Unisport Consulting wants to publicly thank the Onda Cero Mallorca 2024 Sports Award for the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca and wants to share this recognition with all those people, institutions and private sponsors who, over the last 33 years, have made it possible for the Challenge has been able to take place, confirming itself as one of the most important sporting events held in the Balearic Islands.
Manuel Hernández, general director of Unispot Consulting, the organizing company of the event that, just this year 2024, has also organized the first women’s Challenge, has been especially grateful for the award of the Onda Cero Mallorca 2024 Sports Award, “which is the recognition to a trajectory that began back in 1992 and that year after year has been consolidated in the international cycling calendar thanks to the work of many people and the support of our sponsors and different institutions.”
Throughout these years, the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca has made it possible for cycling fans in Mallorca to enjoy the presence of the best cyclists from the international peloton in the different editions. Riders like Induráin, Jalabert, Zülle, Ullrich, Gilbert, Freire, Contador, Valverde or Alaphillipe, to name just a few names, chose Mallorca to start riding each season and took their first rides of the year on the roads of Mallorca. Also currently, the main cycling teams and their stars continue to choose the Challenge Ciclista Mallorca to start competing.
In this progress, the Challenge has also opened up to women’s cycling and this year it held the first edition of the women’s event, with the presence of great riders, such as the Mallorcan Mavi García, and the main teams of the women’s professional peloton.
Manuel Hernández remembers that the Challenge began as a round in stages, with a general classification, but that format was modified to become a competition with five different events, five different trophies. “Both in one format and another, we have always been able to count on great riders and the main teams, also attracted by the excellent conditions they find in Mallorca, both from the climatic point of view and in everything related to accommodation and magnificent facilities that we have on our islands,” says the general director of Unisport.
Hernández also highlights the media impact that the Challenge has had since its inception, which makes it a powerful tourism promotion product, through television broadcasts and aerial images offered from the helicopter. “The Challenge is a sporting event, but it is also a tourism promotion event. It allows us to show our natural heritage to the whole world, our Serra de Tramuntana, our inland towns or our most tourist destinations. “Sport and, in this case, cycling, are strategic products to deseasonalize and lengthen the tourist season,” he states.