Rolando Cartaya Valdés, 69 years old, acknowledges that family and cycling are his two great loves and the main reason to keep going.
When asked about his beginnings in the sport, he said that he was 14 years old and in 1970 he joined ESPA Nacional, where he was a teammate of the Avileño brothers Aníbal and Raúl Torres Pino. Because of his results, he was soon called up to the senior team, and took part in several tours of the European continent, including the Carrera de la Paz. He also took part in the Vuelta a Guadalupe, where he came third in the individual route, while in the Transpeninsular he came second, these being his two main results.
Born in 1955, in Minas de Matahambre, Pinar del Río, since 1992 he has lived in Ciego de Ávila where he began as a trainer in the Roberto Castañeda Provincial Academy, where he still works.
With the simplicity that characterises him, he says that one of his greatest satisfactions is being the father of Reinier, who was a member of the national cycling squad for a decade, and is the only cyclist from Avila to have participated in the Olympic Games, Athens 2004.