire bikes and bike room are there. It also has an excellent spa and rides usually leave from the Playa Mar.

The Mar Senses is a quieter, smaller hotel, it is more central than the Playa Mar and is adult-only.

If this is your first time with us and you want to meet people and be more fully involved in the camp, we would recommend you book the Playa Mar. The Mar Senses is more suitable for a more private, quieter holiday either on your own or with a group.

Rooms

The Playa Mar and Mar Senses are aparthotels which means that the rooms are small apartments – each has a bedroom with twin beds, a bathroom, and a living area with sofa, TV, fridge, microwave, kettle and a double bed. It is therefore possible for up to 3 people to share an apartment, and if two people share, they have the option of sleeping in separate rooms.

Bike hire

Our popular fleet of hire bikes will be available again for the Autumn camp, at some great prices. For more information on our bikes, and to book, please see the bike hire page.

Ride details

Our Autumn camp is more relaxed than those earlier in the year, with the focus on winding down and enjoying riding your bike in the sunshine, drinking good coffee, eating nice cakes, and charging up your tan for the winter. It’s more of a cycling holiday than a training camp. We typically have three groups each day to cater to all abilities. All rides have at least one, and often two, cafe stops.

The faster groups tend to average 80-100 miles per day at 19-21 mph, and the vast majority of rides will include a cafe stop.

The intermediate groups usually do 60-80 miles per day (with at least one cafe stop) while the slightly shorter rides provide a more relaxed option covering 50-60 miles a day with a couple of cafe stops.

For those that have been before, you’ll know that we tend to stick to the fantastic back roads where we can, enabling you to really get the feel for Mallorca whilst improving your fitness and condition.

Riders are free to choose whichever group they think suits their fitness and ability – and you can change groups daily if you wish. On some days the groups will meet at a cafe for lunch, giving you the option to go out with one group and then return to the hotel with another.

If there is something that you would like to do to fit in with a particular training programme or a personal goal, then please let us know as early on as you can in your holiday. We will do our best to accommodate your request, although obviously it will not always be possible.

For some examples of typical routes we use in the Autumn, please see our Mallorca Routes.

Please think carefully about the group you choose to go out with as it can often be longer and more difficult than you expect. We reserve the right to ask you to turn back if we feel you are not fit or capable enough to ride with the group you choose.

We always wait for people who puncture, however so as not to slow the rides down we do expect people to have their bikes in good working order with good tyres, two spare inner tubes and a pump that works.

Are your camps suitable for me?

We get a lot of people who aren’t sure whether our camps are suitable for them. The answer is usually “yes!” as we aim to cater for a very wide range of cycling abilities.

As a guideline, at the steadier end of the spectrum, we suggest that you should be able to ride 30+ miles at at least 12 miles per hour. Our typical steady ride does about 50-60 miles on flat or rolling terrain. If you can ride for 30 miles in the UK, then 50 miles in Mallorca should be achievable – the roads tend to roll better and it is easier to clock up the miles in a group. The steady ride also often has two cafe stops to recuperate!

At certain times we can also offer slower, steadier rides if there is sufficient demand – please ask if this is something of interest to you.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have some very strong, fast cyclists who will happily roll through and off for 100+ miles a day, and we have ride leaders to cater for these riders too, offering a variety of long, fast and challenging rides taking in the biggest and most interesting climbs on the island. If you want to ensure you will have other fast riders to cycle with, please contact us before booking and we can tell you which weeks to target.

In the middle, we then have a wide range of intermediate rides, sometimes up to 6 or more to different destinations, offering a variety of distances and terrains. When the weather is fine, we take groups to the mountains at least every 2-3 days.

We also know that a lot of cyclists, whether novice or advanced, would like to have a crack at Sa Calobra. So if you want to go, we will take you there, even if it’ll take you all day! Please ask when you arrive to make sure we schedule it.

Hopefully this gives you a good flavour of who we cater for; but if in doubt, please ask. We’ve been cycling in Mallorca since the 1970s and have taken thousands of cyclists on rides around the island. So we know our way around and guarantee we’ll take you along lanes you’ve never been on before, even if you’re a regular visitor to Mallorca.

On my own, or in a group?

We get a very high proportion of repeat business, and aside from offering high quality rides, we believe one of the reasons is because we aim to create a sociable, relaxed atmosphere on and off the bike. We get a lot of people coming on their own or in small groups; we also cater for a large number of club and group bookings. And it doesn’t matter whether you come with 50 others or on your own, we guarantee you’ll get to meet other like-minded people to enjoy your holiday with – whether that’s relaxing by the pool after the ride and enjoying a few drinks in the bar; or discussing your power output and Strava stats.

We also have a lot of women on our cycling holidays. It is not unusual for 50% or more of cyclists on some of our rides to be women. We’ve noticed a steady trend over the last few years of women coming on their own and then arranging to return the following year to meet up with friends they’ve made on the camp.