Meet the Ciclos Major Team
Darryl Leese
The Founder of Ciclos Major, who can normally be found on or near the front of our Cappuccino group, perhaps our most popular group, especially as the season moves on into March & April. An absolute master of the lanes of the island, Darryl has undiscovered and little used roads and routes to most destinations on the island. With 15 years’ experience, Darryl is also fully versed in ride and group management and will ensure every day out is a day to remember! When he’s not riding Darryl is hard at work on his computer pulling the whole operation together, handling the admin of bookings, transfers and looking after client requests. He’s the conduit to our superb accommodation with the Zafiro hotels group, and his contacts on the island mean we have access to great local partners to help us offer that special experience.
Liz Rooney
Although Liz first cycled in Mallorca only six years ago, she is similar to Victor Kiam (‘I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company’), as soon as Liz started riding on the island she was hooked and liked it so much she’s rarely been off the island since that time! When she’s not on the bike you’ll find Liz working hard at our meet and greet functions, assisting with the admin, bookings and looking after the welfare and general needs of our clients. Not being a traditionalist means Liz fully understands the needs and requirements of the modern cyclist and athlete and is key to driving our fresh approach to all things Mallorca. During the day and on the road, you’ll find her either working in our Cappuccino group or hosting our Ladies Only rides!
Robbie Harcourt
Robbie has been riding in Majorca for over 30 years, not every year but fell in love with the island enough to keep coming back. He has taken part in many forms of road and off-road cycling since the late 1970's and now, after taking the opportunity to retire early, settles for touring his local Cheshire cafes and lanes plus time trialling; 'a tourist who just happens to be able to go relatively quick'.
He has toured in Canada, the USA, plus a good few parts of Europe, including the Alps, and is an established club rider with many years in the Newark and District CTC, Oldham Century CC, West Manchester CTC/Nova CC and, more lately, Salford CC clubs amongst others.
Robbie usually guides our Americano or Cappuccino groups and is happy on all terrains although the higher mountains are tackled with a certain level of grim determination these days, tempered by the knowledge that 'gravity sucks downhill as well'.
Robbie builds and maintains his own small fleet of bikes so can help out with most issues as they arise, although some modern electrickery can leave him scratching his head.
Melissa Dowell
Melissa comes from a swimming background and started competing in triathlon in 2007. She has completed over a dozen Ironman races including Ironman Mallorca and has qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona five times. Melissa has also competed for Great Britain throughout Europe and further afield, racing both World ITU and European ETU long distance and middle-distance age group championships.
She won a gold medal at the long course world championships in Oklahoma in 2016 and silver medals in Pontevedra (2019) and Ibiza (2023). She also has four golds, two silver and two bronze medals from racing in the European championships.
Melissa was the overall female winner of the Wasdale X triathlon and has completed both the Swissman and Norseman extreme triathlon races; earning the coveted black T shirt for the latter. Her most recent Ironman performance in Hamburg in June 2024 earned her another age group win and an invitation to the Ironman World Championship race in Nice.
Melissa has been cycling and guiding in Mallorca for many years and has completed the Mallorca 312.
Melissa has wide experience from attending training camps around the world and has delivered training sessions to a youth triathlon squad for several years . She currently coaches swimming at her local Tri club using her swim teaching and open water swim coaching qualifications .
Debra Peck
An experienced timetrialist from the UK, now living in Mallorca for the last 8 years. Debra has built up her knowledge of the roads here on this beautiful island to enable her to guide, encourage and support you enhancing your “Ultimate Mallorquin Cycling Experience”. Her focus is on the Cappuccino level rides and the Ladies only rides.
Al Spurden
A former runner and relative late-comer to cycling, Alan is a new addition to the Ciclos Major Guide Team and is currently building up his knowledge of our routes in the Espresso groups. Most comfortable when climbing or on the front of the group into a headwind where his experience in time-trialling and even pacing comes to the fore.
David Hunter
David commuted in London traffic since the '80s, finally joined a cycle club -Brixton Cycle Club -in 2016 and has ridden LEJOG, Ventoux, Atlas Mountains. Since retiring as an anaesthetist & intensive care doctor he has moved to South Coast, becoming a member of Christchurch Bicycle Club and Lymington Triathlon Club and has made annual pilgrimages to cycle in Mallorca over the years. He enjoys traffic free cycling and happy on long steady rides. David joined as Ciclos Major Guide October 2022 and is building his knowledge of the many lanes and roads around Mallorca, he admits he is excellent at drafting and loitering at the back when not guiding the rides!
Steve Tucker
Steve has been riding in Mallorca for over 30 years. A former first category road racer, he has raced in the UK and in Belgium. In more recent years he has turned his hand to Masters racing and in 2019 won the prestigious British Masters Cycle Racing national points series and was also Midlands Circuit Race champion in the E Category.
Now retired from racing (though never say never) he has turned his hand to guiding for Ciclos Major and enjoys guiding others on some of the best roads Mallorca has to offer, from the classic mountain roads and climbs, to lesser known routes through the quieter areas of the island.
Steve usually guides the Espresso or Americano groups but just enjoys the fabulous roads and weather so is happy to guide all levels with the emphasis being on riding as a team.
Chris Hazael
Visiting a town fair around 1981 when Chris was 15, he found himself at a cycling stand with a roller competition about to start at around 10am. The fastest one to complete one revolution of the clock face that was mounted on the wall behind the rollers for everyone to see who the winner would be and would stay on to compete with 3 new riders. At one o'clock when they stopped for lunch Chris was still on the stand. Chris had never ridden a bike outside of his paper round.
Chris went to Essex Roads CC but didn't enjoy the competition so joined the CTC and from where his love affair with cycling started. Riding a 72" fixed wheel with a front brake, he didn't confirm to the norm but somehow was accepted and loved every minute of the Sunday rides. As he got stronger, he went back to the Essex Roads CC where he started competing in time-trials, evening 10's and 25's. Eastway was next stop and learnt the art of race craft.
After moving to Spain some 10 years later he picked up the bike once again. He went on to win the master 50 Vega Baja series for two years, to podiums in the Vinalopo series plus others.
He qualified at the Tour of Cambridgeshire for the World's, coming 16th in Australia and 1st English finisher. In later editions, France was difficult as the organisation ran out of water for the riders, so he suffered with extreme dehydration, vomiting etc but finished in 109th position. Italy was extremely tough with 4,000m of climbing where he managed about 40th place. He won his category in the Tour of Cambridgeshire in 2023 and placed 11th overall.
Chris started guiding with Ciclos Major in Autumn 2023 and is a fabulous rider and guide for our Espresso group and he also enjoys taking the other groups making rides full of fun, Ciclos Major are very lucky to have such a talented rider on the team.
Bruce Mackie
Bruce is a British Cycling accredited coach and team manager who’s been a ride leader for youth training camps on Majorca since 2015. When not in Majorca he’s often found organising races & sportives including several National Circuit Championships as well as National Series races, he’s a long-standing member of tyranny that’s Beastway, running the UK’s longest running MTB race series (now in its 31st year) London’s Summer cyclocross series and the UK’s original off road sportive, The Tour of the Cornfields. Also, often to be found in the back of a team car clutching a handful of wheels & sometimes he’s even allowed to drive.
He’s a former second cat racer with a propensity to come 2nd, though when 2nd to Nick Craig he claims it’s a win by any other measure. He still occasionally races cyclocross and MTB and rides most disciplines, though this is mostly in order to validate ownership of too many bikes.
Mabel Edge
A new comer to the guiding side of things with Cycles, Mabel has ridden hundreds of hours (thousands of miles) with us on the island over the past 2 years! Although new to cycling in late 2021 Mabel started out riding in our latte groups and progressed quickly through the Coffee chain (despite drinking only good old English Tea). Having taken on the Mallorca 312 (225km) after less than 6 months of taking up riding, and last year did the mighty Maratona Dolomites, she has the staying power to guide you on your way. An endurance rider through and through.
Whether on the flat or in the mountains she brings a passion to the groups she is cycling with and you can't help notice that she loves being on her bike!
Dave Fearon
Dave is a life long cyclist with 45 years of experience in touring and racing both on and off road. He raced at a good level for many years with quite a few top 3 placings in time trials on his beloved fixed wheel. His best result was winning an open 100 mile TT in 1991 when he was the only rider in the field riding a fixed gear and twice he has been in the top 20 of the British Best All rounder competition. He does ride gears on the island and very occasionally he will change gear to make sure they still work!
His first training camp in Majorca was in 1983 and the magic of the island still grips him to this day. However these days Dave prefers taking in the scenery at a more sociable pace so usually guides the Cappuccino group. Not being a creature of habit Dave likes the mix of long hilly rides in the mountains and also riding varied lanes in the centre of the island. He enjoys meeting new people and sharing those routes and this is why he likes to guide on the island.
Simon Pemberton
Simon is an endurance MTB and road racer who has been riding training camps in Majorca for 15/20 years as part of his own training schedule. He has raced and been on the podium at many, many solo, pairs and team 24hr and 12hr races and raced several 7 day MTB and road stage races including the TransAlp, The Sudety in Poland, and the Tour of Sardinia. He has also competed three times in the UCI Grand Raid Cristalp, known as the hardest MTB race in the world, with 5000m of climbing over 100 miles of Swiss mountains, during which competitors have to hike their bikes up a near vertical scree slope over the top of a 3000m peak before descending for an hour down the other side on a scree strewn descent to the finish. Despite this Simon still rates the climbs of Majorca as some of his favorites! and some of the most spectacular scenery to ride through on a bike. Over the last few years he has found it hugely rewarding to guide and coach youth and junior teams on training camps in Majorca so has great experience in guiding mixed ability groups over challenging terrain, frequently having their first experience of both Majorca and endurance riding in general. It's also been a great pleasure to lead them to surely some of the best cafe stops in the world!
Michael Fletcher
A seasoned cyclist primarily participating in cycling sportives as well as Mallorca training camps. Michael has recently been tempted by the world of triathlon and has competed in a number of 70.3 and full distance triathlons. Most recently Michael completed Ironman Hamburg. A new guide for Ciclos Major, Michael will be assisting the more experienced guides as he learns the routes and will also assist our triathlon coach. Michael enjoys the camaraderie of group rides and gets satisfaction from supporting others to achieve their goals. He is also a big fan of a coffee and cake stops.
Jarek Oworusko
Jarek has joined the Ciclos Major team as a guide, he is from Poland and currently living in Amsterdam.
His adventure with sports started as student: Jarek specialized in rock and alpine climbing. After that he started to run and completed over 20 marathons and several ultra and trail runs. Looking for new challenges he moved to triathlon. He finished several events from sprint to full IronMan distances in Norway, Austria, Greece, Denmark, Germany and Poland and took part in the World Championships in IronMan 70.3 and represented Team Poland in the European Championships in Olympic distance. He also participated in a number of cycling events, mainly in the mountains of Poland, Slovakia and Czechia, but also in Spain and Italy.
His interests expanded towards coaching: and is a qualified swimming instructor and a triathlon coach.
Jarek first came to Mallorca 20 years ago and his visits focused around cycling and triathlon training camps. He has completed the Mallorca 312 race. His last two seasons have been as a cycling guide, specializing in providing cycling tours for clients with various levels of difficulty, from leisure/touring rides to challenging competitive workouts.
Jarek has covered the whole Serra de Tramuntana, Artà Hills and the interior of the Island: Algaida, Sa Ràpita, Sant Salvador, Porreres, Petra and many more. Usual cycling days were 100-140 km and weeks ranging from 600 up to 900 km with total mileage of nearly 10,000 kilometers ridden with customer groups.
Owen Vidler
He might be the youngest guide in Mallorca, but don’t let that fool you – Owen’s got experience well beyond his years. As a born and bred club cyclist, he knows group ride dynamics inside out. Owen has a natural talent for keeping groups together and adapting to all abilities, whether it’s Double Espresso or Affogato, and ensuring that everyone gets the most out of their ride. For him, there's nothing better than helping riders push their limits and achieve their goals, going faster and farther than they ever thought possible.