Voltadora de Ca n'Escarrinxo

The Voltadora de Ca n'Escarrinxo is the site of a former banked cycling track in Pollença, Mallorca, tucked inside the grounds of the town's Ca n'Escarrinxo municipal football pitch. This is a stop for anyone curious about local sports history rather than a polished sight with visitor facilities — worth knowing before you plan a trip out here.

What exactly was it?

A "voltadora" is the Catalan term for a small banked track built for track cycling. This one was built in 1963 at the initiative of Club Ciclista Pollença, a cycling club founded in 1956, with the aim of adding track racing to the road events the club already organized — track cycling was a genuinely popular spectator sport on Mallorca at the time. The track was formally inaugurated on 29 June 1963, timed to coincide with the club's own anniversary celebrations.

Unlike a standalone oval velodrome set beside a pitch, this track was built cutting directly across the football field itself, with its concrete banked curves encroaching onto the playing surface. That layout created constant friction between football supporters and the cycling crowd, both fighting over the same patch of ground.

What's the history behind it?

The track's high point was the 1964 inter-velodrome tournament, a contest between teams from the four leading tracks on Mallorca at the time: the Velòdrom de Tirador in Palma, the Velòdrom de Campos, the Voltadora de Vilafranca de Bonany, and Ca n'Escarrinxo itself. For that brief moment, Pollença was one of the island's track-cycling hubs.

The track's active life was short, though — it stopped hosting races after 1966. As the football pitch was later reformed and expanded, the track disappeared piece by piece. Today almost nothing structural survives, and the site is generally listed as being in ruins.

How do you get there, and what will you actually see?

The former voltadora sits on the grounds of today's Ca n'Escarrinxo football field in Pollença, a short drive from the town's historic centre. The field itself is still very much in use for community life — it hosts local music festivals and the closing scenes of the town's annual Moros i Cristians (Moors and Christians) re-enactment, one of Pollença's biggest patron-saint celebrations.

Don't expect a preserved banked track or interpretive signage on site — what's left of the voltadora is mostly traces in the ground and mentions in local sports-history records. A visit makes more sense as an add-on to exploring Pollença itself than as a destination in its own right.

When's the best time to visit?

Since there's no permanent exhibition or visitor infrastructure here, the season doesn't matter much for the site itself. It's worth timing a visit around the town's patron-saint festivities (late July into August), when the Ca n'Escarrinxo grounds are busiest and you get a better sense of how this old sporting tradition still threads through the town's calendar today.

Frequently asked questions

Can you still see the actual cycling track today? Not as an intact structure — the site is generally considered to be in ruins, and the ground has since been reshaped by the football pitch's expansion. What remains is mostly traces in the terrain and references in local historical records.

Why was the track controversial with residents? Because it cut straight across the football pitch instead of running around it, with its concrete banking spilling onto the playing surface — a setup that kept cyclists and footballers in constant conflict over the same space.

What was the most significant event held here? The 1964 inter-velodrome tournament, which brought together teams from Mallorca's four leading cycling tracks, including the Velòdrom de Tirador in Palma.

Is it worth a special trip from elsewhere on the island? Not really as a standalone destination — it's a niche find for sports-history enthusiasts, best combined with a visit to Pollença itself.