By Mel Slaney

‘Fancy a crack at Sa Calobra tomorrow?’  asks Coach.   Otti and I eagerly accept the challenge. I was slightly unnerved by other very strong ‘normal’ cyclists in the group turning down the offer.

The three of us set out the next morning, unsupported by any ‘norms’, to attempt one of the hardest if not the hardest climb on the island of Majorca.  Sa Calobra is a small fishing village at the bottom of a deep gorge and once you get down there the only way out is up a steep, unrelenting  10km road,  which has  26 hairpin turns and climbs 682meters at an average 7.1% gradient. 

The first challenge is the long ride needed just to get there.  We climbed the Coll de Femenia (515m)  rode past the monastery at Lluc and pressed on, stopping for coffee before climbing the Coll dels Reis. Otti ‘two soups’ Quince does her best to wreck the joint and you can see the panic in the cafe owners eyes, when she offers again to return the cups and saucers as we were ready to leave.

Coach checks we still want to do this...’hell yeah!’  
I’ve been told the next climb up the Coll dels Reis is a tough one but I honestly cannot remember it, I had the big climb of the day on my mind...

Last chance to bail out before we descend into Sa Calobra. Then Coach told us, ‘when we start to descend and get round the first corner, look to your left’.  Ha ha, never going to happen, this would scare the bejesus out of me and I knew I’d have plenty of time to admire the view on the way back up, or so I thought.  We set off down the spectacular descent ,with sheer drops to the side, only a wall or barrier of never more than a couple of feet in between and  traffic frequently on the wrong side of the road around the hairpins.This made for a very unnerving but also exhilarating experience. 

 

My ears popped and I fell behind Coach and Otts. After 20 minutes of descending and thinking this has to stop sometime we rolled to the bottom. After a sit on a wall and some choice language from Otti about the descent  we set off on the climb back up.  Otti had set herself a target of doing it in under an hour, while I would be quite happy just to get to make it to the top still alive.   Coach and Otts set off strong but I paced myself and was soon left behind.   

The first 3km were ok and I was thinking this isn’t so bad. Big mistake as the road ramped up to 16%.  When the gradient lessened again my legs had gone and the pain set in. The next 6km were hell on earth. I had to stop to stretch more than once as the pain in my back and feet was unbearable. There were times when I wanted to just get off,  throw my bike over the edge, sit by the side of the road and sob but I didn’t  and slowly slugged it out.  I had to keep telling myself not to look up because you can see the road above you and it looks impossibly steep and  very, very long. 

Near the top there’s a carpark and a little building. I thought I’d made it and put in an extra effort,  then rounded the corner and saw more road! I lost it and luckily there was nobody there to witness the torrent of abuse directed at the stretch of tarmac in front  of me.  Halfway up the last stretch I saw Coach come round the corner to see how I was doing. He had a smile on his face and I think he was saying something encouraging but I couldn’t really tell at the time.  Round the last corner and there was Otts sat on the floor, with a big Quince grin on her face; we’d done it!  

I found out Otti had been awesome and had done the climb in 55mins. She had finished with a shout of ‘F****ing ‘ell, I nearly sh*t myself’, before leaning against a wall to avoid throwing up.  I was a lot slower ; 1hr 20mins but had made it still alive.  We set off back down to Lluc for a well earned coffee and cake, I was so exhausted I couldn’t even manage cake and settled for crisps... not a good idea.  I ran to the loo but managed to keep the crisps down.

Me and Otts were buzzing with our achievement.  I was completely exhausted and knew rolling back down to the hotel in Puerto Pollensa would be tough but with the support I had  from Coach and Otts it wasn’t a problem.  I can’t  thank them enough for their support and encouragement on what was my toughest day on a bike so far. If it wasn’t for our donors none of us would have been climbing mountains that day.  I can’t wait to give it another go, improve my time and  maybe remember to look at the stunning view next time!

Slightly odd I guess. A new blog about our new website on our new website. It's feels like we are risking a Mr Spock type paradox when he meets his future self in the past and damages the space time continuum. Or something...

Anyway, the new website has to be introduced and here it is - please let us know what you think about it and if there's anything else you would like to see on it. 

We had a bit of debate about whether we needed a website or not. We are pretty well represented on Twitter and Facebook but we didn't have a single point of reference to support the work we do to increase awareness of organ donation and transplantation. Added to this, not everybody is as obsessed with social media as we are and a website is one way of reaching those NOT walking into walls whilst staring at their smart phones.

We've done a lot of stuff this year, a Majorcan training camp (shut up it is training), the World Transplant Games in South Africa, the British Transplant Games in Sheffield, appearances on the TV, the NEC Cycle Show and in the mainstream cycling press. It seems a website is the right place to tell people about what we've been up to. 

We'll re-blog (is that a word?) some pieces on here that have appeared elsewhere so they are all in one place but there will be much more old stuff than new. Please check back regularly.