Year after year in February, March, and April, Mallorca, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean, is invaded by thousands of ambitious cyclists. They cherish training in a beautiful landscape that is characterized by medieval villages, orange and citron orchards, mountains and rolling hills, and almond trees in full blossom. I'm one of them (one of the cyclist, that is). When riding for hours on a road bike with no more than a bottle of water, 2 or 3 power bars, and a cell phone, bringing a DSLR with a handful of lenses is of course out of question. This is when your little point and shoot, no bigger than a smartphone, comes in handy.
Caimari, a little village at the bottom of the Serra de Tramuntana, the mountain range in the western part of the island.
The islanders are used to cyclists; in fact, an entire system of small country roads is mainly maintained for their benefit. Cars are merely tolerated.
Somewhere in the south east.
The ubiquituous almond trees. If you want to see them in full blossom, you have to get here early - no later than February.
A famous part of the road in the descent to Sa Calobra.
A cyclist's dream road. Almost 10 km of winding asphalt, descending from the mountains, 700m above sea level, to a sea port - Sa Calobra. And of course you'll have to climb the same road on your way back, because it's a dead end. In the summer, this road is jammed with tour buses that angle around the narrow serpentines; in February, however, the road is still almost exclusive to cyclists.
It's going to be colder tomorrow. Clouds over the Serra de Tramuntana.