Sportive

Video – climbs to ride: Sa Calobra, Mallorca

The Col Collective team up with Frank Schleck to lead the way up the iconic, twisting Coll dels Reis in Mallorca

Mallorca is a cycling haven, attracting everyone from WorldTour pros to keen amateur riders for training camps and a chance to log the miles with some sun on your back.

The Balearic island is packed with must-ride climbs, but there is one more than any other which stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of prestige: Sa Calobra.

– RCUK’s essential guide to road cycling in Mallorca –

Wrapping its way up the mountainside, with hairpins stacked on top of each other – cobra-like, you might say, it has become a haven for cyclists testing their form.

The snake-like Sa Calobra has become an iconic climb, despite lacking the height or fierce gradients of climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees (Pic: Col Collective)

The Coll dels Reis, to give it its official name – Sa Calobra is the port at the base, from which the climb takes its name – is 9.4km in length, rising up from the sea at an average gradient of 7.1 per cent.

The only way to the port is down the snake-like descent, and once there the only way back is up, up and away.

– Ten of the best climbs to ride in… Mallorca –

But what is it like to ride? The Col Collective’s latest video instalment has the answer, with Mike Cotty pairing up with former WorldTour pro and Tour de France podium finisher Frank Schleck to take on the twisting ascent.

“Sa Calobra may not have the raw numbers to rival the big climbs in the Pyrénées or Alps but that doesn’t stop it being an icon in its own right, with over 50,000 riders clocking their times on Strava to date and the top dogs going well under 30 minutes to the summit,” Cotty says.

“Gauntlet thrown down, challenge set. Will you add your name to the fabled serpentine slopes of Sa Calobra?”

Check out the video above, or see more from the Col Collective here.

Sa Calobra features 26 hairpin bends in all, and a 270-degree twist at the summit (Pic: Col Collective)

Vital statistics

Start: Sa Calobra
Length: 9.4 km
Highest Point: 682m
Elevation gain: 682m
Max gradient: 11%
Average gradient: 7.1%
Ridden in January