Caracas Velodrome - Final Part

The veloquest is over. Tomorrow I leave Caracas, and I never managed to ride the velodrome here. In the other two posts I wrote about the Velodromo Teo Capriles, here and here, I described finding the velodrome in Caracas and then trying to get information on riding it. Sadly, it just never came together. A combination of the velodrome being on the other side of the city, me not having a track bike here, and a slightly confusing and hectic schedule at the velodrome itself prevented me from getting out there.


The last time I posted about it, I had just learned that the velodrome held daily practice sessions, and I was eager to head over there and check them out, and maybe borrow a bike and actually ride. But, the trip was not exactly a success. When I arrived, I realized that the daily practice session was more like an introductory session for kids, on road bikes. Also, the infield was hosting multiple games of volleyball and football at the same time. It was chaos. Every five seconds a ball would shoot out of the infield and careen around the track, often knocking down riders and causing minor crashes. Thankfully, the kids weren’t going very fast, but I saw a one-legged cyclist, in Venezuelan national kit and clearly not part of the kids’ session, get knocked arse-over-face when a volleyball got lodged between his wheels, sending him sprawling.


Needless to say, I was a little disappointed. I had expected a dedicated session of track training, but instead it was a chaotic and kind of dangerous “introductory” session for kids, a trial by volleyball fire, if you will. If any of them stick with track racing after that, they’ll be fearless. Anyway, it just wasn’t meant to be. All the track racing in Venezuela this year, and there was a good bit of it, happened in other cities, like Valencia and San Cristobal. I don’t know why nothing happened in Caracas, but I think I was just unlucky.


Now I’m leaving. It feels strange. I’ve lived in Caracas for a year, but it doesn’t seem like it, and I've enjoyed living here a lot more than I thought I would. I missed racing, but everything else about the experience has been great. Venezuela is a beautiful country. The people are lovely, the food is amazing, and Caracas is exciting. I’ll miss it a lot. I’m getting ready to head to Houston for Christmas with Amy’s family, then to Chicago for a few days, and then I’m moving to Fiji to begin my dissertation research. There’s no velodrome there, but there are some road races, so hopefully I’ll get to compete a bit.

Hipster Nascar will keep going, but the posts may be a little infrequent until I get settled. Until then, check out the links listed on the right (check out the interview I did about track bikes and blogging with Ira of Being Totally Sweet in Chicago here) and go ride yr bike.