Watching four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome tackle a newly-built pump track on Friday alongside local Rwandan riders, in front of a raucous crowd of schoolchildren, gave an insight into what Israel-Premier Tech’s Field of Dreams is all about.
The Field of Dreams, a project built to help the children of Rwanda into cycling, was launched on Friday, in the presence of the team’s co-owner, Sylvan Adams, and Rwandan dignitaries. The site consists of the pump track and a kilometre-long course in Bugesera, southern Rwanda, both of which were raced on on Friday.
This is the culmination of phase one of the team’s plan, through its Racing for Change initiative, to help the children of Bugesera, and further afield in Rwanda, through cycling. Cycling is everything in this part of the central African country, with bikes used for everything from visits to the hospital to trips to school.
Adams, speaking to Cycling Weekly on Friday at the track, made it clear that this was not the end: "We are just getting started."
"The next phase is a building," he said, "which will house the academy, which means we will bring coaches, bike mechanics, and other facilities like housing, so we can get people from outside of this region in. This will really be the Rwandan cycling academy."
1200 supporters contributed to the project, as well as funding from Adams, Israel-Premier Tech’s co-owner Ron Baron, and other sponsors. It is part of the Community of Hope, an education hub for children founded by Serge […]
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