The Alberto Contador Foundation supports Gabon’s national team in its training camp in Spain

Since last Tuesday, the Gabonese National Team is installed on the coast of the Spanish Levante under the coaching of Abraham Olano, who will lead them in a 45 days training camp with the aim of preparing the country’s most important race, the Tropicale Amissa Bongo.

Eight riders and a mechanical form the Gabonese expedition, with the intention of getting the best set-up in ‘La Tropicale’, the only international race of this central African country that wants to give a definitive boost to the level of cycling, so far very limited.

For this, the President of the Gabonese Federation, Maurice Nazaire Embinga, came into contact with Alberto Contador Foundation a few months ago, and the result of this collaboration has been the hiring of Abraham Olano as national coach and now the training camp taht is all new to this African team.

Contador Foundation has provided bicycles for Gabonese riders in their stage in Spain and has donated racing kits for training, as well as diverse technical material from all of the Flex and Specialized teams. In addition to this support, Olano has already achieved the first direct ‘sponsor’ of Gabon national team, thanks to Insalus, which has provided the water to consume riders in Spain.

Fran Contador, manager of the Foundation, will further deepen this collaboration over the next season and not only support the selection of Gabon, but also cycling base. «Once they finish the next edition of the Amissa Bongo, who is the first goal, among other actions we plan to do a large shipment of bikes through our project ‘Bikes for Life’ with the aim of promoting cycling among the little ones throughout the country».

For his part, Abraham Olano, who is developing his work in Gabon since last October, is optimistic about the performance of his riders. «They have a lot to learn, but also have much room for improvement, because until now they have trained very little. In these 45 days of work in Spain I hope they will greatly improve their performance and be able to arrive well to the Tropicale, although it will be a very difficult challenge».

Olano’s plan then passes through promoting cycling across the country and the organization of a national calendar in the nine provinces of Gabon, which hopes to secure greater number of cyclists in the future and find future figures of the country. Meanwhile, the eight members of the team continue their work in Spain in order to materialize the best performance of their country in the ten editions held to date of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo.