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An interview with Organizer Xisco Lliteras

For the second time, Erik Wood, CEO of Eventonline, will participate in ‘Mallorca 312’, the cycling tour around the Balearic island. Prior to this Mallorcan Vuelta, Erik Wood had a chat with organizer Xisco Lliteras.

Xisco Lliteras has been a sport aficionado from a very young age, playing football and competitive tennis. He even funded his university studies working as a tennis coach. “All my life I’ve been in love with sports. During my professional career I discovered sport management and realized I wanted to work in the sports industry. I previously worked in a fitness center in Palma, with more than 6,000 members. I managed and coached the personal trainers. But then I discovered events, such as the 2007 World Track Cycling Championships in Mallorca and also learned how events worked behind the scenes. Another event I remember for the rest of my life is the ‘Battle of Surfaces’, a tennis match between Nadal and Federer, with half the court on grass and the other half on gravel. It was a challenging event. I was part of the organization”, explained Xisco Lliteras.

After these experiences he decided to work in events. “Miquel Alzamora, a retired cyclist who is from my town contacted me to organize a cycling event. I was starting cycling at that time. So, I thought it would be a nice idea. We have a lot of tourists involved in cycling on the island. We have a well-operated airport and good hotels. So, I started to think about the format of the event and Miquel brought up the idea to do a lap around the island, which is 312 km, all in one day. We organized it in 2008 and 2009 just for the members of our local cycling club. Hardly ten people participated. When people from Mallorca learned about the race, they wanted to join us for the next edition. Hence, the idea to expand the tour and organize a public event. We started the first edition in 2010 with 191 participants. True, I expected more people for this inaugural event. But we had a group of 17 people coming from Ireland and some people from the mainland and we received very nice feedback from the participants afterwards, who started talking to their friends about the race and that’s how it really started growing.”

The upcoming tour will be the 9th edition. The previous one counted more than 8,000 participants from 58 countries. “However, it’s a big responsibility if you notice on Instagram that somebody from New Zealand, from the other side of the world, is preparing and spending a lot of money to participate in my event. I want him to offer a perfect event. Luckily, I can count on my team of collaborators and volunteers. I’m very proud of them.

There are a lot of people working behind the scenes, all amazing volunteers.”

The race has an impact on the mobility on the island as the main roads are almost closed during the race to safeguard the participants. “Mallorca deserves a top-quality event. The administration and the police are really doing their outmost to help us. More than 2,000 of the 8,000 participants are locals. I’m glad the locals are appreciating all the effort.”

‘Mallorca 312’ also has an important business impact on the island. “In 2015 the University of the Baleares contacted us as they wanted to value the economic impact of the race. This edition it will be the fourth time they make surveys about the event. Last year we calculated around 12 million euros of economic impact locally, not bad for a one-day event. Generally speaking, each participant spent 166 euros per day. Each participant from abroad brings along another person; partner, friend or sibling. Their average stay is 7.7 days. I think ‘Mallorca 312’ is a successful one-day event.”

Big names from cycling also participate. In previous editions Xisco could count on Indurain, Joaquim Rodríguez, Pedro Horillo …

For the future Xisco sees two main challenges. “I think we arrived at the maximum capacity regarding participants. I don’t want ‘Mallorca 312’ to become an event with 20,000 participants. My main challenge is continuing to work with the same passion with my team and keeping the quality as high as possible for all participants while security remains our top priority. My second goal is to convince Mallorcan society that the event is respectful to the locals regarding the mobility of the people during the race. Therefore, we will have a major change this year with a mass start. All participants for the different distances (167-212-312km) will start together.”