The A2A race in the USA
The A2A race started in 1980. Therefore we introduced this race in an earlier section. For more information we
refer to this section.
After 2000 the A2A race has been continued with only an interruption in 2020 and 2021 for the covid pandemy.
It was all the time a big event where many people participated.Here we want to pay attention to two of the best skaters in the period after 2000. One of them was again Eddy Matzger. The other is Francisco Ramirez.
refer to this section.
After 2000 the A2A race has been continued with only an interruption in 2020 and 2021 for the covid pandemy.
It was all the time a big event where many people participated.Here we want to pay attention to two of the best skaters in the period after 2000. One of them was again Eddy Matzger. The other is Francisco Ramirez.
The results of Eddy Matzger after 2000
He was 34 in 2001 and continued to participate until 2022 when he was 55. The first four races he won. Later he was 4 times more the winner. In fact three times when he was 48 to 50. Even when he was 55 he became second.
The table below presents an overview of the results of Eddy Matger from 2001 to 2022
This table shows clearly that he was one of the most succesful skaters in the extremely challanging race.
Other activities of Eddy Matzger
By his success as skater, he got a sponsor. One of the things he did was giving inline speed skating workshops all over the world. Asked where he like the skating the most his remarkable answer was: “Indonesia. It's a great place to skate! You get off the plane, put on your skates,you skate to the ferry, and then take the ferry to the next island. Then you skate across that island, take the ferry and go the next one. No one owns a car there. There are just a few buses and trucks. So, you really own the road. It's great. The monkeys are sitting on the road and scatter in front of you.”
This answer is a very illustrative for his way of life but that this comment was given many years ago. The situation in Indonesia has really changed.
The information and more stories about Eddy Matzger can be found in a full interview with him presented in the Inline planet: http://www.inlineplanet.com/Interviews/introtheeddymatz.html
By his success as skater, he got a sponsor. One of the things he did was giving inline speed skating workshops all over the world. Asked where he like the skating the most his remarkable answer was: “Indonesia. It's a great place to skate! You get off the plane, put on your skates,you skate to the ferry, and then take the ferry to the next island. Then you skate across that island, take the ferry and go the next one. No one owns a car there. There are just a few buses and trucks. So, you really own the road. It's great. The monkeys are sitting on the road and scatter in front of you.”
This answer is a very illustrative for his way of life but that this comment was given many years ago. The situation in Indonesia has really changed.
The information and more stories about Eddy Matzger can be found in a full interview with him presented in the Inline planet: http://www.inlineplanet.com/Interviews/introtheeddymatz.html
The results of Francisco Ramirez in the A2A
He participated for the first time in the A2A event in 1999. Since 2006 he was a very good speed skater as his results in the A2A race show. It was unfortunately for him that he was skating this tour in the same period as Eddy Matzger. Therefore, he was mostly second behind him. Nevertheless, taking this fact into account, his results in this event are also very impressive. He was 10 times in the best three out of the 16 times he participated. Finally in 2022 he won this race before Eddy Matzger. His results in the A2A are shown in the table below. |
Francisco Ramirez was born in 1979 in Colombia. He started skating on quads in his native country. There he won a junior national championship, on inline skates, in 1995. Soon after that, he immigrated to the United States, where he opened the first of several small businesses. He has been a member of the High Gear, Unity and Canariam speed teams. Currently, he manages K2-Empire Speed and coaches Excel Speed, which is based at Excel Skating Center, the rink he owns in Hackettstown, NJ. .
A different approach to skating the A2A has been reported by Trenter Bugg