Col de Soller & Puig Major

This is the big one. Four climbs, 135 kilometres, 2 429 metres of elevation — and every one of those metres earned.

We started by heading south from Port de Pollença, parallel to the mountains, using Col d'Honor and Col de Orient as a warm-up. Both are beautiful climbs through olive groves and quiet roads — exactly the right way to ease into a day like this.

Then Col de Sóller. If you love switchbacks the way I do, this is your climb. A steady, consistent gradient with an extraordinary number of hairpins — one after another, winding up the mountain with almost no traffic since all the cars use the tunnel. We did not stop at the café on the summit that day, but it is highly recommended for those with more restraint than us.

We descended into Port de Sóller for lunch. Good choice of restaurants, good food — but a word of warning from experience: go easy. Some of us did not, and the combination of a generous lunch and Puig Major immediately afterwards was not ideal. You have been warned.

Puig Major is 14 kilometres at 6% average — relentless, exposed, spectacular. The landscape transforms from lush valley to bare alpine rock as you gain height. At the top, the road disappears into a tunnel. We waited there for each other — watching the group come through one by one was one of those moments that makes a cycling trip memorable.

From the tunnel, it is largely downhill — past the turquoise Gorg Blau and Cúber reservoirs, down through Lluc, and the final drop via Col de Femenia with its extraordinary views back toward Pollença Bay. A fitting end to the biggest day on the island.