- 40 Kilometers
- 460 meters of climbing
- +/- 2 hrs
- About 40% gravel 60% tarmac
Mallorca’s Raiguer region sits just south of the Tramuntana mountains and consists of foothills dotted with vineyards, carob and olive trees. The names of these villages are familiar to cyclists, but maybe less so to sun seeking tourists headed to the beach.
Campanet, Caimari, Binibona, Selva, Mancor de la Vall, Moscari and Biniamar are all scenic villages perched among the foothills. With Arab roots in the medieval times, these towns were transformed by the Spanish after Jaume’s conquest.
A few of these villages are regarded as “llogaret.” These are small, rural unincorporated towns with at least twelve houses but are too small to have their own town hall. 39 such llogarets are found throughout Mallorca and this route visits Moscari and Biniamar.
Our route starts in Campanet, a pastoral town of 2700 inhabitants on the eastern end of the Raigeur. A lovely town square has a few cafes for coffee and beer before or after the ride. Our Campanet gravel route starts in the public parking area at the edge of town.
The first few kilometers provide for a pleasant warm up on smooth tarmacked roads. Instead of wandering north to Binibona or continuing on the normal cycling route to Caimari, we make a hard detour south up a nice gravel climb to the backdoor of Moscari.
From Moscari, the route wanders in the most indirect way to Selva, connecting hidden gravel roads and stony paths. Even when you arrive at Selva, you travel away from the center of town and see the edges of town that you have likely missed on previous visits.
Outside of Mancor de la Vall lies a little surprise. It’s tarmacked. It’s short. It’s steep. Surprise!
Gravel leads to easy single track and then a mandatory fence climb. It’s hard to say if the fence is keeping people out or in, but travel on both sides of the fence seem normal. In the absence of a gate, we chose to lift the bike and carry on.
Tarmac leads to gravel roads descending into Biniamar. A hard right after the “new” church leads to a long gravel and stone descent. This church was started in 1910 under the leadership of Spanish Prime Minister Antonio Maura who spent summers in Biniamar with an uncle in his youth. With the end of Maura’s tenure, money and motivation to build the church disappeared and it remained unfinished.
We briefly sneak into the outskirts of Inca, but soon find ourselves again on gravel roads.
The route back to Campanet avoids the villages and instead trades them for plenty of scenic dirt and gravel roads and perhaps a hidden path or two. Even the final kilometers into Campanet have some surprises hidden amongst the fence lines, out of sight of the cyclotourists.
If you want to make a longer ride, you could start in Pollenca with the Pollenca – Buger Gravel Route and insert this route starting in Ullaro. You would have close to a 100 kilometer ride and a full day of adventure.