NTT Pro Cycling is celebrating 10 years of association with the Qhubeka Charity at this year’s Tour de France.
This partnership has seen the team play a major role in the efforts to assist young people and healthcare workers in rural communities across South Africa, with increased mobility seen as a key fundamental to improving lives.
The team has funded over 30,000 bicycles during the period of its association, something that it’s incredibly proud of.
“Qhubeka means so much to us as a team,” said Team Principal, Doug Ryder, on the eve of the Tour de France. “It means so much to the people that we empower through bicycles and the impact that makes. Our whole Bicycles Change Lives campaign talks to the fact that lives have been changed by every individual in our team that’s here at the Tour de France. Them being able to use that as a motivation to be able to do well and raise funds for kids in communities to have the same kind of mobility and freedom is pretty special. When my kids go into the communities and see the happiness for something as simple as a bicycle that when a child has the opportunity to be free, to be independent – it’s a privilege; and makes them as kids realise just how privileged they are. Our riders feel it, and people when they travel into the communities feel it.”
“If you think that we wanted as a team to give Africans a voice, to open the door and give them the opportunity at the highest level of cycling, and at the same time raise awareness to the mobility challenge in South Africa – our rides have the unique opportunity to impact that. If a child that receives one of those bicycles thanks to the success of the team wants to ride a bicycle because they love the freedom, and that they can potentially become a sportsman out of it and race their bicycles, and then ends up at the highest level at a team like ours, racing the Tour de France, then that would be the cradle to the Holy Grail story.”
“It would be the most beautiful thing to see someone that starts on a Qhubeka bike end up at the Tour de France, the highest level of cycling.”
