Storming the island

Alongside 8,499 other riders, Cyclist takes on the full 312km epic of the Mallorca 312

- Words Laurence Kilpatrick Photography Mike Massaro

For one morning each April, the birds of Mallorca have to swallow an annual dose of their own medicine.

At an ungodly hour, for once it's them being woken against their will by thousands of freehubs buzzing through the night, heading towards the start line of the island's long-running sportive, the Mallorca 312.

The day will later see sunshine and blue skies, but as we stand waiting in the start pen, rain is lashing down and I can't help but sympathise with the group of five stick-thin Spanish lads in skinsuits next to me who are huddled together in the dark for warmth like aerodynamic penguins. An hour rolls by and, just as the heavens are running out of rain, the sodden mass of humanoid bike centaurs starts to move.

Until 2016, the 312 followed the circumference of the island, before organisers switched the route to the west to enable closing the roads. Now the shaky setsquare route takes riders in an anticlockwise direction across the island's mountainous northwest coastline and has an elevation profile that looks like a stegosaurus tail. Three distances are on offer - 167km, 225km and 312km - with respective total ascents of 2,475m, 3,973m and 5,050m.

Such is the renown of the event that it has attracted former pros of the likes of Sean Kelly, Annemiek van Vleuten, Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador among its 8,500 participants, and the organisers proudly declare last year's edition generated nearly €18 million for the island.

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