The Ma-10 is the road that made Mallorca's north-west famous with riders, and Valldemossa is its most photographed village. It lies in a fold of the Serra de Tramuntana, a long limestone ridge that runs down the island's western flank and earned UNESCO World Heritage status for its terraced hillsides and centuries-old water systems. Cobbled lanes, honey-coloured stone and green shutters crowd the village, and the hills behind are dark with holm oak and pine.
The star attraction is the Royal Charterhouse, the former Carthusian monastery where the composer Frédéric Chopin and the writer George Sand spent the winter of 1838 to 1839. It was a miserable stay by most accounts, with damp, rain, a sick Chopin and suspicious villagers, but the cells where they lived are now a museum and the piano recitals held there are a staple of the local calendar. The village is also the birthplace of Saint Catherine Thomàs, a sixteenth-century nun, and you will see small tiled pictures of her above doorways all over town. Try a coca de patata, a soft, sugar-dusted potato bun, with a coffee.
For the riding, the Ma-10 is a long ribbon of tight bends, hairpins and stone walls, climbing above terraced olive groves with the sea showing blue in the gaps. The surface is generally good but narrow, and in summer it is plagued by tour coaches, rental cars and cyclists in large numbers, so the sensible approach is to ride early or late, or in spring and autumn when the almond blossom and the mellow light make the island at its best. Winds can be strong on the exposed sections, and sudden rain makes the polished limestone surface slippery.
Parking in the village is a challenge in high season: use the car parks on the edge and walk in. Valldemossa itself is small, about two thousand people, and while you will find cafes and bakeries, serious fuel is better planned in Bunyola or Esporles, or back in Palma. Deià, a few bends up the coast, is the next stop, with its own artistic history and a tiny cove at the bottom of a steep path.