“I counted them out and I counted them back in” and whilst we were one short, that was a planned exception. So on the first measure, ie we all came back, it was a successful trip. And with no bike crashes, (although there were some falling off of bikes), 4 rides, over 320 kilometres (180 miles) of cycling, over 4000 metres (13000ft) of climb, and 5 brave souls completing Sa Calobra, along with a fair amount of beer drunk, we can conclude that a successful trip it was.

Majorca came up with the goods on routes, road surfaces, cafe stops, (more of that in our cafe review section), scenery, friendlessness and general “feel good”. And whilst the weather was mixed, with one spectacular lightening/ thunderstorm that went on for hours and hours, with the exception of one ride, we stayed dry and enjoyed the sunshine. And I think it would be fair to say that the blue and white cycling shirts that are Yorkshire’s Finest, left their mark on the island, with our general good cheeriness, well honed cycling skills, funny banter and generous tipping.

And so to the fallling off of bikes, (which I have to add was definitely not associated with YF but reported to us by another cycling group) and which strictly speaking was largely unrelated to cycling, but definitely influenced by the consumption of a large amount of beer, a few bottles of red wine and some burgers. This incident saw 5 of another group of cyclists, outstay their welcome at the post ride beer stop to the extent that, they missed dinner and staggered into the hotel bar looking bewildered and at least one of the group battered and bruised but still in his cycling gear. Apparently post alcohol, at 11.00pm four of them had tried to mount their bikes in an effort to get back to the hotel and promptly fell off one by one. The night was completed when one of the party was found face down on his bed at 4.00am still fully clothed in cycling kit complete with cycling shoes. It was by all accounts some night. But once again the disclaimer is this was a completely unrelated trip to ours, told to us by another group of cyclists. Just coincided with us being there.

However, we can report one faller in our group, who miss-judged the side of the road (whilst looking at which gear he was in??), and managed to ditch himself pretty unceremoniously at the side of the road unharmed. We did also manage to lose two riders, both of whom failed to follow instructions, one of who ended up completely lost, battery out of both his mobile and electric bike and having to meander for a few hours trying to navigate his way back. The other lost soul was more predictable, cos unless he is on a train, then directions are not his strong point. Both we are happy to say made it back with just pride slightly dented. So we survived to tell the tale. We were grateful to our “Broom wagon” driver Shaun, who whilst willing to support riders, did not really manage to connect with them, (mostly due to the complete lack of navigating skills on behalf of the riders), but who did manage to get to a few lunch stops. I’m pretty sure no bikes ended up in his pretty impressive SUV, a monster of a thing deliberately hired to accommodate 2 bikes and passengers, but as far as we know not in fact deployed. We also did not have to employ the skills of our resident Sommelier, (at least not that we know of), who if fact had to fly back early with our Broom-Wagon driver for a wine tasting in London!! (Shaun was only required to drive to the airport and not invited for any wine-tasting).

And so the general conclusion is that we should do it all again next year, although perhaps Majorca has had enough of us and we might need to move onto pastures anew. So hopefully we’ll have a similar rag-tag group of cyclists (deploying the term in its very loosest sense), next year with perhaps some regulars who due to other commitments could not come, joining us for the 2023 jaunt.