Sa Calobra vs Puig Major: Mallorca's Two Greatest Climbs

The climbs compared

Sa Calobra — officially the Coll dels Reis — is 9.4 kilometres at 7.2 per cent average, gaining 659 metres. That makes it hard but not exceptionally so by the standards of the climbs around it. What makes Sa Calobra unique is not the gradient but the road itself. About halfway down, the road passes through the Nus de sa Corbata — a 270-degree spiral loop where the road literally passes under itself. There is nothing else like it in cycling. Tom Pidcock holds the Strava KOM at 22 minutes 46 seconds. You also descend before you climb: the road drops from the main road down to a small harbour at sea level, and everything you go down, you come back up.

Puig Major is a different proposition. At 13.7 kilometres and 6.0 per cent average, it is longer and — despite the slightly lower average — harder overall. The climb is classified HC. You are riding to 872 metres, and the upper section passes through a military exclusion zone before the road disappears into the Monnàber tunnel. The reward on the far side is the Gorg Blau and Cúber reservoirs: two turquoise lakes surrounded by the island's highest peaks, in a landscape that feels completely disconnected from the beach resorts on the coast below.

What makes each one special

Sa Calobra's reputation is built on the spiral loop and the descent to the sea. If you have seen images of cycling in Mallorca — and most cyclists have — the hairpins of Sa Calobra are probably what you have seen. It appears regularly in La Vuelta a España when the race visits the island, and for good reason: it is visually unlike anything else. The descent is also genuinely technical. Tourist buses share the road, and the Nus de sa Corbata requires full attention going down.

Puig Major is the harder, more private experience. Fewer cyclists ride it than Sa Calobra — partly because accessing it requires combining it into a longer day — and the upper section has a quality of remoteness that Sa Calobra, with its harbour restaurants and tourist boats below, does not. The tunnel finish is one of Mallorca's great climbing moments: you emerge from the heat of the upper slopes into cool darkness, and on the other side are the reservoirs and silence.

How to ride both

The Palma — Sa Batalla, Sa Calobra and Puig Major Epic loop takes in both climbs in a single day, with Sa Batalla thrown in for good measure. At around 150 kilometres and 3,500 metres of climbing, it is a serious day out — but it is the right way to experience both climbs in context. Puig Major comes first on that route, then the descent to the Sa Calobra junction, then Sa Calobra down and back up. Having Puig Major in the legs before Sa Calobra is the honest way to ride the island's two hardest climbs.

If you only have one day and have to choose, the calculus is simple: first trip to Mallorca, take Sa Calobra. The spiral loop is one of the things every cyclist should see once. Return trip, or if climbing rather than spectacle is the priority, Puig Major. The reservoir views from the top are something Sa Calobra's harbour cannot match.

Our verdict

Sa Calobra is the more famous road and the more photogenic experience. Puig Major is the harder climb and the more rewarding one if you are here for the mountains rather than the spectacle. Given the choice, ride the epic loop and do both. It is one of the great days in European cycling.