Formentera greets coming tourist season with 11 sporting trials

The springtime – Formentera's traditional trusted porter of fair weather – is the ideal moment for the sports trials that with them bring throngs of athletes to the island's shores. With ease the spring visitors find lodging and reasonable prices, a task that will become much more difficult come high season.

Kicking off the introductory slew of 2015 trials is an event with first-time status on the island. Dubbed the Nonstop Track for mountain bikes, the event takes place Sunday 22 February and proposes to riders two different circuits: one 50km and the other 90. Still three weeks from the big day, organisers have already registered 150 participants.

The following week, 28 February, will usher in the IV Formentera All Round Trail (FART), an event whose 400 available places have all been claimed by 336 runners.

The following week, 28 February, will usher in the IV Formentera All Round Trail (FART), a 400-runner course already left with only 64 available places.

March 1st is the day for La Cursa de la Dona (Women's Race), an event which – in addition to a diverse organising committee comprising the Espai Dones association, the Spanish Association against Cancer and the Espalmador sports club – has enjoyed the collaborative efforts of the Formentera Council. The 3-km itinerary was conceived to favour high levels of participation and all funds raised will go to fighting breast cancer.

The second week of March, 8 March, follows close behind with La Cursa de l'Olimpíada Pagesa, another charitable footrace whose organisation has been split between the Espalmador sports club and the La Mola neighbourhood association.

Then, closing out the month on the 29th, the Espalmador sports club-organised Illa de Formentera road bike trail will send cyclists on a circuit around the island for the fifth straight year.

Setmana Santa arrives early this year, which means early April will be marked by Holy Week festivities and a handful of exciting sporting events, both sure to bring athletes and chaperoning families in tow. From 2 to 5 April, El Club Dojo de Formentera has organised a training course to take place on the island, and one day later, the Formentera municipal football pitch will be the scene of an international tournament of youth 'aleví' football, organised by S.D. Formentera (3-5 April).

12 April, close on the heels of the Easter programming is a sporting event that was extremely popular last year: the De Far a Far walk-run. Extending from Es Cap de Barbaria to La Mola, the circuit cuts alternately across the island's interior and skirts along the coast to link Formentera's two principal lighthouses.

The following week, the Formentera Council is proud to present La Volta cicloturista (The cyclist's tour), a laid-back, healthy initiation to the island. The idea of a mountain bike tour of Formentera was originally hatched by the Formentera Friends of Mountain Bikers association. This year it has been proposed to accompany the April events calendar.

May brings with it two very significant sporting events, although both are conceived for only the most seasoned of athletes. The first, to be held 2 May, is the III Island of Formentera Olympic Triathlon. Then, two weeks later, on 16 May, the competition that regularly brings together more participants than any other: the Formentera half marathon. Known in Catalan as La mitja marató, this trial exists in both a 21-km and 8-km format. Depending on the course chosen, participants blaze a trail from the La Mola lighthouse – or Sant Ferran – to the town of La Savina.