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Six Canadians Race in Chiapas, Mexico
Dominique Lalonde and Stéphane Tremblay
Adrian, Stephane, Martine, Sergio, Dominique, JF at the opening ceremonies
At the beginning of April, 6 skaters left the cold, wet and even snowy Canada to inline skate in warmer climate. Sergio Almarella, Stéphane Tremblay, Jean-Francois Messier, Adrian Loewen and Dominique Lalonde from Ottawa, as well as Martine Charbonneau from Montréal were greeted by warm weather, wonderful people, and so many tracks to skate, it could be considered a skater’s paradise! They were to compete in the Copa internacional Mexicanidad Chiapaneca 2007 in Tuxtla, Chiapas.
Mexico City was the initial destination, where we skated at one of the city’s banked track with one of the local clubs. During this time, we met some fellow skaters who quickly became friends, and who we ended up seeing throughout our trip.
On April 8th, we drove to Tabasco, a city famous for its sauce, but mostly interesting to us because of the banked track that had been built a couple of months ago. The track there was very different that the one in Canada, and even the other one in Mexico City, and we were very happy to have the opportunity to skate on it. Although the trip down was quite long, it allowed us the opportunity to appreciate the different scenery that Mexico has to offer. During our visit to Tabasco, we had the pleasure of meeting up with some other skaters, and even stayed at their house. They were also going to Tuxtla for the races, so we ended up making additional friends, and bumping into them for the rest of the trip.
he first few days were used to get familiar with skating on a banked track (and our skates as well), as for most of us, this was the 3rd or 4th time we put on our skates this year! The different tracks that we skated on helped to ‘jump start’ our season, as the provincials are to be held in Harriston, Ontario on May 19, 20, 21 on the only banked track in Canada.
JF, Stephane, Ivan, Sergio, Adrian in Tabasco
Dominique skating in Tabasco
On April 9th, we drove from Tabasco to Tuxtla (within the state of Chiapas) – our final destination! This was to compete in the Copa internacional Mexicanidad Chiapaneca 2007. While in Tuxtla, we stayed at the race site, where we were logged and fed. The facilities were quite good, and we were in a central enough location that we could easily walk around and do some exploring of our own.
During our first day there, we were able to train with skaters from Chiapas (all on holidays because of Easter), and were very impressed by the number of fast skaters. It was great for us to be part of such a group, and allowed us to get back into our skating ‘groove’!
Inline skating is a very popular sport in Mexico, in comparison to Canada. For instance, we all had an individual television interview with the local media. People over there thought we were inline skating stars, unbeatable and it turns out, that this was a tad bit false J In fact their training schedule is quite different then ours. Three of the countries participating in this event were having their National team qualifications at the event. In Canada we have our qualifications in July.
On April 11th, the races started with a 300 m time trial. The night before, the Canadians were seen practicing their 300m starts. This proved to be quite challenging, as the start was on the banked part of the track, and it was difficult to stabilize the skates. For those who have already practiced a time trial start they know how hard it can be even on flat pavement. A few changed their positioning to adapt to this new type of track!
That afternoon, they ran the 15,000m elimination race. There was talk that this would be postponed until later that day because of the weather (it was super hot outside, sunny and 36 degrees Celsius). Due to miss-communication, Dominique unfortunately had to watch from the sidelines, as the gun went off. Martine had a wonderful race, and made a few attacks on the Chiapas and El Salvador skaters.
Senior Men Race; Sergio leading, JF in Bont, Adrian with white skates, Stephane in Il Peleton
That night was the opening ceremonies. The event organizers had a special flag made for us with the Canadian flag. We then went for dinner at a traditional Mexican restaurant. There were live signing and dancing, and ‘Pumpo’ - a traditional Mexican drink!
On April 12th, we skated the 500m, the 10,000m points and elimination as well as the 1,000m races. Dominique’s best track race was the 1,000 m, as she felt very strong all the way through the race. This was our last track race, and as such, we were feeling a bit more comfortable on the track.
That afternoon/night, we headed to visit Canyon Del Sumidero. We drove to the town, boarded a boat, and spent the afternoon/early evening lounging around. Stéphane had a couple of great dive into (kids!) wading pool. It was quite a wonderful visit.
On April 13th, the women ended up not racing at all. The men ended up doing a 5,000m relay. They did extremely well, and impressed the spectators, as they seemed to make drastic improvements as the race occurred! They were able to catch up to the Guatemalan team, and pass them quite fiercely.
That night, we went to a small town named San Cristobal, renowned for its cathedral and caves. We had to drive 40km uphill, non-stop to get to this wonderful town. Some have shown interest in biking this part on the next trip…the question…is whether they would succeed? We ended up eating at another traditional Mexican restaurant, and having a wonderful evening.
JF, Martine, Stephane, Dominique
Alex and Ivan
April 14th was the day of the marathon, so potentially a big day for the Canadians. The race was located in a Tuxtla’s park on a 2km closed circuit with some areas having very rough pavement. At around 1 pm, when it was 42 degrees, they started our race. We all had water on us, but were told that we could not have any until half way through the race (?!?!?!)
The race itself was quite hard. Dominique ended up dropping from the pack quite early. All other girls except Martine and Dominique ended up dropping completely from the race. They were seen on the sidelines crying in pain, or with the medics. It ended up being an all Canadian win! Martine came in 1st and Dominique in 2nd. At the end of the race, our feet and legs hurt quite extensively! This was the end of our racing in Mexico (for this trip, of course! quite a wonderful series of racing events! Oops we almost forgot...no Canadian male was able to pass the 20km mark in the marathon. After 18km, Stéphane lost his frame; one lap later Jean-François was lapped by the leader so he was eliminated; Adrian had a heat stroke and Sergio had bad feet pains so all had to stop.
Dominique (2nd) and Martine (1st) after marathon win
That night, we headed out to party, but came-in fairly early, as we had to head out at 5 am to start on our long drive back to Mexico City!
The drive back was quite difficult. We ended up being stopped quite a number of times by the Military and the Police. We also ended up having somewhat of an accident, as one of the tires on the van blew up. Ivan (our driver for this trip and fellow skating friend) managed to keep control of the van during this, and as such, no one was injured. We had to go to a town to purchase a new tire, and the folks were nice enough to open the store for us (it was Sunday, and most stores were closed!)
We ended up making it back to Mexico City, where we spent a last quiet night. Our flight left on April 16th to come back to Ottawa. The flight was delayed (because of the snow in Canada!), and Martine and Dominique almost did not make the flight (good thing Martine is quite fluent in Spanish; otherwise the girls may still be there!). There were further mechanical problems with our plane from Montreal to Ottawa…but we are now safe and sound back home.
All in all, this was a wonderful vacation. Thank you to Sergio for organizing this trip, ensuring our safety while down there, being a consistent translator (El Traductor in Spanish) to some of us, and for being an overall great host.
Thank you to all the Mexican skaters and race organizers for their hospitality, and friendship. This is definitively a race that we would recommend to others, as a great opportunity to skate early in the season, and gain international skating experience.
P.S. Check out the links below for more information. It’s Ivan’s website…it’s wonderful…especially if you know Spanish!
