Paul's Peloton

Soccer is the most watched and played sport with over 4 billion fans and supporters around the world . The sport commands a high level of passion and commitment from it fans and this is one of the numerous reasons that contributes to its vast popularity. The game of soccer brings people of different races, classes, social and political status, region and religion together. The roots of soccer runs deep into the culture and traditions of people.

Even at the club side level, soccer is often associated with a particular place, an example of this is the Barcelona FC which is located in Barcelona the capital of catalonia in Spain, the football club originated from amongst the people and has grown and developed with them ever since and this explains the very high level of dedication and commitment that the people have for the club and soccer at large. Another example of how soccer is rooted to a particular place is seen in Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid which are both located in Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan which are both located in Milan, dynamo Kiev in Kiev, locomotive Moscow in Moscow, Bayern Munich in Munich, Liverpool FC in Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester etc.

Just like the football clubs themselves, the banners used by these clubs most times are also deeply rooted in the peoples culture and tradition. The banners often carry the logo of the football club and these logos symbols back into the history of the people. For example, most of the banners in Barcelona carries the logo of the club,

This logo tells a brief story about the history of the people, the cross on the upper left of the logo refers to the Saint George’s cross who was a Saint in catalonia in the early 1880s, the four red bars on the upper right was adapted from the catalonia national flag which according to history, was made by King Wilfred of catalonia in the 9th century. The crest or logo of this team is rich in the cultural heritage of the people and every banner that carries this connects the club to its people and its native home. This soccer team banners carried by the fans and supporters of the club serves as a source of motivation for the team’s players, team sports banners generally serves as a means of beefing up the teams image and promoting the cultural values of the people. Other clubs whose logos and banners are of historical significance includes Real Madrid, Ajax FC, Intel Milan, Arsenal FC etc.

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Hi, my name is Paul Sherwen, most of you know me as the voice of the Tour de France in the English Speaking world.   What you might not know is that I grew up in Uganda and still alive there today.  Africa is my home and  bikes and cycling are in my blood.

As a Tour de France rider for 8 years, I learned what it takes to win and the  power  and support a team provides.  Even a great team is not enough, teams in a grand tour cycling event must at times work together for the betterment of not  only their team, but in support of the other riders and teams.   With the  success of Chris Froome, a Safari Simbaz winning the last 3  Tour de France’s and  the success  of the Rwandan cycling team, we have seen cycling  take off in East Africa.  To    support  the great projects and riders  who inspire to  excel while helping their communities, we have created Paul’s Peloton, with the goal of Leading Africa Forward through Cycling  while creating responsible riders  who are  recognized as world class for their humanitarian efforts in addition to their bike skills.

 15 years ago, my friend  Pat Montani approached me with the idea of delivering containers of used bicycles to Africa to provide needed mobility for  healthcare workers and students having to travel long distances to school.   We founded Bicycles for Humanity and it quickly became  a global grassroots movement of inspired   volunteers and together we have delivered over 155,000 bikes, with over 45,000 bikes going to  healthcare workers.  today, with no staff or overhead  of any kind the   Bicycles for Humanity program we founded 15 years ago  continues to grow.

Empowering  healthcare workers and helping  students get to school was our main priority, but along the way, people started racing our donated bikes and entire  youth cycling programs have grown in Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Uganda and Kenya around the bikes we   shipped.   There are many incredible  African  bicycle racing programs springing up, and cycling as a sport is growing  at an incredible pace across all of Africa.  

​As a past pro cyclist, I understood hard work  and  determination, having  twice missed the   alloted  time for a stage, but  when the tour organizers saw the  determination  to finish, they  allowed me  to go on and race another day.  A strong work ethic and determination is important, but helping others and giving back is equally important.  Strong teams and the teams working together in the peloton win races and  our goal in creating Paul’s Peloton is to bring together  determined volunteers  that want to make a difference and  young riders who not only  show  the cycling skills, but also the  determination to help their  communities, through  helping deliver better education, healthcare an opportunity to all through the iEmpowerment program we also founded.  Riders who can add value to  the sport and to society  are what every sponsor and advertiser of a cycling team wants.  This is the foundation not our program, we may not be  Tour de France ready to ride, but  we are  tour ready as humanitarians and need the time and support to develop our cycling skills.

Hopefully some day, we will see an all African team at the Tour de France.  If all of us in the global cycling community pull together and join  forces with the  strong  cycling leaders  in Africa, we can make this  happen.

We invite everyone to join us and  our  team of East African Cycling Initiatives , the Safari Simbaz  and Kara Tunga and make  together,  not only change cycling in Africa, but  more importantly improve  the lives of all  in Africa.

Paul Sherwen