Roller speed Barcelona
For me skating once a week in Terrassa not enough . Therefore I went regularly skating along the Besos river . It is nice that somebody made a photo of me skating there. One time after I had skated there I saw a women putting on inline skates. That was rather unususual because most people skated on quads unless they were involb¡ved in speed skating. I was surprised to see this and I was wondering if I missed some information. So I asked her about the reason why she was putting on inline skates. Emma explained me that two skaters, Kim and Gaston, had announced that they wanted to start spped skating next saturday along the river. I found this information on the internet and decided to go to this meeting the next satusrday.
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The start of APB Roller speed Barcelona
September 10 of 2011 was the first day of speed skating training along this river. I was delighted with this initiative and there I went. In the photo you can see the participants of the first hour.
We all skated along the river, back and forth and then discussed the idea of creating an open speed skating group. We agreed that it would be called APB Roller Speed and that we would create a Facebook page with the same name to make our activities public. |
On Facebook:we announced the activities of the group Roller speed
Monday at 8pm: Speed Skating Training at Willy Brandt Square next to the Forum, Hilton Hotel.
Wednesday at 6pm: Speed Skating Training at Willy Brandt Square next to the Forum Hilton Hotel .
Saturday afternoon at 5pm: Speed skating training along the river Besòs
At the beginning, we were not skating very fast, especially not in the square, because the participants were not familiar with skating of curves. We organized specific training courses to practice it.
In order to attrack more people, we put on Facebook every week a photo made after the last training . This led to a rapid increase of the number of skaters as you can understand if you look at a compliation of these fotos in the video below.
Monday at 8pm: Speed Skating Training at Willy Brandt Square next to the Forum, Hilton Hotel.
Wednesday at 6pm: Speed Skating Training at Willy Brandt Square next to the Forum Hilton Hotel .
Saturday afternoon at 5pm: Speed skating training along the river Besòs
At the beginning, we were not skating very fast, especially not in the square, because the participants were not familiar with skating of curves. We organized specific training courses to practice it.
In order to attrack more people, we put on Facebook every week a photo made after the last training . This led to a rapid increase of the number of skaters as you can understand if you look at a compliation of these fotos in the video below.
The development of the group was very fast and at some point we had to decide whether we wanted to create a club recognized by the speed skating federation. In 2013 we decided that we had to do so because several of our members wanted to participation in races organized in Cataluña and in Spain in general.. Now the name became Club Pati Barcelona or CPB.
The members trained hard for the championships
Don´t be mistaken the members who wanted to participate in championships were training hard to realized good results in these championships. These trainings took place at the square close to my house and along the Besos as you can see below.
Don´t be mistaken the members who wanted to participate in championships were training hard to realized good results in these championships. These trainings took place at the square close to my house and along the Besos as you can see below.
Successes of the Club Pati Barcelona
It was not more than logical that I also got again the first prize on the 5.000m in the category Masters 60+ because there was again no other skater in the category of 60+.
The club took immediately advantage of this situation to make fun of it (or me). My first place in this championships was celebrated as if if was a world championship or at least the champion of Spain. |
24 hours of Calafat
Anther exciting activity we participated in was the 24 hours of Calafat. The idea of such a race is that a team of skaters participates in a race during 24hours and the winner is the team that can realize the most rounds on the cicuit in these 24 hours. The race started at 4 in the afternoon and finished the next day at the same time. It will be clear that it matters how large the group of skaters is, therefore the are prices for groups of different sizes. Our group consisted of 6 skaters and in the table below we see how the tasks were devided.
Anther exciting activity we participated in was the 24 hours of Calafat. The idea of such a race is that a team of skaters participates in a race during 24hours and the winner is the team that can realize the most rounds on the cicuit in these 24 hours. The race started at 4 in the afternoon and finished the next day at the same time. It will be clear that it matters how large the group of skaters is, therefore the are prices for groups of different sizes. Our group consisted of 6 skaters and in the table below we see how the tasks were devided.
The length of the circuit is 3,250km. There are 9 curves to the left and 7 to the right. At the far end the circuit goes down and later again up . In the front the road goes up again from the sea and goes down again to the middle of the circuit. For motors this is not so relevant but for skaters it is very important information
The table shows that Antonello and I preferred not to skate during the night. Some liked to skate a whole hour while most of us wanted to skate in one session 40 minutes.The skaters which skated each time an hour performed 4 sessions, the others skated 6 sessions of 40 minutes. I don´t remember whether we were succesful in the race. Certain is that we enjoyed it a lot to partcipate together in this event. The results of all skaters were registered therefore later I have made an analysis
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The differences in height combined with the direction and the strength of the wind determine in an important way the speed of the skaters. This was also shown in my analysis because sea wind helps a lot to climb up the part of the circuit before you go to the finish again. The difference in speed was 1,7km /h per round
We all went approximately 0.28km/h slower every round except Elias. He was always equally fast.In general age had an effect on the speed. I skated 2.8 km/h slower than the youngest skater. In general we became 2.9 km slower through time comparing the time of our first rounds with our last rounds.
We all went approximately 0.28km/h slower every round except Elias. He was always equally fast.In general age had an effect on the speed. I skated 2.8 km/h slower than the youngest skater. In general we became 2.9 km slower through time comparing the time of our first rounds with our last rounds.
We had a very pleasant day together. Such an experience is extremlye nice for the team building because you have to do it together and it is not very easy but you support each other because it is not an individual event like most skating races.
Willem Elias Kim Michelangel
go back to a ritired skater