Want to know the secrets to conquering the Mallorca 312 ride?

In this video, I share the lessons learned from cycling this event in 2023, and have shared my training advice, race day strategies, and top tips to help you perform at your best on ride day. Don’t miss it!

0:00 Introduction
0:18 Registration
0:37 The Experience
1:20 Bikes
1:43 People
2:18 Official Kit
4:26 Feed Stops
9:03 Group Etiquette
9:52 Routes
10:56 The Carnage
15:47 Training
19:47 Weather
21:38 Cutoffs
23:28 Nutrition
25:18 Bike Choice
27:25 Do It Again?

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in this video I’m going to give you my account of The Good The Bad and The downright ugly of the Majorca 312 cycling event and also share a few tips in case you’re thinking of doing this event or another big day or days out so get ready to hear the truth about this epic cycling Adventure first up good stuff the registration experience was great so you turn up for registration the day before and you go to this nice pop-up village with lots of Buzz around it you register you get your kit you can hang around there’s lots of pop-up shops live bands food there’s just a real big buzz around the place and it really revs you up and gets you excited for what’s going to come [Music] when you actually get riding it is a different experience to what I’ve done before 8 000 other Riders on mainly close roads with a few exceptions here and there but primarily car free bike friendly and just lots of different peoples and bikes when you’re out riding that first in when you leave the flat you hit the first climb and it’s just you look up cyclists ahead of you you look back cyclist behind you it’s a pretty amazing feeling and on the whole the cycle issue with their pretty friendly Bunch you can certainly Ride Along share the experiences and the suffering with them have a chat with them motivate each other you’ll always find someone you can talk to overall great experience let’s talk about bikes if you like bikes there is certainly much much bike Pawn to be interested in you’ve got 8 000 Riders there is a shed load of bikes all different brands so yeah so whatever bikes you are into there is a bike there that will take your fancy we even saw a couple out on a tandem on the ride I mean it was a big old Hefty thing I personally wouldn’t wanted to be riding on it but I guess it’s that shared experience and talking to nice people there was quite a lot of support out on the roadside throughout the ride people coming out of the houses in little towns and Villages clapping you on shouting at you I think they were shouting nice things at us anyway but just overall encouragement certainly throughout the ride and also at the end when you get back to the Village right through the Finish Line they’re all lined on either side giving you a clap shouting you on encouraging you music’s pumping hundreds of people outside obviously some of them might have finished before you but a lot of friends family were there just really added to the overall warmth and welcoming as you return home and talking about shared experience and all being one as a community and a tribe you do of course get the right Jersey [Music] so this one was a gobit kit so if you’re used to that you can put your sizing in when you register so you pick up the size you’ve requested if it isn’t the right size you cannot change it at registration you have to go over to the village and get them to swap it out but it wasn’t really an issue they they had a shed load of them ready so if you’re into that sort of thing you want to wear the colors which actually so on this version this year it wasn’t mandatory to wear the Jersey but I think I heard from next year they are going to mandate that you must wear the official ride Jersey just because I think they had a few Interlopers that might have joined in halfway through the ride got onto the road stopped at their feed station was consuming their stuff and just generally got a bit of a free ride better get used to wearing the nice colors of the official jersey along with that you also get a lovely matching museet and you also get a little card with all the ride profiles on and emergency contact numbers just in case you have a really big issue and the main thing when you get to the end cross the finish line you get something adorned around your neck beautiful three one two medal even if you don’t do the three one two you still get the medal yeah that’s the good thing even if you’ve done the short distance 167 you still get the medal yeah there we go uh there was a little space on the back for you to commemorate the event with your name or what’s what’s Toms I think that’s time and distance here I didn’t know I was uh bilingual and I think you could actually have got that engraved back at the Village when you’d finished if you wanted to so official kit they also did matching bibs as well you could go fkw in it if you wanted to I chose not to but if you’re entering next time you will have to so that was a good bits about the ride but unfortunately now for some of the bad stuff nutrition let’s talk about nutrition it is key for these kind of rides and although the food stations were reasonably well spaced out at good intervals and they were well staffed with people there to help you out actually the quality of what was on offer was pretty bad the first one I remember rocking up to and it was just water out of big a water Bowser truck basically a big like tank with a pipe coming out of it you just fill your bottle up at it but it was just water one of the things about these kind of rides is it was hot it was pretty sweaty and you want to keep yourself topped up with electrolytes if you haven’t taken your own what they did give you there not tablets but were these things a little salt electrolytes I think even with a bit of caffeine which I picked him up and thought yeah brilliant let’s just make those never never didn’t even know you could get these in a little capsule pill format never tried them no idea if they would work for me if they would be of any benefit if they would cause me any issues if you like a particular brand or with a particular ratio of electrolytes you’re going to be better off bringing your own stuff and not relying on what is on offer now one top tip having never seen these before although they look familiar to pills I did see one fella who will rename nameless who thought they weren’t pills that you take orally but you put them in your bottle but thankfully we had a kind ride there who told us no they don’t go in the bottle because actually it just sits in the bottle and doesn’t do anything you do actually take them like a little vitamin pill I remember going on to the second feed stop and the food offering was pretty poor I don’t know how many bananas it is safe for a human to consume but I did eat quite a lot but honors they had some orange segments there again I don’t really know what benefit that is in energy mixing or or anything else Cokes were very Hit or Miss they did have some cold drinks in fridges at some places but other places that either run out or didn’t stop any the other worst thing about them was the sandwiches for proper food sometimes if you’re out riding and you’ve taken your own nutrition you’ve got energy bars maybe you’re snacking on some energy gels at some point but sometimes you just need some proper food just to get inside you and the one offering they had was this pretty nasty white bread sandwiches with Nutella inside so I normally quite like a bit of Nutella but they were obviously mass-produced pre-rank nutrition was bad and I did read some of the stuff on the comments after it and that was one of the big thing that came up around people just complaining about the quality of the food stops what was available and it seemed no one had a really good thing to say about the offerings if you’ve done a lot of prep work put a lot of effort into your training and you’re planning for this you probably want to plan your own nutrition take your own nutrition to go alongside the food stops you you also have shops available on the route and we came across a few good ones there’s always the we’ve been there a couple of times before the let me get this right is always say it wrong the orange juice man Shack orange juice Shack man something like that but it’s around the top of the sakalobra and it’s just before you start writing up the Pug major that’s very popular it’s not an official food stop actually the one it’s just a little bit further on from the orange juice Shack we stopped there they’re well stocked you can get a good sandwich there plenty of drinks they also do have a toilet there if you want a cue but again a lot of cyclists have the same idea it’s very busy we came across another one further on we’d been up a few more Hills there’s one colder Claret cold El Claret that you come up after that you go through a little village stop there again the challenge you are going to have that we found similar to the food stops is they start to run out of stuff I think I went into one of the shops and I grabbed the last bottle of water it was a five liter big can of water I thought it was gonna get mugged on the way out for it because it was the last one in the shop you know we also were in there trying to get a can of Coke or cans of Red Bull the official food stops and the shops you’re going to meet along the way you’re always going to have that risk that is being cleaned out stuff’s gone thinking about your timing we’ll come on to a little bit later about getting away on time but one of the things you’ve got to think about again those feed stations is how long you are stationary for how long you’re stopping for sometimes you do need to stop just rest the legs catch a breath just take a moment especially if you’ve been struggling up a bit of a hill you just need to be careful though how often you stop how frequent those stops are and how long you stop for then because that time adds up looking at our stats I think our total ride time was around 7 hours 30. I didn’t think we stopped too much actually I think we did all right but we still had about an hour and 10 of stop time of that which adds up and you just need to be careful you don’t spend too long at Food stop or restore or just having a rest next thing etiquette it was nice we did get onto a few groups we got into them you find someone new to chat to wherever you’re from how are you doing have you been here before what are you eating where’d you get your water from it’s quite nice you just need to be a little bit careful about who’s around you we found that we’re in certain groups and the roads out there are pretty decent some of the more backlane cycle paths were a little bit sketchy and sometimes we found that just Riders In Front were not pointing or shouting out holes you just had to really pay attention to what was coming up because not necessarily that someone else is going to give you an indication that there was a hazard ahead and just think about who you’re riding with how chatty they are if they’re pointing anything out and just be mindful of you might come across Hazard that haven’t been pointed out to you okay so specific to the Majorca 312 ride we only did the short distance which will come on to some of the reasons why we did that so the 167 actually as a ride it was a pretty nice ride so it was front loaded with climbing you’ve got most of the climbs done pretty early on in the ride and they were very nice New York and climbs as you would expect and the route itself would then go circle around nice Coastal roads and lovely views and uh the last third of it it was a bit back plane country lanes it was just at the end of it you just wanted to get through it get grind it out and get it done I think the 167 and the 225 certainly if you’re looking at it as an experience and the visuals of it the environment what I have heard about the longer 312 route is actually the additional Loop that you have to go around isn’t that great it’s obviously a lot more effort for doing it but you don’t get that rich reward of beautiful scenery and stuff I don’t think unless you’re really keen on doing the 312 distance and it is a goal for you I don’t think you’re really getting much more I’m going for the 312 compared to say the the 225. all right now let’s get to the real bad stuff in this basically that was the Carnage crashes broken bikes probably broken limbs blood spill across the tarmac it was not without instant thankfully I managed to stay upright and incident free but you certainly saw a few things going on so from memory I remember setting out and in the first 5k you cycle past a little coastal route with some little Boulders on the side and there was some Rider who’d obviously come down there quite hard and the top tube of his bike has snapped I think it was a nice specialized within the first 5k of setting off he was on the deck of his bike and his bike was totaled I remember the first climb we hit that was when you start to hear ambulances so it is a closed Road event but the traffic that is on there are ambulances and you can just hear them pretty much constantly coming up going on a few medic motorbikes and we did see a few instances so I remember on the first climb up only about halfway up it as some guy I don’t think he had had come off his bike I think he just had some kind of medical emergency struggling to breathe and the ambulances had turned up and stopped now you are going uphill with a lot of other Riders around you and also downhill unfortunately there were a number of crashes that we either saw the aftermath of or heard about from other people but whether it’s people just getting too caught up in the moment just an unfortunate freak incident you’re riding with someone else who you don’t know and maybe they’re writing skills a little bit different to yours you just need to be really careful about who you’re riding with the conditions there was a little bit of rain at certain points so it would have been a little bit slippy coming down but not to labor too much on it I mean I remember getting to the orange juice Shack having a little rest and there were a couple of ambulances there and there was one guy who was in a pretty bad State I didn’t kind of do my Intrepid news reporting and get in there and put some paramedics out the way with my camera to get the interview I didn’t want to I didn’t want to interrupt the medical but yeah he was kind of walking staggering let’s say with with a bit of help he then collapsed he had blood coming from his face they stick an IV drip in his arm to get a few fluids back into him yeah he was not in a good shape I think one of the guys I felt most sorry for was we were got into within about 5k to go from the line and one guy was on I don’t think he’d crashed he would just maybe had sunstroke or was dehydrated but he was just sat on the side of the road thankfully some paramedics were with him just in the shade you could see though I guess maybe his uh his fueling strategy was out it was a hot day you are with a bunch of different mixed ability people I think there were some people there who had never done this kind of event this kind of riding it was hot you needed to keep an eye on your energy levels how much a sweating to make sure you get your electrolytes up and running you need to be careful you know the weather it was raining some people you know you’re going up you’ve got to go downhill very fast I mean one of the best bits was the Pug major descent is always a particular favorite that’s quite fast just need to be prepped for it and the other common thing and I guess it’s quite obvious really there was eight thousand other Riders there is the just a number of Mechanicals every time you go on a few more kilometers and there just seem to be someone on the side of the road fixing a puncture I think the guy I felt most sorry for was at whatever it was 5 30 6 a.m in the morning when we’re riding to the start line we hadn’t even got to the start line yet some guys on the side of the road already punctured not even made it to the star line just make sure you’ve got supplies for it there are I think there’s some additional stocks maybe at the food stops I can’t remember there were but or put your hand up someone one of the friendly Riders will no doubt stop but just make sure you’ve got some spares with you because it just seemed to be littered with punctures and Mechanicals I think it was just a bit of unfortunate I mean the two of us we did all right we didn’t have any mechanical issues and I’m on tubeless tires you’re on Old Antiquated inner tubes which is quite quaint I guess we got lucky others didn’t overall I just wonder if there are too many riders on events like these every year I think this has probably bumped up the numbers and 8 000 Riders maybe it’s a profits thing for the event it obviously takes quite a lot of planning quite a lot of effort and energy and cost to put these kind of events on maybe they’re just trying to maximize profit they can get to it but it’s 8 000 too many maybe now of course you’re all setting off pretty much at the same time there is a constant stream of these 8 000 Riders as you’re starting out so it’s very condensed very bunched up at the start you hit a climb after a few kilometers So that obviously starts to stretch things out a bit and then as you go on throughout the ride you’ve obviously got the splits for where you start taking different directions for the different ride distances towards the end of it again if you’re one of the slower groups you will find that there’s a bunch of slower riders or slower groups that are going at a pretty steady pace and then the other guys that are trying to cane in for the best possible time are coming past you in groups so you’ve got that little mix on quite narrow country lanes of riders doing steady state and then these other riders coming up pretty fast and going past you so again you just need to be aware of who’s around you and who’s coming up all right now then let’s have a look at some of the top tips for doing events like these and number one is preparation and training so the two of us were together doing it throughout the day and I would say that we probably had slightly different overall experiences of how that ride went for us one of us had quite a nice day out really quite a relaxing day out and maybe someone else had just put a little bit more effort in we’ll see but I think a big part of that is training and the amount you put into it and I did a little bit of research on that so we did our event at the end of April and I think we signed up for it the October before that so that’s not quick mess but I think that’s probably about six or seven months worth of training we did so I looked back at the Strava stats of the volume of training that I did paired to my good friend who was with me on the ride and I did Total riding within that training block of six seven months a mix of bows out in the real world and on the turbo I did 180 hours of riding which was five thousand kilometers and I also mix that up with a little bit of strength training so total workout time 24 hours each of my sessions is normally now so that’s 24 sessions I do remember I did have a few injuries throughout that little training period certainly for a window of four to six weeks I didn’t do any strength training my good friend compared to my 180 hours of training you did 77 hours indoor and outdoor riding my mine was 5 000 distance yours was just a beautiful 2000 kilometers and rather than strength training with the weights you decide to do a few hours of rowing did you yeah I just don’t put on Strava how many up to each each row section about 20 minutes oh okay lifts and all that stuff and then you did 15 15 rowing sessions three hours okay so we’ll give you a little bit more for your little strength workout thank you tosser boom okay so all in all is around 200 hours you were well under half of that 80 85. now that was preparation so looking at the actual stats through the ride I got the ride stats for the Majorca Riot and looking at heart rate and how we varied across that so for me I had a pretty nice day out I was 20 in zone one the Jordan Zone 65 of my ride time in zone 2 aerobic and just the 15 one five percent of my time in zone three Tempo probably going up some of the climbs just setting a steady state up there I never got above zone three I was never in zone four threshold Zone whereas you my friend fifty percent of your time five zero in zone two aerobic and pretty much 50 of your time split the twins three and zone four Now 44 of that was zone three Tempo and the rest of it was it threshold as well yeah where you spent let’s say 50 of your time in zone three Tempo and above I spent fifteen one five percent of my time in zone three Tempo and I am going to put that down to training and the level of effort to put into the right beforehand you did get it done we did need a little uh Little Red Bull with Wing Stop to to get you going in but fair play when it’s done it’s done and we got it done I think it would be fair to say so and actually I was quite telling really on the on the colder Claret as it’s one of your favorite colors you were struggling up that a bit but that was down to nutrition and forgetting to eat for one hour yeah we forgot to maybe a little bit of prep for me it was more about the Forgiveness the lived experience of the two of us and not going out and trying to set personal goals and experiences so overall I was happy I had quite a nice day out doing the 167 because of the volume of training that I had done maybe another day it wouldn’t have gone so well because the 167 so still over 100 miles elevation there is a lot of elevation in this certainly front loaded I think it was around 2 200 meters even the 167 is still no I was about to say walk in the park but a cycle in the Park still requires focus training and effort all right next tip think about the Heat have a look at it so for us this ride was end of April it’s normally quite nice Place Mall I think it was unseasonably warm for this season this time around when we set out at before 6am in the morning to get to the start line it was even then it was 17 degrees we did have a gileon which was pretty good actually because we were hanging around at the start line for half an hour three quarters of an hour or more but we did take it off before we got going and then didn’t really need it for the rest of the day there was a spot of rain at some point during the ride thankfully it didn’t go beyond that because I didn’t have a cycling rain jacket with me I should have again prepped and checked so it was warm it was quite overcast in the morning but then come the afternoon the heat did come out so again having that additional effect as you’re riding and make sure you’ve got your sunscreen on don’t want to come back Sunburn and so hydration sunscreen and just have a look ahead at the weather and what type of clothing you need now the other thing about heat when you’re thinking about it is acclimatizing it we were coming from the UK which let’s be the winter here seemed to just drag on I mean I’m sure we were almost shoveling snow not quite March April time it was just cold wet windy rainy it seemed to drag on forever and we’d gone from that straight to Majorca where it was mid-high 20 degrees C didn’t seem to affect us too much but again maybe you want to think about acclimatizing when you get there and we cut it quite fine I think we didn’t get in there till the Thurs Wednesday or Thursday we arrived so we have planned to go out for a little bit of an acclimatization ride on the Friday those plans were put into chaos by British Airways not flying our bikes out with us on the plane so we had to mess around with those so we didn’t do that acclimatization ride we pretty much went in cold straight into the 312 ride so you might want to spend a little bit get there a little bit earlier get a few days in acclimatizing foreign next tip now it may be a little bit specific to this Majorca 312 ride but it’s all around the getaway times there is a lot of riders 8 000 Riders and there are cut off points so even if you’re riding the 167 but definitely the 225 and the 312 you have to have made it to certain points on the route otherwise they will shut you down and say you cannot continue on now one of the key things to that is in order to make some good progress and hit those is to get away pretty early and one of the things we found we got up I reckon we got up at 5am in the morning we got up got down to breakfast and found that pretty much every other cyclist in the hotel had already left the bike store where all our bikes were kept was pretty much emptied out there were only a few in there including ours there was pretty much no one breakfast they had all gone so we quite sharply got on our toes just got a little bit of breakfast in snacking on the way there got the bites ready and by the time we got to the start line I would say we got there probably about 20 past six or so joined what seemed to be the back of the queue but then turned around and then there’s a lot of people behind us as well and we got away just after 7am which actually I didn’t think was too bad I was kind of half expecting to be stuck there for an hour or more you know we only did the 167 so we were never really under any big time constraints or pressure to do it but if you’re trying to do the 225 or the 312 and you’re even further back from that and you’re starting way past 7 A.M in the morning it’s just that mindset that you’re already from the start line going to be under the pump for time and it’s going to be playing on you so this kind of event they did a VIP pass which basically just gives you priority for getting away we didn’t bother with that if it’s something that is an option for you and you want to go for the bigger distances and you want to make sure you’re going to get there within the time cuts with plenty of time maybe it’s something to look at the VIP so you can get away in one of the first groups all right so I guess one of my big tips maybe second only to training is nutrition nutrition is key you’re out in the saddle for a long time you need to keep replenishing energy levels keep them stocked up and you need to think about how you’re going to fuel the ride you want to have a plan especially if you’re doing the longer distances of what nutrition you are going to consume and in what formats you are going to consume that in so is it bars is it chews is it drink mixes although it’s a pain you really want to take that on board with you so whether that’s in Ice or people with top tube bags stuffed with Foods obviously people with massive hamster pouches in their Jersey Pockets I think I even saw people stuffing bars up the legs of their bib shorts just take your own nutrition the best thing I saw a girl who was riding and she had printed out her nutrition plan what she was going to eat when she was going to eat it and she had taped it to the top tube of her bike so she knew exactly when to eat stuff I’m pretty sure her nutrition plan was nailed on as part of that training preparation beforehand and actually practice your nutrition when you’re out training for rides or even on the turbo and even practice what you’re going to eat some people are quite comfortable eating on the bike some people like to stop and also take into consideration the types of food you’re going to eat so if you’re taking a particular energy bar test it out sounds odd right but can you chew it can you actually swallow it sometimes you get a new bar to it you’re out riding and you’ll just seem to be chewing it for hours because it just it’s really hard to swallow so make sure you practice your nutrition just think about what you’re going to need to consume in the next hour or so get them out of your pocket open the packets already stick them back in so you don’t have to mess around with trying to open it as you’re going along but very much like the training also train your nutrition just make sure you are comfortable with what you’re eating it and when you’re going to eat it find the right product that works for you think about your bike choice for us I guess the heroes of our ride were the bikes we were on although they were a right pain to get there mainly due to British Airways not putting them on the flight and then rather than having them there and being able to set them up at the day we arrived we had to mess around for the next day and a half going back to the airport waiting for them to come in on another flight it was all then a bit of a rush on the Friday morning to go and collect the bikes get them back to where we were staying get them built up check they all worked okay and then stick them in a taxi and getting up to the Village to register it was a lot of hassle but overall we both agreed that we were relieved that we went to the hassle of taking our own bikes with us and having them on the ride because that’s just one of those unknowns if you’re not used to the bike that you’re riding if you hire a bike out there certainly for some of the longer distances I think it just makes much more sense to be in your own comfortable saddle on your own bike that’s set up exactly how you want it I think normally if I was going away for a just for a day or two I probably wouldn’t have bothered taking my own bike I would have hired one but because we were new doing a specific event at specific distances we knew we were going to spend quite a bit of time in the saddle we just went with the option of taking our own bikes and overall it was the right choice now obviously if taking your bike is an option and you’re going to rent one just think about the number of riders out there and there were a lot of riders on rental bikes so if you’re going to rent a bike get in early get it booked because otherwise you might have slim pickings on the options available but make sure it’s the right bike for the event we did the last part of the ride with a lovely guy from London called Sam and his choice of bike was a very aggressive Aero bike which I think having maybe got halfway through it he was very much regretting his choice of bike he was suffering and I wasn’t on my nice endurance comfortable style bike with its tubeless tires is that Aero bike really the right one you want to be taking it probably isn’t and the last thing on bikes if you are taking your own bike you’ve obviously got to get it there and transport it which means a bite box if you don’t have your own bike box just think about renting one early the question I ask myself is would I ride the Majorca 312 or a similar kind of event again and my answer is maybe I’m not going to go out and actively pursue something find a new challenge but I think maybe if someone suggested something I would be willing to sign up for it for a little bit of companionship and riding alongside that lived experience but at the moment I’m not feeling the urge to go and register again for next year’s Milwaukee 312. overall though you know there was a lot of faffing around with the bikes going missing and just rushing around a bit but it was a good event there was a very much a carnival atmosphere the registration was good lots of riders maybe a few too many but the ones you were with very good atmosphere very friendly it was a nice experience certainly to get out on those majorcan roads not that cars are typically an issue over there but close roads overall great experience beautiful places to ride scenery and sights people bikes it was worth it I’m glad I did do it so if you’ve ridden the 312 or something similar let me know if you’ve got any more tips or advice in the comments below and check out the day we rode the Majorca 312 or at least part of it in this video here [Music]

21 Comments

  1. Thanks for the video, good to get another perspective. Out of curiosity, have you ridden sportives in the UK, e.g., ridelondon? Wondering whether mass participation events aren't your thing or whether it was just that mallorca 312 didn't do it for you?

  2. 167 route is great would have liked and should have done the 225 route last time i did it funny riding to the start had a few riding behind me think i was the only one who remembered there lights 🤣🤣

  3. Nice video, I’ve done the 225km for the last few years. I totally agree the worst part of my experience is the stops….sometimes it felt like a fight just to get bidons filled up, the best part is the first 150km of riding Mallorca’s mountains. The amount of crashes is super scary to see.

  4. Thanks for the honest review. The entire point of these type of rides is the support and rest stops. This is not worth it. Might as well just do the same ride with mates at our own pace.

  5. Having completed the 312 this year I agree with most things you have said especially about the feed stations. The sandwiches are awful, I didn't have any as they didn't look appetising. I had my own nutrition and my parents met me before the third feed station to replenish stocks. I could have done with getting something proper to eat through the event other than a few bananas from a shop as started to feel a bit sick towards the end. I missed the first stop as I took 3 bottles but the second stop was carnage and you had to fight to get water. I missed the third stop and 4th stops as met my parents before them. The stops after the turn off for the full 312 were better as not as many riders doing the full event.

    Route is good until you head back up from north west side of Palma where you are on small tracks most of the time and this doesn't get any better on the extra part for the 312 except the last part from Arta.

    Basically if you turn up with a bike that isn't maintained you are going to have problems. The riding skills of other cyclist is a problem especially on the descents. Preparation for the event has to include training and getting your bike prepped.

    I made the last cut off with 40 minutes to spare then finished the event with well over an hour in the time limit. The course is front loaded so the green polka dot jersey pacers will be slower after the cut off and will spend more time at the final couple of stops.

    My top tips

    If you can get out there 3 days before and get use to the roads and temperature, the day before take it easy. I met a few people in the hotel who all did rides on the Friday and failed the 312 the next day.
    Stay near the start.
    The start, get there early if you want to do the full event as you will lose time getting to the mountains and through the first and second feed stations if you are at the back.
    Get on a fast group from the start to the first climb you can make a lot of time.
    Ride the climbs at a good pace you can hold and recover from.
    Learn how to descend as you can make up time.
    Hydrate and eat often, more often that you think, it was 37 degrees at one point this year.
    When heading back up the island and after the turn off for the 312 get in a group as it can be a lonely hard ride on your own.
    Once you get to the final feed station at Arta the last part is fairly easy.
    Enjoy it

  6. Very good. I've done it three times, the last time with my daughter who'd just turned 17. I really enjoy it and will be doing it again next year. Its a great atmosphere and coming at night with the music, drums and fire breathers is bonkers! However, you are spot on with your overview and tips. My biggest challenge was fuel. As a diabetic, I have to manage things carefully and the feed stops are pretty poor for me and not great in general so I just carry my own food. The other is water, although if you find a bar, they are pretty good at filling your bottles up.

  7. 2023 ride was my first and loved every minute of it. I set a reminder on my Wahoo for drinks and food. Easy to forget about it in the event. I took my own nutrition and Electrolyte tabs. Fold up water bottle was handy for extra fluid. Watch out or the tramline in the approach to Soller, we saw a bad crash there.

  8. The irony of the event is that even though it's a closed road event, the day of the 312 is actually the most dangerous day of the year to ride it. Those roads are mostly quiet with little road traffic for every other day of the year, but 8,000 riders, many with much more enthusiasm than talent are hurling themselves down descents and taking innocent bystanders out in the process. It's fun to be part of a big event, but ride it any other day and it will be safer, quieter and you'll have 100+ euros to spend on lunch.

  9. You must already have a really good foundation if you've only done 5000km in 7 months leading to the event. I've already done over 5000kms of riding this year already though 90% of that has probably been junk miles and not structured training 😅
    For what it's worth, I find the best pacing strategy is going by the power values found on your power curve in Strava. My 20 to 30 minute power in the last 6 weeks is around 235 watts. So on long climbs that last over 30 minutes, pace your power at 235 watts and when your going fast on the flats try and stay/surge up to 235 watts.
    312km is long so save your legs.

  10. Dartmoor classic? 100 miler. My son did the 312 this last 3 years and compared with last year he said the stops were much improved. Last years were terrible apparently. The wrist bands this year at least were distinguishable and no band only water. The guy with the puncture before it began that you saw did the 167 and apparently had 3 punctures in all that day! The atmosphere in the village was wonderful. My son every year has got better at his fueling strategy and getting it right is so important. Styrker? Bars (I've probably spelt that wrong) which have a one handed tap your handle bar opening helps.

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