The day has only just turned colour, but Cala Ratjada's entertainment machinery is already in full swing. Over in the Los Olivos bar, a best-of-ABBA CD is vying for the attention of the thirsty main target group. On the opposite side of the street, the Königsgarten is trying to fuel the holiday feeling with dirty dancing hits and special offers - "Drink 0.5 and pay 0.3!" The unit of measurement is litres.
A few metres further on, under the canopy of the M-Bike station, ABBA and dirty dancing noise mix into an unbearable mash of sound. The station is located in the stereo triangle of Königsgarten and Los Olivos Bar. The bikes in front of the hire block seem to have exaggerated tyres and are far too off-road for Cala Ratjada. Germany's most popular holiday island is synonymous with many things. But it is not synonymous with mountain biking. Majorca is the epitome of pleasant sandy beaches. It is the high-performance centre for all-inclusive idleness. A restless zone of tranquillity with associated mass humanisation. Clogged with millions of holidaymakers who spend weeks on end looking either at the sea or deep into their glasses with cast-iron determination, as if there was anything to see.
"Mallorca is completely underestimated as a mountain bike destination, that's the problem," says Markus Derjung, head of M-Bike. Derjung is standing under an advertising banner that shows him on a climb of the BIKE-Transalp with his body tension slackening. He looks a little fuller than in the photo, having become a father a few months ago. But all you have to do is watch him turn the knobs on the suspension forks and listen to his fingers in the forks. Derjung is talking about real mountain biking. The kind that gets your pulse racing and the adrenalin flooding your body.
When Derjung moved from Germany to the island ten years ago with a minibus full of Scott bikes to fulfil his dream of opening his own mountain bike station, he had no idea whether his business model would find the right environment there. The former road racer knew that Mallorca was a great place to ride a road bike. But mountain biking? Even in 1999, the island was still undiscovered wasteland in this respect. There were no maps. There were no routes. There were these marvellous mountains everywhere. But unfortunately there were also high fences everywhere. A large part of Mallorca is private land. That was also a problem, says Derjung.
In the meantime, business is booming precisely because of the fences. Only with a guide can you find your way through the seemingly endless network of single trails. The five-day Trans-Mallorca Tour, offered three times a year, combines the island's mountain bike highlights into one epic tour. Luggage is transported. The accommodation is typical of the region.
You can find the entire report on the Mallorca crossing by MTB as a PDF download below.
