Everyone in the Xpedition2 team is keen on the outdoors but recently Catherine Firth and Simon Crump visited Mallorca – and showed that great days on a bike mean different things to different people.
Catherine, our Community Manager, headed inland for a day touring the ancient villages and glorious landscapes of Mallorca’s rural lowland. Lunch in the bustling old centre of Muro with the Spanish families doing their Sunday thing was a highlight. Idyllic vineyards, windmills, olive groves, goats and donkeys all made the day a memorable one – rounded off with grilled sardines on the beach.
Simon on the other hand, took an early bus from his base in Port de Pollenca to Andratx and took on the legendary coastal route along the Tramuntana mountains, taking in Majorca’s toughest climb up Puig Major along the way. Of course, a refuelling stop at the famous cyclists’ hangout underneath the aqueduct in Escorca was in order before the ride home and a dip in the glorious Mediterranean sea.
Two epic and memorable adventures, as you can see.
Use Xpedition2 to plan your cycling trips
When you’re planning a long day in the saddle, the last thing you want to do is take a wrong turn. Use Xpedition2 to create your route, on or off-road, then take it with you on the Xplorer GPS mobile app. Alternatively, navigate and track your ride by exporting the GPX file to your bike computer (Xpedition2 now integrates with Garmin Connect).
Xpedition2 gives you lots of options to plan your road cycling and mountain bike tours. If you simply want to plan your route and go, you can. But if you want to do more – such as plan optional extensions to the ride or escape routes in case the weather changes etc – you can do that too.
Here are Catherine & Simon’s tips on cycle route planning with Xpedition2
- Select snap-to-bike before you select any waypoints on your route – Xpedition2 will avoid footpaths where cycling is not allowed
- Keep an eye on the elevation profile of your route, as well as the total ascent and descent, to include a challenging climb – or avoid one!
- Use Adventure map to visualise the natural landscape and view cafes for the all-important coffee stop, or Worldwide (OpenCycleMap) to see established cycling trails, on or off-road
- Create a Point of Interest on your route for stops, landmarks or key decision-making points
- Pre-plan optional extensions to the route, or shortcuts to give yourself options on the day
Why use Xpedition2 for cycle trips?
With Xpedition2 as your cycling navigation tool, you can:
- Use snap-to-bike function proposes bike-friendly routes between two points – easy to adjust if you need to, by dragging the route to where you want to go
- See maps side-by-side at different scales – for detailed route planning whilst seeing the bigger picture
- Check aerial view as well as a range of cycle-specific and topo maps to gather all the information about the area, including cafes and pubs!
- Navigate offline – install the map and route on the mobile app (Xplorer GPS) or your bike computer and navigate without the need for a mobile signal
- Plan multi-stage expeditions with our easy-to-use file management system where you can store routes, POIs etc. You can also plan escape routes and keep them in the folder – just in case plans have to change at the last minute due to inclement weather, tiredness etc.
If you’re not already using Xpedition2 for route planning your cycling trips, try it for free. If you enjoy using it, continue on the free package or upgrade to unlock additional features such as OS Maps.
