You could see it on the podium, when Simon Clarke won the cobblestones stage in the North, or on July 14 in the Alps, on the shoulders of Chris Froome, at the front of the race: the Israel Premier Tech is azure blue, and sports Imigongo forms, the traditional Rwandan art. It is there, in the heart of Africa, that the Israeli team wants to develop the practice of cycling.
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A project defended by the leader, Chris Froome, quadruple winner of the Tour, who grew up in Africa: I had a very strong connection with the African continent. I was born in Nairobi, Kenya. When I was little, there was nothing for bicycles. My project is this: to build the Field of Dreams. VS’is a very important project for me“, confides the Briton. This “Field of Dreams”, which can be translated into “land of dreams”, is a cycling center supposed to allow 120,000 Rwandan children to take up cycling, and to give them the means to do so. .
A very personal project too, for Sylvan Adams, the boss Israeli-Canadian of the team, which did not choose this country by chance, as it blows to franceinfo. “This country experienced a tragedy, a genocide in the 20th century, as my people experienced. When I travel to Rwanda, I call them my brothers and my sisters, because we all experienced such a tragedy together. It touches my heart”assures the billionaire.
And the Israeli team was not mistaken: the “land of a thousand hills” has become an African cycling paradise, with its highly prized Tour du Rwanda. This is also where the world cycling championships will take place in three years. There, too, where is, perhaps, the first African winner of the Tour de France.
“I am proud to be able to invest in their future. It’s a very progressive country, that’s it. That’s what I noticed. It’s moving there and it will be built quite quickly, it’s a matter of a few months“, enthuses Sylvan Adams.
And the first pickaxe, to get out of this center of dirt cycling, will also be given this summer, just after the arrival of the Tour de France.