2012 Three Tracks: An exceptional vintage race

The 2012 Three Tracks Trophy was an exceptional race as for the number of present skaters, the quality of the set and the fights between the competitors. The Baena / Guyader (EO Skate) couple made the difference...

Par alfathor
Publié le 12 avril 2012 - Mis à jour le 2 novembre 2020 - 7381 Lectures - 0 commentaire(s)

Kelly Martinez et Cecilia Baena – 3 Piste 2012

Back on the 3 days of competition

The weather conditions somewhat messed around with the weekend’s races. The competition had to be suspended at Pibrac in the end of the afternoon because of the rain, which fell even harder during the evening. On Sunday morning, at Valence d’Agen, the unsettled weather forced the organizers to juggle with the recovery rounds. In the end, everything went good. On Monday, the sun finally broke through the blanket of cloud only in the middle of the afternoon…

A strong Columbian delegation

Foreigners were numerous this year, a bit less coming from the USA but lots from Latin America. The least we can say is that the Columbians didn’t go unnoticed! First of all, their club uniforms, black with touches of orange, are easily spottable. And they are as much present on the track as in the public. In short, the Columbians are not bit players: when they travel, they come to win and in as many categories as possible. Another striking thing about them is how clean their technique is on the ring. You feel that they are used to evolving on ovals in the middle of many skaters.

Cadet Girls (14-15): The Latin domination

During these 3 days, the girls witnessed the fight between Latin skaters for the podium. Fabriana Airas Perez (Club Patinaje Envigado) wins by a whisker at the general ranking in front of Mayra Alejandra Jara Nuñez (Elias del Valle-Metropolitano): Only one little point separated the two skaters at the end of the event. The 3rd place goes to Luz Karime Garzon (Bont Colombia).

The first French, Morgane Brochard (Pays de Loire League) remains at the foot of the podium, at the 4th place.

Cadet Boys (14-15): the French are well ranked

The French boys offered us promising results for the future. Quentin Giraudeau (Pays de Loire League) had to fight a tough battle for the first place at the general ranking. He wins the races of Pibrac and Valence in front of Bryan Garzon (Bont Colombia) but ends up 2nd at Gujan. The 3rd place goes to another French, Mathieu Guilbert (Pays de Loire League).

Let’s note the great 5th place of Elphege Pedicone (AM Sports Dijon) who was a lot in the vanguard during the weekend.

Juniors (16-17): France occupies the podium

The skater of Pibrac, Aurélien Roumagnac, didn’t let much space to the other skaters. He wins at home in front of Pierre-Yves Péridy (POL Longjumeau) and his club partner Viktor Thorup (Pibrac RS).

Women’s National

Viviana Mejia Perez (Club Patinaje Envigado) makes her presence strongly felt after a wheezy start at Pibrac (yet she ended up 3rd), she manages a great finale with 3 victories in a row at Valence and Gujan. She ends up in front of Maria Peru (San Antonio) and French Flavie Balandras (LOU Roller) who was often in the lead during the weekend.

Men’s National: No surprises

Robin Duez (ALVA) won everything without much surprise. He even affords to lead the pack by one lap and a half for the last race at Gujan-Mestras (10.000m). The second place goes to Lionel Maillard (GROL) who is in front of the 3rd skater thanks to one little point. Oscar Sanchez Perez (Patin Delta Prat) made a strong comeback during the last stage whereas Lionel Maillard seemed to weaken as the races went by.

A fight at the top for the Women’s Elite

The fight between Cecilia Baena Guyader and Kelly Martinez will most certainly go down in history. To tell the truth, it is somehow the symbol of this 26th edition of the Three Tracks Trophy: the two compatriots respectively skate for EOSkates and Bont Columbia. They know each other well. Cecilia was intent on taking her revenge and it’s all done with 3 wins out of 4 disputed races… but what races! The two opponents fought tough battles for every stage, by means of lunges on the finish lines and you had to refer to the photo finish several times to separate them.

EOSkates does a good operation in positioning Paola Serrano, Cecilia Baena’s team mate, on the 3rd step of the podium. She outstrips the 3 Powerslides skaters: Luisa Agudelo, Sabine Berg and Katharina Rumpus.

EO Skates in good position in the vanguard

The Men’s Elite category saw the brand new EOSkates group arriving… And the least we can say is that the white-black-and-red didn’t go in for half-measures. The five men were leading the pack very often. The other teams had to fight to worm their ways to the first places of the pack, especially Powerslide, which didn’t come off the competition unscathed.

Columbians Jorge Balanos (Bont Colombia) and Andres Munos (Colombie) were the only ones who managed to compete with EOSkates’ supremacy.

Everybody was waiting for Yann Guyader under his new colors, but he did well in helping his team mate Fabio Francolini (Italie) to get on the podium. Yann Guyader wins all his races but the last one, where he has the courtesy of letting his Italian team mate take the lead at the expense of Brian Lépine (RPM Poli). The Latter knew how to show a strong potential during the different races of the weekend with good placings and an excellent top speed. Let’s be sure that we’ll hear of him in the months to come.

In 2012, Yann Guyader (EOSkates) signs his 6th victory at the Three Tracks. He thus gets closer to the record, held by another French, Arnaud Gicquel, with 7 wins.

Report on the 2012 live broadcasting

After a first year to get into its stride, the team in charge of the live broadcasting on the Internet managed a great performance. The technical coordination and the production were the work of Paris Web Cube, the framing was taken care of by the Onlineskating.com team and the commentary by Reyda Messaoudi. As soon as the first day, the audience ratings spoke for themselves with nearly twice more traffic than in 2011.

This year, the option of satellite sending was favored in order to guarantee a constant good picture quality – the bandwidth of the ADSL was not enough… The visual quality was a success and the improvement since 2011 was striking. On the whole, only but a few cuts are to deplore and only the FFRS (French Federation of Roller Sports) website couldn’t bear the loading – its success having been its undoing. Yet it was quickly restarted. It didn’t prevent the audience to make do with Dailymotion to keep on following the competition while the FFRS was restoring the page.

The record audiences speak for themselves, with more than 1032 viewers simultaneously. The 10.000 unique visits as well as the 15.000 cumulated visits each day would have been reached, i.e. more than 45.000 connections during the 3 days, which corresponds more or less to the audience of a World Championship!

The organization hopes to renew the experience next year. Let’s cross our fingers!