Julián Andrés Santa
The Alfonso Hurtado Sarria Velodrome in Pereira is a historic sports venue that cannot be forgotten. In 2024 it will turn 50 years old and its state is more than regrettable, reflecting the abandonment from generation to generation in the departmental and municipal administrations, which ‘have always thrown the ball away’ and have not taken on a real project to think about remodeling it. Professor Evelio Cely, coach of the Risaraldense Cycling League, continues to train true champions there, along with the skating league that also trains with his processes in this space.
Cely was born in Bucaramanga but lived much of his life in Barranquilla, even his accent is as if he were just another coastal native. In cycling he was an athlete, manager and now he is a coach. He confesses that Pereira did not like to come because of the constant rains but they managed to convince him, perhaps without thinking that he would end up falling in love with the city and considering himself a Risaraldense.
“I’m going to celebrate 13 years of being here in Risaralda, it doesn’t seem like a lie! And coincidentally I meet them this month. They told me to come and they convinced me. I came to have a trial year because the truth is at that time I didn’t like Pereira because the times I had come it was always raining on laps to Colombia when I was a cyclist and when I was a coach and I said it was a lot of rain but finally we reached a agreement with the league and with the Departmental Secretariat of that time and here we are.”
Who first called you to come to Pereira?
“Antonio Tobón, we have known each other for many years and then with Santiago Robledo and Carlos Julio García also insisted a lot. We came for a few months but we stayed because the family liked it and that is also very important and I already realized how good the people are, in some things we are very similar, the Risraldenses and the Barranquilla people, and I had never lasted so long in somewhere, besides what we do is always a result, not as much as those in football who if they have three or four bad games, bye.”
He brings all his experience to Risaralda
“I have worked with the League of Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Atlántico, I worked in Bolivia, El Salvador and Ecuador. When I came here I was working in Ecuador, which was the first proposal they made to me, so when I returned to the country we reached an agreement. I also worked with the Federation as director of schools and as national coach on some occasions.”
Dream of having a Risaralda team
“Here we do not have a cycling team, speaking of the sports part, despite the great work that Santiago Robledo does in the league, but the resource will never be enough, for example last year was good, we managed to have some material But when I arrived here we had a few bicycles and there was only one space to store them, today we already have a larger space.”
“50 years and it hasn’t fallen”
“We once had a problem because they didn’t understand that I said I felt uncomfortable here but not with the leadership, but with the stage, it has not been maintained since 2005. Even I was here competing in 1974, which was the year they built it and this year the velodrome turns 50 and it has not fallen.”
“It has some water leaks, there is no crack, it has problems in the joints, it is not problems in itself, it is that they do not have the material that the joints have, so they have added cement and sand at some point, then they added another material which is something similar, a little more flexible but still if you review it, it was already lifted and those arrangements were made not long ago and I told them that that material was not.”
May this be a new opportunity!
“Now for the National Youth Games, it is time, let’s say, not to let a stage like this be lost, which has had a lot of history because track snails and many international events were also run here. We are talking about Bolivarians and this stage would serve “, thus doing the maintenance, so that the track cycling of the games can take place in Pereira and not go to Cali again,” points out the cycling coach, Evelio Cely.