A series of one-day Spanish races began for men in the 1990s, labelled Challenge Mallorca, and organisers added a women’s series in 2024, Challenge Mallorca Femenina. The second edition will again offer three consecutive days of UCI 1.1 racing on the large Mediterranean island from January 25 to 27 – Trofeo Marratix-Felanitx, Trofeo Palma Femina and Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx.
Trofeo Marratix-Felanitx leads the trio of races on Saturday, for 129.1km between the inland communities, the terrain on the south-east of the island. The opening day has a pair of category 4 climbs on rolling roads, but is set up for sprinters with four intermediate sprints.
On Sunday, the Trofeo Palma Femina is a similar distance, 129.5km, beginning with flat roads to the north-east of the Palma city centre. The route returns to the north-west side of Mallorca’s capital for two category 3 climbs in the final 25km and an uphill finish to Castell de Bellver. Both climbs return from last year – the Coll des Grau (5.8km at 3.5%) and Coll de sa Creu (6.7km at 3.6%).
The final race on Monday is the Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx, 107.5km with a flat 40km circuit to the east of Binissalem and then a series of coastal climbs that lead to the steep 1.5km finish at Port d’Andratx, a third and final QOM of the day. The category 2 Coll den Claret lies between several uncategorised climbs, and is followed by the category 3 Coll de sa Granola that is crested with just 12.5km remaining to the uphill finish.
Last year Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Cannondale) won the opening round, with her teammate Magdeleine Vallires riding solo for the win on day two and Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) taking victory in Andratx.
Six Women’s WorldTour teams are scheduled to compete – UAE Team ADQ, Movistar, Ceratizit-WNT, Uno-X Mobility, Human Powered Health and Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto. One Spanish national team will line in the field, filled by 11 Continental squads.
Each race has prizes for the final classification and special awards for the sprint, special sprints and mountain classifications.
Trofeo Marratix-Felanitx – 129.1km
Trofeo Palma Femina
Trofeo Binissalem-Andratx