The Deia Loop

The Deia Loop

Today (Thursday) probably my favorite. We headed in the same direction as we have for several days, but spent more time coast and cycled through the amazing village of Deia. Perhaps one of the most stunning towns we have seen. It just seems to hang on the cliffs above the Mediterranean. Ancient, charming, and inspiring. We not only stopped for lunch just below the village, but biked through it and, to no one’s surprise, found a bike shop which just happened to have Mallorca jerseys in our sizes. I can’t image how that happened.

Cycling on Mallorca can be challenging. We often ride on wide roads with smooth pavement and adequate shoulders. But, because we want “off the beaten path” in favor of more scenic routes, we find ourselves on much smaller, secondary roads. Now on Mallorca, a secondary road can be many things. They can be paved or semi-paved. They can be as narrow as a single lane (or smaller) with lots of turns. They can also be lined with stone walls on both sides making it impossible to see the intersection that lies ahead. It’s also common to have sheep or goats crossing or just standing alongside the road.  Yesterday for example, I was following Jonathan down such a road when I heard him start yelling, “goat, goat!” Sure enough, a little red goat was deciding if he should cross the road. He later confessed he’s never yelled “goat” on a ride before.  Later in the day, on the run-in back to the hotel, we were on a walled road about a wide as my sofa is long and came to a turn. While we were going under the posted speed limit, we many have had a little more momentum than necessary. As we started to make the turn, a truck was making the turn from the opposite direction. With breaks applied by all parties, truck and bikes rapidly slowed down. As I slid between the truck and the wall, I could have easily extended by elbows and hit truck on the left side and wall on my right. Just another day on Mallorca.

Again today, the ride was dominated by climbs and descents. One climb alone was over 14 km. For me, getting to the top is not an issue, it’s navigating the hairpin turns on the way down. Hard enough by themselves, but add cars, cyclists and buses on the same turn and things can get a bit sketchy. The lesson I quickly learned is let the locals, the pros, and the crazies bomb down as fast as they want. The goal is to make it down upright. 

Tomorrow's forecast is for rain all day. Let's hope for at least a small ride on our last day.