There are, it should be stressed, bike riders who are perfectly respectful. | Alejandro Sepúlveda

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Residents who form the 'Indignats MA-10' group have long been denouncing illegal car and bike races on the MA-10 main road in the Tramuntana Mountains.

Their latest complaints relate to "a night of chaos" last Friday. During the evening, there were continuous comings and goings of adapted motorbikes for the infamous illegal "climbs" on the Puig Major road. There were also cars for night races which are dangerous and extremely noisy; the cars, like bikes, are adapted.

The Guardia Civil were notified, say the residents, at 6pm. Officers "didn't appear until three in the morning" and when they did arrive at the Mirador de ses Barques, they "kindly asked the drivers" to stop what they were doing, implying that they were not aware of any sanction.

The residents say that the same thing happened on Saturday. The response from the Guardia Civil was apparently that there were not enough officers because "the pateras had arrived" (migrant boats).

The group describes the riders and drivers as "degenerates" and "criminals". "They have no respect for the animals, for the landscape, for people's lives, or even their own lives." They have turned the mountains "into a hell". On Sunday, the scenario was repeated "throughout the day and we couldn't even get 062 (the Guardia Civil emergency number) to pick up the phone".

The 50 kilometre per hour speed limit for some sections of the road "has done nothing more than 'hunt down' normal people who slightly exceed this limit, as there is a straight section where before you could go 70". The residents blame authorities for the neglect, and they conclude that the Tramuntana Mountains are "no longer heritage of anything, but a paradise for constant acts of vandalism that are completely out of control".