Love it or leave it.

Mallorca turns into a cyclists’ paradise every year, usually sometime in January and February, well before temperatures get too challenging.

Thousands of Tour de France wannabes swarm over the island’s country roads and lanes, the hills and the mountains, like locusts in search of their crop to devour.

Undeniably, the island offers it all: the beauty of the landscape, the challenge of the tour, the scope of the change between plains and high altitude climbs. No wonder that even some real and authentic Tour de France pro-teams use parts of the island’s hinterland for some of their stamina building exercises. Some enthusiasts are here, already.

The photo was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Spain. The date: January 4th, 2008. The time was 12:27:13.