La Vuelta Junior Cofidis reinforces child education with the Alberto Contador Foundation

© Photogómez Sport

La Vuelta Junior Cofidis 2019 was presented to the public at midday today in the Samaranch room, at the Sports Council, in Madrid. Besides revealing the stages of La Vuelta Junior Cofidis 2019, the agreement with the Alberto Contador Foundation and a communication campaign regarding bicycle road safety, starring Luis Ángel Maté and created with the DGT (Directorate General of Traffic) were also presented.

The Alberto Contador Foundation joins the project driven by Cofidis to bring awareness regarding strokes and their risk factors in the cycling workshops. The foundation will also be able to recruit talent among the participating school children for its cycling school. The former Spanish rider has described the work carried out by the Vuelta Junior Cofidis as “essential”, and added that “watching boys and girls discover, learn about and enjoy bicycles while learning about road safety is wonderful. It should be a compulsory subject”. During the event, it was announced that the winner of the three Grand Tours would also collaborate on a personal level by participating in one of the stages of La Vuelta Junior Cofidis.

The La Vuelta Junior Cofidis’ commitment to training and education is completed with the launch of a communication campaign designed with the DGT and starring ex-cyclist Luis Ángel Maté. This campaign aims to promote safe bike riding practices and to instil basic road safety in children.

¡El casco es tu amigo! Pedalea Seguro con Cofidis

A JOINT EFFORT

Also in attendance at the event were Juan Sitges (General Director of Cofidis Spain); Javier Guillén (General Director of La Vuelta); Alfonso Jiménez (General Director of the Young Sports Foundation); María Lidón Lozano (Deputy General Director of Training and Road Safety at the DGT) and José Luis de Santos (President of the CPA).

Juan Sitges, reminded those present that “at Cofidis, we support numerous cycling initiatives and La Vuelta Junior Cofidis is one of those that brings us the greatest satisfaction”. The financial company’s general director thanked the other companies for their involvement and referred to the program as a “fantastic idea”. “To train children and promote safe and responsible bike riding practices are two goals that we, at the DGT, believe to be absolutely essential. That is why we support the project and this innovative campaign”, added María Lidón Lozano.

Alfonso Jiménez declared that “projects such as this one make us so proud. We support La Vuelta Junior Cofidis through the Young Sports Foundation because it meets some objectives that, we believe, deserve to be fostered and promoted”.

“To see the children cross the finish-line at each stage of La Vuelta Junior Cofidis is one of the favourite moments of anyone who works at La Vuelta”, confessed Javier Guillén, referring to the 150 school children who complete the final kilometre of the race’s stages. This year, the cities participating in the project are Alicante’s Torrevieja, Calpe and Alicante; El Puig (Valencia), Igualada (Barcelona), Pau (France), Bilbao (Vizcaya), Oviedo (Asturias), Guadalajara, Toledo and Madrid.

A PROJECT WITH AN ALMOST 10-YEAR HISTORY

La Vuelta Junior Cofidis is a road safety program that promotes the use of bicycles and healthy lifestyle habits driven by the financial company since 2011. It has already trained over 225,000 boys and girls all over Spain. Also part of the project, along with Cofidis, are the Sports Council’s Young Sports Foundation, La Vuelta, the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT) and the Professional Cyclists Association (CPA), as well as the Alberto Contador Foundation, that joins them for the first time this year.

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