Bathers-In Buenos Aires' Fountain Of Youth

Three or four times a week I ride my bike down to Circuito KDT to train on its car-free track.

- Mitchell Belacone

KDT consists of a 1.3 kilometre oval cycle route, a velodrome and a home-cooking style restaurant that I equate to a ski lodge for cyclists. There is also a bike storage garage with a skilled mechanic. It is on Salguero between the Alcorta shopping mall and the river drive. I get there almost exclusively by bike lanes.

During my five kilometre journey to KDT I typically share the bicycle lanes with: a motorcyclist whose helmet is dangling from his elbow; a twentysomething hipster pedalling with a leash attached to his bike at one end and a Dachshund’s neck at the other; a chatty couple pedalling side by side in the opposite direction and taking up both lanes; at least one ‘look ma no hands’ genius passing head-on at twenty kilometres per hour; a few people choosing to walk on the bike path, seemingly oblivious to the idea behind the little painted bicycles on the ground; and two or three cyclists speaking on the telephone, or forced to text because they have DJ-sized headphones on. Viewing a sexting would not be as big a surprise as you might think it should be. They all share in common a disdain for the helmet, excepting the aforementioned motorcyclist’s elbow.