25/07/2016 00:00
Chris Froome won yet another Tour de France on Sunday and I am quite amazed the local authorities are not busy underlining the fact that Froome does a sizeable part of his training on the island during the winter months. You could even say that part of his success is as a result of his training during the winter on the roads of Majorca.
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Cycling is bringing good money to the island and all the people I meet from the sport are dedicated and friendly, HOWEVER, mass movement of cyclists does represent danger to them and others in certain areas. In the same way that heavy lorries are restricted on certain routes, the same should apply to mass cycling. I like to drive the route via Calvia, up to Galilea, down to Puigpunyent, and then back via Palma, with stops for walking and refreshment. It has become a death-trap route on the steep narrow road with some cyclists coming down 4 or 5 abreast at speeds in excess of 70kph. There has been no effort by the authorities to create them some dedicated cycle routes with toilet stops etc. The north of the island is particularly blighted/blessed (depending on your point of view) by organised cycling, and more infrastructure needs to reflect this use.
To be completely accurate Froome does almost all of his training in the Alps from his winter base in Monaco, or in South Africa, and only comes to Mallorca for the media events.... however much of the rest of the team spends the winter here, as do Trek, IAM and many more. Sky has 821,697 followers on Facebook, and nearly 700k on Twitter and during their winter training camps they post photos daily showing the island off as a cycling paradise, and not once have I seen a 'share' or 'retweet' by any government or tourist board entity....they could be doing a hell of a lot better in picking up on this free marketing opportunity. ...and in response to S. they do have a tour of Mallorca, its been running at the end of January since 1992. The mass participation events on the island have been gaining in popularity in recent years, but this year a few have been subject to last minute cancellations or alterations ad a few events are a little up in the air, so after a few good years of solid growth in cycling business this year has been something of a backward step.
"Majorca should cash in on Chris Froome´s victory in the Tour de France." Why? Why can't you simply applaud the man's achievements, without scheming to see what YOU can get out of it?
Several years ago I made many suggestions to generate Winter Tourism and Flights to Mallorca. One suggestion was a " Tour de Mallorca " cycle road race. Even, a Tour de Mallorca " --Milk Race type competition. This would be ideal on the Island using many routes and the Tramuntana. Perhaps Chris Froome could be involved with the Competitions. Sponsorship and entries could greatly help the Islands economy.