7th December 2020
Green Square are proud to be sponsoring the junior womens’ and men’s cycling team Tofauti Everyone Active, for a second year.
When the team came into existence ahead of the 2020 season, they had no idea what was about to hit them. An exciting debut season of European UCI races was wiped out by Covid. But from that, the team has found new opportunity. Quickly changing focus, Tofauti Everyone Active were the first people in the world to launch virtual racing for junior riders with their Junior Lockdown Race Series on a virtual platform. This got an amazing response, with more than 130 top junior riders from across Europe and beyond taking part. Hugely positive feedback from all over the world was a welcome reward.
Another impressive move was to ride the route of the TRANSWales endurance race from Bangor to Cardiff – a non-stop 18 hours of riding, a mere 360km. If you have a bored moment checkout this lovely film they made of this adventure. View clip
What attracted us to Tofauti Everyone Active was how they empower these junior riders, aged 16 to 18, to take control of their development, to build resilience, determination and ultimately success, and at the same time helping to add to the stories of their partners.
The team takes its name from its charity partner, the Tofauti Foundation, and uses its profile to increase exposure for the Foundation. Established by Crista Cullen MBE, a member of the gold medal-winning GB Hockey team from the Rio Olympics, the Foundation undertakes amazing conservation and community work in Africa. They work with local people to help them sustain a way of life that leverages their relationship with the natural world they live in.
The Foundation’s guiding principles also resonated with us:
- Go further together – we think the challenges facing Africa can only be tackled through an approach that unites. core to everything we do is our focus on building teams to create and sustain solutions.
- Educate and empower – experience has shown us that for change in Africa to be long-term it needs to be owned by the local people. So, every Tofauti project is designed to bring local stakeholders along with us.
- Connect the dots – we understand that everything is connected. So we are unwavering in applying both depth of knowledge and breadth of perspective to all that we do.
For the 2021 season, the team comprises 8 junior women and 7 junior men, among them 6 current or former national champions in a wide range of cycling disciplines. The team gives many of its riders their first opportunity to race in Europe, where they have an excellent race calendar, including a large number of UCI races – the highest level in the sport at junior level.
The female and male riders get equal support through the year, with that backing aiming to retain every rider’s love of the sport – to keep the same enthusiasm and excitement that cycling brought them when they first rode a bike.
If you would like to get involved, Ian would love to hear from you Ian Mansel-Thomas.
The Tofauti Foundation – https://www.tofauti.org
Team website – http://tofautieveryoneactive.com
Team Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/tofautieveryoneactive/
Team Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tofautieveryoneactive
Team Twitter – https://twitter.com/TofautiEA