Cycling Mallorca: 7 Days, 18 Bikes, 1 Epic Island

Hello, I'm Alex from Moloko. I'm taking a group of 18 people with me here this week, so it's going to be awesome. The group is going to arrive in the afternoon and the weather is lovely this morning, the sun's shining, so we thought we're going to squeeze a little ride in. We're going to go to Randa's Monastery to start the week. Let's get started. Those colors, I love this Mallorca palette. The green, the blues, the ochres. From the house, it's a 50k blue. Which is really nice for people who want to ride five days back to back. That's always my Mallorca. Hello, welcome. I just love it. Welcome to Mikasa. It's about time I introduce you to my friend Luke. Hi. Also known as Luke Michael James. We've been mates for a long time and Luke is the man behind the YouTube. Without him, this would not be possible. Luke Michael James is not a one-man band. There's two of them in there. Actually, there's more people, but let's talk about you two. There's Tom as well. Tom is another man behind the edit of the YouTube. He sometimes wants to cry again when I send him... How many video clips I sent of Tenerife? 746. That's it, easy. That number will live in my brain forever. We're going to be filming together. We're going to be climbing Sa Calobra together tomorrow because I'm going to take you there. For the first time. But now we made it to Cura Monastery. Look at this, it's just so pretty. It's crazy, right? And now we're going to send it down to get back to the villa to go and greet all the chickens because they're going to arrive soon. Let's go. We're in contact with all the chickens that landed. They got their luggage, they're about to get on the transfer so they will be here in about half an hour. So we took time to have a quick coffee, going to get back to the villa, wait for them, have lunch all together and in the afternoon we're going to go for another ride. A little shake-out ride. I think it's about 30 kilometers on flat lanes around the house and it's going to be lovely. Welcome. What a day. Nice, easy first day. Lovely light, lovely sun, really nice group. Everyone is super chilled. You really have to enjoy the views and the landscape. No one's surging, no one is obsessed with QMs and crumbs already so it's going to be such a good week. Now I am so ready for dinner. Feed me those pasta. Good morning. It's Monday, it's the first day of the Mallorca Escape. All the chickens have arrived and as I was saying yesterday, this week is a little bit special because I'm technically on holidays and I've got my ride leaders here taking over for the week. So we have Laura here and Jason. They know Mallorca like their pocket. They know the island inside out and they've been ride leaders with Mallorca for three years now. So I'm so excited to just seeing them doing the briefing and everything. It actually gave me goosebumps yesterday. I was like, oh, the chickens are flying out. How do you feel about this week? Super excited. Like you said, we love this island so much. It's great to have a really nice group on the island and get some great cycling again. Jason, how do you feel about this week? I think Jason is excited about his seminar on descending technique. No, I mean, we have so many new people here today that have never been to Mallorca before and it's so nice and so much fun to take new people around the island because you get to look at their faces and just see how excited and how amazing the roads are and how good the views are and how good the climbs are. It's brilliant. You can see the energy in us. The weather is a bit mad today. Like we're literally trying to make our way around the rain but it doesn't stop us from being buzzy and energetic. So let's get them out and let's ride. Today we're going to Val d'Emosa. So we're back in my favourite petrol station. What are you getting? I don't know. Spaghetti. I'm Italian. My favourite ones are the pica. I like those ones. Oh no, those ones are really good. Okay, we're gonna get that. They're sour as, which is amazing. We need the energy because we're about to climb. Jason's favourite climb is called Col d'Enclaret and we're gonna go all the way up to Val d'Emosa. Beautiful switchback. Did you see my twin? Took my shoes off. So I have to say, Francesco, the first time he saw me wearing that jersey, he was like, no, that's not very your colour. It's not a nice jersey. Unwanted opinion, right? Two days later, he turned up two laps in the same one and I wear his all the time. Obsessed. I was saying, Luke's the only one laughing with his toes. Yeah, he wasn't laughing. Yeah, that's what I mean though. This means nothing when you can't feel your arms. Oh, I'm gonna die of cold. My heart rate is so low. When you're a super athlete, like me, you need to, you need to just ride everywhere. 500 watts. Otherwise... What do you mean 500 watts? Sure. You just get layers. You get the kit, you get your rain jacket, your base layer. You follow Morocco cycling packing list. You just take every single item that's on it and you listen to the ride briefing in the morning by Jason and Laura who say, make sure everyone brings a rain jacket. But you know what my main problem is? Is I have to carry all my cameras and everything. I'm carrying half of your kit in my bar bag. Yeah, because I can't... Don't talk rubbish at me like this. Okay, moving on to the next topic. Tom, put B-roll in now, okay? Okay, thank you, bye. I can't speak, I'm doing efforts, mate. Nice, yeah? Hello. Nice view. Beautiful. Nice bike. Good effort. So we just stopped in Valdemossa for a quick coffee. It's a really cute village. The weather is being very moody. It was sunny, but now it's looking rather threatening. Everyone is doing amazing. They're in really good spirit. They're playing the game, but we probably make a decision about shorting cut the routes in a bit in 10k. And meanwhile, we just wash our sorrow in Haribo's. What a day. It's been pouring down for, I'd say, at least 30k this morning. Really bad. Then the sun came out, beautiful. We had coffee in the sunshine, feeling hopeful again. We all decided to try the long option, the long route option, the 130k one. And oh my God, I'm so glad we did. Now we're being rewarded for it. The climb was beautiful. We had sun. We even managed to squeeze a lunch in the sunshine in Alaro, which, by the way, is one of my favorite villages. So we're now rolling back home. It's just 30k to go. And we had golden hour. Feeling very lucky. It's a video. We're like seals. You can't get out. It's so cold. This way, this way. Where do I go? Welcome to day two. We're going to Port Palenca today, going to go do the Cap de Formentor lighthouse route. I'm not French. I'm not Alex. She's sadly not very well. So you have me and you have Laura. But get well soon, Alex. We hope you're with us tomorrow. Let's go on the ride. We've got blue skies ahead. Sun's out. Yeah, it's easy at the moment. Nice and flat. These lanes have been beautiful. But yeah, some spicy hills coming. Let's do it. A little bit different today because Alex isn't feeling very well. So yeah, but we've got here. We are at Port de Palenca now on the beach. It's a tough day here in the sun with the blue skies. So out to the lighthouse. Out and back. Should be about a couple of hours. Really excited to see what they think of it. I want to get that picture from the lighthouse back, you know, with the windy road, that Instagram classic. But you can see that I think that'd be really cool. So if I get that, I'm happy. Alex, sorry that you're not feeling great, but we're having a great time. I can see from my window that the sun is shining over there. So I am sure they're having an amazing day. I'm going to try to recover, get some food because I want my muscle to be in top form for the rest of the trip. So I'm going to a really nice cafe in Sineo called Samola. And hopefully the menu is going to make me feel like I want to eat something. Let's hope. We miss you. See you soon. Time for coffee. Let's go. The climb to the viewpoint. Cap de Formentor. Beautiful day. We made it to the lighthouse. Here it is. You like the lighthouse, Francesco? I love the lighthouse. I wish the lighthouse was my house. It's honestly so nice at the moment. We're just rolling back in now into Sineo, golden hour. The team had a really nice time and I really liked Cap de Formentor. The views were amazing. The weather has come out for us. And yeah, it's been a brilliant day. I've been great. Somebody's watching me. It's my anxiety. Are you feeling better? Yes, finally. Perfect time for the rest day. In fairness, I don't think I could ride today. So it's good we're having a rest day. We're about to go to Palma. We're going to get on the train. And we're going for brunch in a place called Spots. It's amazing food. Unfortunately, I think I'm just going to be watching people eat. But it's going to be good that everyone's enjoying themselves. Dry bread. Yeah. Dry croissant. Exciting. No, don't talk to me about croissant. It didn't go down really well yesterday. It's matching Francesco's jacket. Right, so we're in Palma. Laura and I are looking at the map to direct all the chickens towards that famous square where we have Raffa, Caffè De Ciclis and Tannhain. So a bit of a cycling shop. But we're going to walk through the whole town, have a little bit of a browse around and then head to brunch. This is cool. I like this picture. It's not too big. Do you reckon people will like watching a bald guy walk around McPalmer? No? Maybe. He looks a bit too keen. Good morning! It's Thursday today and we are finally about to go to Sa Calobra. Everyone is a bit excited and nervous at the same time because it's going to be the first time for almost everyone in the group. We are going to start the ride with going up Sabataia. Favorite climb ever. And then we're going to go to the top of Sa Calobra and make a decision of who wants to go down, who doesn't want to go down. Because with Sabataia, the challenge is you have to go all the way down and then all the way up. There is no other option. Once you've descended, you need to climb back. It's about 10 kilometers back up. 10, 12, something like this. A really good climb. I actually really, really like that climb. So I am excited. Let's ride! Right, it's time to tell the truth. I wanted to hide the vlog that we had a little of an issue on that trip. But I think six, seven of us got down with norovirus. So we're going to do Sabataia because this is the favorite climb ever. It's the best. I might have to peel off and leave Sa Calobra for Saturday and give the vlog again to the non-French man, Luc, who can document the chickens. Laura will be on the mic and I'm going to go back to my bed. Everyone's feeling better now. Everyone's on the bike. We're recovering. We're all. Alex is going to go back down Sabataia. So... I'm going home and I'm giving the vlog to Will. I'm home already. You'll be fine. Feel better. We're going to have fun. You ready, Will? You're ready for a world of pain. I can't wait to get my superpowers when I go to the next world. This is what it's about right here. Enjoy. See you in 20 minutes. It's 20 minutes? No, no. But we're meeting at the bottom. Yeah, we'll meet at the bottom. Well, you can't go anywhere else. How did you enjoy the descent? It was good. It was a little scary. Yeah. I did see all the faces that were going up and they did not look happy. We're about to see what your face looks like on the climb. Time to ride Sa Calobra. For the very first time. Okay, I'm done. This is too much. You good? Yeah. Stay with us. Crazy, moody with the... Yeah, unbelievable. Why wouldn't you want this, guys? But I'm looking forward to pizza right now. Look at the view. Crazy. This is worth the climb. Oh yeah, nearly there. Just come around the infamous loop. Riding into the clouds, literally. You've done it. Yeah. That was no joke. Oh my lord. I think they sold me an e-bike because it was too easy. Isn't it? Amazing. Great job. You like it? So, Sa Calobra is done. Everyone is extremely happy and proud of themselves, as they should be. That was great. We're rolling back. It's a little bit rolling now until we hit Sabataia. Back down the descent of the climb we came up. And then we're going to hit lunch. I'm going to have a little bit of fun on the descent, so I'm not going to film. But yeah, you can see the goats here. See you at lunch, goats. What a great descent. Sabataia is like my favourite descent. Got a great mixture of open, long, fast sections and really nice winding under trees. Here's Francesco, the Italian stallion. He's ready for his pizza pasta. Tomorrow we go again. Tomorrow rest day. I think it's almost up at 13 to 14. Rolling back through the lanes now. Back to Sinew to see Alex. Hope she's well. What a climb and so proud of Will. Did a great job. First time together. I'll always remember that. Absolutely love it. Thanks for letting me have another go, Alex, at taking over this vlog. Day 4 done. Peace. Good morning. It's Friday. It's the last day for the chickens. And so today the plan is 120 kilometers up to Col de Soller. I really love Col de Soller. Beautiful switchback. And then we're going to climb the biggest climb on the island, Puig Mayor. That's 14k up. But it's not, it's not too hard. It's like steady gradients. I think it's averaging six or seven percent. And then we go on down Sabataia again. You look so happy with them as well. Thank you for the climb. We start Col de Soller. Looks pretty nice. You're picking the children menu today. Can I have ice cream and pudding, please, mum? Incredible. We are halfway through the climb. 7k to go. The sun is here. Finally, we found it. First time this week. And man, look at this. Hello. You okay? Yeah, you? Yeah, really good. All good? Yeah. That lake at the top. So sunny, isn't it? Oh, wow. This is the sun as well now. So nice. Yeah. The sun is shining. The weather is sweet. Had a good day today? I had a great day today. Yeah, especially now the sun's out. Easy riding, big climbs. And I'm glad I needed the suntan lotion. What an incredible day on the bike. Col de Soller was absolutely epic. And then Puig Maior was a beast of a climb. But we all had a great time. Saw some incredible views. Everyone's a little bit tired. But we are all definitely ready for some barbecue. Let's bring it home. To the plunge pool. Everybody has had a great ride. Awesome. And barbecue. Yes. I love you. Good morning. It's Saturday today. All the chickens have just left. It's always a little bit sad when the group's going after a week all together like this. The week was amazing. Everyone has been so awesome. We've had some challenges with neurovirus and the weather, etc. But at the end of the day, it was just such a good group and such a good week. So we are buzzing. Okay, we've got one more day today. So I'm going with Luc and Tomeu to Sa Calobra. Because I want to make a video to show how easy can Sa Calobra be. I'm taking Tomeu with me because he lives here. He's a cyclist, but he's never done Sa Calobra before. He's a bit scared. So he's going to be doing it for the first time. So thank you so much for watching. Make sure you subscribe not to miss the Sa Calobra video. And see you in the next one.