Puig MajorHC
- 13.94 km
- Length
- 5.9%
- Average
- 826 m
- Elevation gain
- 7.5%
- Steepest 500 m
- 846 m(GPX)
- Summit
Puig Major never lets up. There is no false flat to sit up on, nothing that gives back, and nowhere obvious to recover — the gradient just sits there, and the climb wears you down rather than hurting you in one place. The top half is the hard part, though not because it kicks: the trees run out, the rock goes bare, and you are in the sun the rest of the way. The road finishes at the Monnàber tunnel and that is the summit as far as bikes are concerned — the peak above it is a military radar station, shut to the public bar one day a year. Coming out of the heat into the cold air of that tunnel, just as the climbing stops, is the bit riders remember.
How long will Puig Major take you?
A rider at 3.0 W/kg takes about 63 minutes to climb Puig Major.
Put in your weight and the average power you hold on the gradient. We add 9 kg for bike and kit. The model works the time out from physics, and it has been tested against real rides.
Riders
The road
Puig Major is Mallorca's highest mountain, and there is a military installation on the summit. The Americans built it between 1957 and 1959 — a little over six hectares on the peak itself — and an American radar squadron ran it until 1993.
The installation is still there, and that is why the summit is closed.
The climb
Puig Major is a climb you have to pace properly. It is long enough to give you plenty of time to regret going above yourself at the bottom.
The first half has an even, kindly gradient and feels easier than many fear. It is about finding your rhythm, keeping the watts (or the heart rate) down and simply turning the pedals in the right zone. Your legs will ask you to change up and press on. Hold back.
It gets hard in the last third, and not mainly because of the gradient. That only picks up marginally. But the shade has gone, and you have been in the saddle long enough for the heat to take hold. On a hot day it is the sun that decides whether you blow, not the gradient.
The hardest sustained stretch waits towards the end. Burn too many matches early and this is where the hammer comes down.
