Neil Shirley rides for World Bicycle Relief
4 November 2009
This week in San Diego, TrainingPeaks interviewed Neil Shirley, a rider for the Kelly Benefits Strategies Team. Neil uses TrainingPeaks both as an athlete and a coach. “I’ve been using TrainingPeaks myself for about three years, and now I use it to coach about 10 athletes… I’ve seen the benefits of the program as an athlete and now also as a coach – it makes my job much easier.”
Recently, Neil had the opportunity to visit Zambia as part of his team’s association with World Bicycle Relief, a charity organization that has provided more than 50,000 bikes to people in need of cheap, sustainable transportation around the globe since 2005. Watch the entire interview here, check out a video from Zambia here, and read on for more details about the team’s association with World Bicycle Relief below.
“At the beginning of the season, Kelly Benefits Strategies became associated with World Bicycle Relief… Throughout the entire season, we’ve been raising money to buy bicycles for Zambian school children and caregivers. Part of the deal was through this money that was raised to buy bikes, we were also planning to send some of our riders over to see first hand the impact of the program, so I was fortunate enough to be one of the four riders selected.”
“We got to experience this amazing thing: bicycles, how powerful they are. We know how amazing they are, I’ve earned a living riding a bike for years, we’re passionate about bikes, but then to see the other end of the spectrum, where people are using bikes just for survival… All the way from using it to commute to school, so children aren’t walking 8 miles each way, it makes their productivity go way up, to hauling 200 pounds of firewood on the back of the bike. When pretty much everyone is walking, people don’t have automobiles, it’s huge.”
“Next year we’re going to continue to do that, raising money for World Bicycle Relief through the season. It’s probably one of the greatest things I’ve been able to do.”
As the team raises money next year, the riders hope to be racing around the world, from Nationals and the Tour of California to Europe. “It’s actually one of my biggest goals, getting back on the podium at Nationals. We have the depth and the talent to bring the jersey back…. We haven’t been invited yet to the Tour of California, but I’m going to keep my fingers crossed, I think we’ll end up being there. Looking back from there, we’ll have a training camp before that, and some hard international racing if we make it to Europe.”
Happy riding to Neil and to all cyclists around the globe!
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