The Challenge Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca ( en, Tour of Majorca, ca, Challenge Volta Ciclista a Mallorca) is a series of four (five until 2012) professional one day

road bicycle race Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

s held on the Spanish island of

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bale ...

in late January or early February. The event is used as an early season preparatory event by many of the top teams in readiness for the bigger races later in the season. The five races are ranked 1.1 on the

UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of ...

. Although the race styles itself as the "Tour of Majorca" it has never been allowed to be classed as a multi day stage race by the sports governing body the

Union Cycliste Internationale The ''Union Cycliste Internationale'' (UCI; ; en, International Cycling Union) is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland. The UCI issues raci ...

(UCI) because the race rules allows riders not to participate on certain days if they don't want to. However, there is an unofficial overall classification winner taken on total time over five days. This laid back attitude by the race organisers makes the race popular with team managers who can bring a large squad (sometimes as many as 20 riders) and interchange them over the five days. Apart from the overall classification on time there are the usual Mountains, Points and Sprints competitions associated with any stage race. There is also a competition for the top Majorcan based rider, in the past this has been won by Vicente Reynès, Antonio Colóm and Antonio Tauler. The first day of racing is the Trofeo Mallorca which is a criterium (circuit race) around the streets of

Palma Palma or La Palma means palm in a number of languages and may also refer to: Geography Africa * Palma, Mozambique, city ** Palma District * La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, Spain ** La Palma (DO), a ''Denominación de Origen'' for wines from ...

. The second day is the Trofeo Cala Millor, sometimes called the Trofeo Alcúdia. These two opening days are run over a fairly flat course and result in a sprint finish. The Trofeo

Pollença Pollença (Balearic Catalan: ; es, Pollensa) is a town and municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional ...

(day three) and Trofeo

Sóller Sóller () is a town and municipality near the north west coast of the Balearic Island of Mallorca, Spain, 3 km inland from Port de Sóller, in a large, bowl-shaped valley that also includes the village of Fornalutx and the hamlets of Biniar ...

(day four) are contested over a more hilly course using the climbs of the Col de Sóller (501 metres) and the Col de Puig Major (850 metres) amongst others on the route. These two hilly days usually decide the outcome of the unofficial overall classification over the five days. The final days racing is the Trofeo Calvià which takes place on an undulating course over a series of small climbs. Top class riders such as Laurent Jalabert,

Alex Zülle Alex Zülle (born 5 July 1968) is a Swiss former professional road bicycle racer. During the 1990s he was one of the most successful cyclists in the world, winning the 1996 and 1997 Vuelta a España, taking second place in the 1995 and the 1999 ...

and Alejandro Valverde have won the overall classification at the Vuelta a Mallorca; however, Spanish rider Francesco Cabello who rode for the Kelme team throughout his career, holds the record for the most victories, taking three overall victories in Majorca in 1996, 2000 and 2002. In 2004 Colóm became the first rider who was a native of the island of Majorca to take the overall classification. The Vuelta a Mallorca receives heavy sponsorship from Tourism section of the local Majorcan government (Govern de la Illes Balears). The race was first held in 1992 and for the first three years was just open to Spanish teams, however in 1995 foreign squads were invited for the first time with teams such as Telekom and TVM attending. In 1998 Léon van Bon of the Dutch Rabobank squad became the first overall winner riding for a non Spanish team.

General Classification Winners

Individual Race Winners

;Notes

External links

*{{Official website, https://vueltamallorca.com/challenge-mallorca/

UCI Europe Tour races Recurring sporting events established in 1992 1992 establishments in Spain Sport in Mallorca