Mechanics workshop for the Plaza Éboli Cycling Academy by Raúl Martín, Aurum Bikes volunteer
The Plaza Éboli Cycling Academy of the Contador Foundation carries out its activities on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 17:30 to 19:30 (CET). Normally the bike is the main protagonist through sessions that have the Shopping Centre as the centre of operations, but sometimes the scenario changes and so does the perspective. Such is the case of the last session of the School, this Tuesday 15th October, in which the girls and boys have enjoyed a mechanics workshop by Raúl Martín Iglesias, mechanic and fitter of the Aurum Bikes company, which has been developed in the facilities of Bicis para la Vida by Škoda in Pinto.
Martín, who is also a qualified cycling school technical director and regularly attends cycling activities, explains: “The main objective of this session was to raise awareness among the kids about the need to take care of their bikes. The bike is a wonderful tool, but it requires maintenance, if only for safety reasons. They, because of their age, are not usually on top of it and any maintenance is usually left to parents, family or friends. I asked them if they knew all the parts of the bike, and they all said yes in unison, but when we got to a specific part, they didn’t know the name. The important thing is to make them aware. In the end it was a very simple, very basic session, guidelines on how to clean, how to grease, how to be aware of these parts that have a great influence on safety, because we are still talking about a vehicle that moves on public roads and is susceptible to accidents”.
Some of the children’s parents also wanted to take part in the workshop. “They have also asked me to repeat it in the future, but more advanced and with contents for them’, smiles Martín. ‘Some of the children asked me if they could take the bicycle we had as a model’. ‘It was very good, it was very entertaining. And to be honest, with the weather we had in Pinto today, we couldn’t have chosen a better day for it to take place’, jokes the director of the school, Álvaro García. ‘In the end the kids learn that a minimum maintenance doesn’t cost anything, both economically and in terms of time effort; and that this way the bike will not only last longer, but it will also work better”.
‘During the last year, the collaboration between Aurum and the Foundation’s projects has become closer with different volunteer projects,’ says Henar García, head of the social area of the institution. ‘The knowledge of Aurum’s employees has provided us with solutions, and has even helped us to optimise spaces and other resources. The work with the school, which is becoming more and more evident, is very gratifying, above all because it provides a much broader approach to the reality of cycling. Pedalling is a lot of fun, but it is also important that you can pedal because the mechanics are ready. Encouraging curiosity, in the sense of keeping in good condition, and mechanical skills are relevant aspects within a cycling school and thanks to Raúl’s collaboration we have an exceptional professional who, on occasions, also joins in as a monitor’.
The collaboration of Aurum Bikes with the Contador Foundation projects is intense. Borja Fernández and Jesús López, Raúl’s colleagues, volunteer with Bicis para la Vida by Škoda. In addition, the bicycle company created by Alberto Contador and Ivan Basso sponsors the sports structures sponsored by the institution, with Team Polti Kometa at the forefront, and has also collaborated in recent years with the organisation of the Schools Race and the launch of the Gran Fondo Contador in Oliva Nova (Oliva, Valencia; Comunitat Valenciana).
