Viva Velo Cycle Tour Company
In short, Viva Velo is a cycle tour company that wants to give everyone the chance to feel like a pro – without demanding you actually are one! With that in mind, the two of us – Guy Apter and Dyll Davies – set off to scout the routes, sort out logistics – and of course, look for the best restaurants and bars to stop at.
But you know what can happen to the best-laid plans, and when we arrived in Mallorca in early February, we were met by the largest snowfall in living memory. All the mountain roads were closed and our recce trip was in danger of being wrecked!
Despite this setback, we set out in intrepid style and managed to work out some good routes, find great places to stop, and dismiss a route that had sounded great on the internet, but which turned out to be nothing like its description. Nothing beats on-the-spot research! Back in the UK a detailed itinerary was written and distributed.
The organisational side was one thing: booking flights, negotiating with hotels, sorting out transport for the bikes, arranging transfers from the airport, and re-visiting half these arrangements all over again when people’s requirements changed. But all that was as nothing compared with the complexity of managing the rides.
As we have said, we are cyclists ourselves, but there are, of course, cyclists and cyclists. This particular group consisted of everyone from hardened young racers to middle-aged commuters. Add to this mix the varying desire for start times, coffee stops and lunches and you have a real balancing act on your hands.
Continued overleaf…
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