Mallorca 312 OK Mobility: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

Start and finish sit at Platja de Muro on the bay of Alcúdia. The first 25 kilometres roll flat along the coast before the Tramuntana begins: the Coll de Femenia at kilometre 33, then the long climb to the Gorg Blau below the Puig Major at kilometre 50, where the course tops out at 869 metres. From there the range continues over the Coll de sa Bastida (km 101), the Coll des Pi (km 114) and the Coll de sa Gramola (km 124).

After Es Capdellà and Galilea the mountainous part ends at Sa Granja around kilometre 158. Practically all eight of the course's classified climbs sit in that first half, averaging five to six per cent over three to nearly five kilometres – long, regular ramps rather than walls. The rest of the day is an entirely different race: via Ariany (km 242) and Artà (km 285) the route runs through the flat interior and the east coast back to the start.

What sets the 312 apart from other granfondos is not the profile but the road. For this one day the entire island loop is closed to traffic, and the Tramuntana's coast roads – normally full of hire cars and coaches in spring – belong to the field alone. The organiser issues around 8,500 places, with entries opening half a year in advance.

Pacing Strategy

The Mallorca 312 is a fuelling and pacing race, not a climbing race. The Tramuntana all sits in the first half, and because the field is still dense and the scenery spectacular there, most riders take the opening hundred kilometres far too hard. On the Coll de Femenia and the climb to the Gorg Blau hold an intensity you would still consider sensible after ten hours – which is considerably less than it feels like when fresh.

The race, though, is decided after kilometre 160, once the mountains are done. The flat 150 kilometres through the interior and along the east coast are the real test: there it is steady power, working groups and the state of your legs that count, and there an overcooked mountain section inevitably comes home. Ride disciplined to Sa Granja and you spend hours passing people.

The two traps are fuelling and weather. Over ten to fourteen hours of riding you have to eat and drink from the start rather than when hunger arrives – after the Tramuntana a deficit cannot be recovered. And late April can be sharply cool in the mountains in the morning and hot in the flat east by midday: plan clothing you can shed en route, and expect wind in the open south-east that grinds down a small group quickly.

Training plan for Mallorca 312 OK Mobility: 12-week build

Expect 10 to 14 hours of riding as an age-group rider. The demand is an extremely long, largely aerobic block with a clear break in the middle: first four to six hours with eight classified climbs of three to five kilometres at five to six per cent, then five to eight hours on flat, wind-exposed terrain.

The first training priority is therefore simply volume. Without several six-to-eight-hour rides in the build phase this distance is not sensibly rideable; add two or three block weekends with long days back to back to learn the accumulated fatigue that arrives after kilometre 200.

The second priority is pairing climbing work with flat riding immediately afterwards. Put your long climbs in the first third of your long sessions and your fastest flat sections at the end – that is exactly the order the course demands. Train steady power in a group too, because the second half of the race is settled by turns and shelter rather than by attacks.

On the practicalities: rehearse your fuelling over at least eight hours with the same bars and drinks you will use on the day – a stomach that shuts down after twelve hours is the most common reason for abandoning. And because the Tramuntana has long descents with many hairpins, descending technique belongs in the plan: on wet or cold morning roads, hesitancy there costs more time and more energy than any climb.