Home Sports News Coronavirus: Africa’s professional cycling team, NTT Pro Cycling, is launching the ‘Be...

Coronavirus: Africa’s professional cycling team, NTT Pro Cycling, is launching the ‘Be Moved’ campaign

191213 TEAM NTT Headshots 2020Credit: Ben Broomfield Credit Social: @photobephoto Copyright: Ben Broomfield Photography 07734 852620 photo@benbroomfield.com

NTT Pro Cycling (www.NTTproCycling.com), Africa’s first-ever Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour team, is proud to initiate ‘Be Moved’: a call to action to open our hearts to the humanity around us, as the world is currently gripped with the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=affJ–YhL_s

‘Be Moved’ comes about after a range of extensive team-wide discussions as to what the current global crisis means, not only to our cycling team but extended into our personal lives and communities across the world. This concept was created together with our partners at the T+W Content Creation Agency, world leaders in the art of storytelling.

The Coronavirus has restricted movement dramatically and it is in this context that the greater purpose of our team and our partnership with the Qhubeka Charity is highlighted. Qhubeka means “to move forward” and their quest to distribute bicycles to communities in need across the African continent is even more relevant to mobilise healthcare workers and those in need of transport at this time.

Since the escalation of global measures to contain the virus has seen team members confined to their homes, our team has been hard at work ensuring that we are better connected. This includes regular engagements with our partners to share knowledge and expertise across a variety of contexts.

The team’s three pillars of focus being family, purpose and opportunity are portrayed in ‘Be Moved’. It is not merely a hashtag but reflects on what our true meaning and purpose is in this changing world.

Douglas Ryder, Team Principal of NTT Pro Cycling

“Be Moved speaks to the essence of what this team is about. At NTT Pro Cycling and with our partners we move to move others, we race to win and to mobilise people in Africa. This is our purpose, it inspires us and gets us up in the morning and is what moves us forward each day. It unites us, makes our hearts beat to a different pulse as can be heard in the riders and staff who contributed to the voiceover in this video. We may be physically alone but this connects us. Be Moved. “

Gareth Whittaker, CEO T+W

“The impact that this team has on the lives of thousands of kids across the African continent moves me. I love that whilst we’re all sitting at home, we are still able to be moved. Working with Doug and his team to help tell the story of NTT Pro Cycling is a great privilege. This short story does a goosebumps job of telling that story, virtual hugs to all.”

Here is the script of the video:

Be Moved.
At its heart SPORT is about movement. Through the air, through water, through time.
Together. Alone.
From Paris to Roubaix Milan to San Remo
For us, it’s also about moving from Home to school. And back again.
We move to move people. We race to mobilise people in Africa. That’s always been our purpose.
It moves us.
So even when we cannot race, cannot be on the roads and in the mountains. Even when we cannot move, we are still moved.
We’re NTT Pro Cycling, moved by Qhubeka.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of NTT Pro Cycling.

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Media contact:
Jean Smyth
jean@ryder.co.za

About NTT Pro Cycling:

NTT Pro Cycling (www.NTTproCycling.com) is Africa’s first-ever Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour team and started its first season in cycling’s top ranks in 2016. Three successful years in the Pro Continental ranks preceded our last three years at World Tour and ever since the team has been building to become one of the top teams in world cycling.

The goal of producing the first African world champion is still very much at the heart of the team’s plans and this is evident in our clear focus on developing African talent, starting with our continental feeder team. Our vision has also expanded somewhat as we look to place an African rider on the podium of the Tour de France by 2020.

Africa’s most talented riders will wear NTT Pro Cycling colours in 2020, with two times Tour de France top 10 finishers, Louis Meintjes spearheading them. Ryan Gibbons, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Nic Dlamini and Stefan de Bod are the future of African cycling race and we will look forward to further developing their careers. Together with African stalwart riders like Jay Thomson and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, the team is the true home of African cycling. Well, known riders like Victor Campenearts, Edvald Basson Hagen, and Giacomo Nizzolo add depth to our race-winning potential and will also help to further globalize the Qhubeka initiative.

The Qhubeka project remains at the core of our setup and the very reason why our team exists. To provide a platform for awareness about Qhubeka and garner international support for the project, so that they may continue to mobilise the African people, gives our team a greater sense of purpose. We wholeheartedly believe in the #BicyclesChangeLives campaign and it will remain a driving force behind our success.

SOURCE
NTT Pro Cycling