Similar to Friday, the final day in Mallorca started off early with energy to seize the day. With my backpack full of running shoes, camera gear and snacks, I headed out under the light of the stars, and my headlamp, for the 15-mile roundtrip ride to Albercutx Watchtower. Albercutx is at the top of the Coll de la Creueta climb, a 3.3km road with a 6% average grade; this was my first official climb on Day 4. I arrived just before sunrise …

With a big day yesterday (Thursday), Friday was a planned recovery day. On Day 5, I did some scouting for an easterly facing coastline to try and catch a sunrise. Today was the day I put that plan into motion. This required a bit of coordination & packing to ensure I had bike gear, run gear, swim gear, camera gear and food, along with stuff to navigate in the dark; but we made it work.

Another big day that raised the bar once more! I thought our previous days were tough climbing, but today was over the top! It’s getting late and I’m planning an early morning, so I’ll keep everything brief for now.

We had three distinct climbs today: Lluc (which we did on Tuesday) + Coll dels Reis (the inland side) + Coll dels Reis (the sea side up from Sa Calobra). I made today’s video shorter and faster, along with added some text to try and describe the ride in chronological order; a picture of the elevation is at the end.

Buenos noches! My Spanish is progressing nicely, particularly cerveza, el baño and gracias. Similar to Day 3, Monday, we knew this morning’s weather would delay a ride. That provided for some extra sleep, which was definitely needed after yesterday’s tough day. After a later breakfast, several of us took the bus into Alcudia city center (the walled city) for some more sightseeing, pictures and shopping.

Woooweee! A good day of riding is in the books! It was such a neat day, I made a rough video to showcase it in addition to photos; take a look below.

The day started with great weather - around 62 and rising to 72 to close out the day - and clear skies. At breakfast, as I drank my coffee, I exclaimed how good it was. A woman near me said, ‘coffee is like a hug, from the inside’. I thought this was a great description and wanted to share.

The forecast for Monday, 10/4, called for rain. From what I’ve gathered, Mallorca rains are similar to Florida rains; hard, but over quickly. That was not the case today. It rained for most of the day. So …

Day 1 was a whirlwind, and long. Travel started at 12noon Friday (10/1) from ‘Lake Country’ down to Chicago. After some masked waiting in baggage/ticketing and security (damn it, I need to get TSA Pre-Check!) , we were fantastically early - I was not in charge. We - Ryan Barbieri, Alicia’s work colleague who introduced me to triathlon - had an O’Hare sandwich and a few beers before our 4pm take-off.

The peloton was in full force for the first time of the trip with 17 total riders. With representation from the Midwest and Florida (perhaps other places?), the peloton set out for what would be a fairly standard ride, ~65miles and 2,000 feet of climbing.