Mallorca 312

So a week last Saturday was my big goal for this Spring, the Mallorca 312. We arrived on the wednesday night to heavy winds and rain, which pretty much continued until we left! The race day itself was a mix of cloudy and heavy rain through the mountains and also later on. I managed it in 13:50 hrs, ten minutes under the cut off. My compadres managed it in 17 hours (two finishing and one abandoning after oh only 250km - cycling on spanish roads in the rain and dark is one thing, doing it when your lights die is one step too far!). I was planning to write a nice proper write up of the route but I seem to have contracted writers block so I'm going to just blurt out some impressions i had.

- Cycling in Mallorca is nice, the km's just seem to fly by on the smooth roads, even in foul weather it was pretty good.
- To get under 14 hours in the 312 you had to be part of a group unless you were some kind of double hard turbo nutter.
- Cycling in Mallorca in a group of 30+ riders is FUN and also FAST, especially with a police escort.
- The group does not slow down when you want to get a gel out.
- The group does not slow down even when you're so tired you go temporarily blind and start believing in god.
- The group does stop for nice long stops at the designated stations (this is how i leapfrogged one or two groups!)
- Spanish riders are cool and very vocal, no idea what they were saying but pretty sure it was all pretty positive.
- Swiss riders don't like being called German.
- 13km descents are exciting, when you factor in coaches and rain, possibly too exciting.
- When going out for a nice 20km spin the day after an event, take a puncture repair kit.
- When totally rain-soaked and having a sneaky wee stop, take care not to wee down your leg and into your shoe and also onto your water bottle.
- Always demand your finishers t-shirt (i failed in this aspect).
- Taking your own bike on holiday is great and surprisingly easy.

Erm thats about it for now, maybe i will remember more as time passes by. It's all getting a bit rosy to be honest, but I'm pretty sure it was quite hard. What next i wonder?