Idemticos, new project of the Fundación Contador for the promotion of cycling among people with functional diversity
Let functional disability, whatever it may be, not prevent anyone from practising a wonderful sport like cycling. This is the starting point for Idemticos, the new project with which the Contador Foundation, thanks to the decisive collaboration of Cofidis, wants to promote recreational cycling among people with disabilities, both physical and mental, through the Plaza Eboli Cycling Academy.
The handbikes are the first vehicles in the fleet of adapted bikes that the Foundation is working on in order to offer the different groups that make up the functional diversity tangible access to the discovery of this sport. The activities are open to anyone, regardless of sex or age, and will initially take place during the opening hours of the Plaza Eboli Cycling Academy. Both tricycles and tandems will be added to the fleet in the near future.
Although the promotion of competition is not one of the foundational objectives of the Idemticos project, the Contador Foundation does take into account its importance as a means of achieving greater visibility, as a tool for greater standardisation and as a springboard for total integration into society.
For this reason, Idemticos will have the representation of several ambassadors whom it will support individually in the development of their competitive activity within their respective categories. The Catalan living in Granada, José Manuel Dosdad (1973) and the Madrid-based Carlos Javier Mozos (1975), Eva Moral (1982) and Gonzalo García (1996) are its members.
Eva Moral currently combines paratriathlon with cycling, where she competes in the WH4 handbike category. Gonzalo García, with cerebral palsy, competes with tricycles in the MT1 category. Carlos Javier Mozos, although suffering from a spinal injury, competes with a conventional bicycle in the MC1 category. José Manuel Dosdad, with a partial amputation of his left leg, competes in the MC4 category and also on a conventional bicycle.
Alfredo Sánchez, coordinator of the project within the Alberto Contador Foundation: “Every new project has an exciting component, but in the case of Idemticos we were talking about a really new initiative in the sense that none of these characteristics are linked to the reality of adapted cycling. We are convinced that our ambassadors are going to help us a lot to make it known while we help them to continue developing their sporting careers. We are all very keen to get started.
Francisco Javier Contador, Secretary General of the Foundation: “With Idemticos we are taking a new step towards the objective we set ourselves a few years ago of becoming, little by little, a comprehensive cycling project. We want this idea to include all the categories and their different modalities, as well as a transversal way through the involvement of different initiatives promoted by the Foundation”.
“Through this project we want to promote cycling among people with functional diversity, taking advantage of all the logistics provided by our Cycling School Plaza Eboli and generating a synergy between two of the Foundation’s lines of work in promoting our sport. Personally, I am particularly excited about its implementation because I believe that it opens up a new route, which does not yet exist, on the road to normalisation and integration”, he concludes.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
