Sant Elm and the Dragonera Channel

Mallorca route guide · Serra de Tramuntana

Riding Sant Elm and the Dragonera Channel

Eight kilometres with more turn per kilometre than any road this world has measured — twelve bends over a hundred degrees, and the paired switchback below s’Arracó swings two hundred and ten degrees one way and two hundred and five back within eighty metres. Out of the Andratx gyratory the road climbs to the coll de s’Arracó at 141 m, dips through the village — a well, two cafés and a pharmacy at the halfway mark — crosses a second unnamed col, and then gives it all back at seven and a half per cent down to the Sant Elm seafront, where ten cafés share seventy metres of promenade and the island of sa Dragonera lies full across the channel.

The mapped road is 8 km each way. Muntro carries it to the turnaround and back, so the complete ride is 16 km with 342 m of climbing.

This is coastal Mallorca rather than a generic blue horizon: the road’s relationship with coves, cliffs, ports, stone retaining walls, and open water is what defines it.

Captured in muntro

Relief, gradient, and how to pace it

The elevation trace is rolling rather than alpine, spanning 126 m from low point to high point. There is 342 m of total ascent, enough to reward measured pressure over the rises without turning the whole route into a survival exercise.

Ride the early gradients a shade below the effort you think you can hold. The broken rhythm rewards cadence changes and short, controlled pressure rather than repeated spikes above threshold.

Points to watch for

The best Mallorca routes are remembered as a sequence of places, not as a GPX line. These are the changes of scene that organise this ride.

1. 01

   Andratx

   The route rolls away from Andratx, giving you a few minutes to find cadence and read the road ahead.

2. 02

   the coll de s’Arracó

   the coll de s’Arracó is one of the route’s defining changes of scene and a useful marker for pacing the ride.

3. 03

   s’Arracó

   s’Arracó is one of the route’s defining changes of scene and a useful marker for pacing the ride.

4. 04

   Sant Elm

   Sant Elm is one of the route’s defining changes of scene and a useful marker for pacing the ride.

5. 05

   133 m high point

   At 133 m high point, the elevation trace reaches its ceiling before the road releases the height it has earned.

Why this road works indoors

muntro does not flatten Sant Elm and the Dragonera Channel into a workout backdrop. The route’s bends, height, and junction order come from the road itself, while a compatible trainer reproduces the changing gradient under your pedals.

The turnaround matters: you learn the road in one direction, then read every slope and landmark differently on the way back.