Inline skating in Barcelona
In 2005 we moved definitely to Barcelona for my work. That meant that I also had to look for new opportunities to skate. I did not expect to find an ice track in Barcelona but I was expecting at least a track for inline speed skating but there was none in Barcelona That did not mean that there were no inline skaters.As the picture showed there were very many inline skaters in Barcelona. There was also an association for skating (APB) which organized “Night skate tour”. They started at 11.30 and skated till 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning in a very slow pace. This was not what I wanted. On internet I saw an announcement for a Sunday morning skate tour. I went there but that was also disappointing because the skating was rather slow along a river (Besos) close to our house. After 10 km they stopped at a bar and had a very elaborate break before they returned to the center of the town. Nevertheless, I learned two things: one was that one could skate safely along the river Besos if one wanted. The other was that one of the skaters told me that close to the airport in the town Prat de Lobregat a real skating track was created for inline speed skating. My next exploration was directed on the skating in Prat. I went there and saw the type of skating I was looking for.
Therefore, I asked the trainer of the group whether it would be allowed for me to participate in the training of this group. He had no problem with it. It will be clear that there was a big difference in age between these skaters and me. Therefore, I asked him what the age is of the oldest skater in this club. He told me that the oldest was 26 years old. This answer made me wonder whether I could participate in this groups because most of the skaters were even younger than 26 while I was at that moment already 62 years old. On the way back from the skating track I was wondering whether this was what I should do. I was looking for another possibility but in the mean time I went skating there on Sunday morning when nobody was skating there and I went skating along the Besos river more regularly. Searching for another possibility I looked up in the internet information about speed skating on inline skates. There I found two theoretical articles in Spanish about inline speed skating by Laure Sintes.
I wrote him an email and asked him about possibilities of inline skating around Barcelona. He wrote back that he was the trainer of a skating team and that he trained some skaters every Wednesday in the evening on the skate and cycle track in Terrassa (25 km from Barcelona). I made an appointment with him for the next Wednesday. Here is a photo of Laure Sintes and below is a photo of the Skating track in Terrassa.
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This track was created in 2003 for cyclists but Laure had made an arrangement that he could use the track for speed skating on Wednesday evenings after the cyclists had finished. The surface of the track was of asphalt. The track was 5 meters wide and 450m long or 1.225 km if one used the inner track as well. The highest percentage increase in the track was 5%. The track contained 13 curves 5 to the right and 8 to the left. On this track I started my training for speed skating on inline skates under supervision of Laure Sintes.
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In this way I became the oldest and the youngest member of the inline speed skating team "PC Nickys" under supervision of Laure Sintes.The members of the team came from different parts of Spain and from France and now even from The Netherlands. The photo below shows that I am not yer completely integrated
go back Training with Laure