Since last Tuesday, the Gabonese Cycling Team has been gathered on the coast of the Spanish city of Levante under the direction of Abraham Olano who will lead them during a training camp of 45 days with the aim of preparing them for the country's most important race, the Tropicale Amissa Bongo .

Eight riders and a mechanical form the Gabonese team, with the intention of getting the best set-up for 'La Tropicale', the only international race in the central African country that wants to give a boost to the level of cycling.

For this, the President of the Gabonese Federation, Maurice Nazaire Embinga, started talks with the Alberto Contador Foundation a few months ago, and the result of this collaboration has been the hiring of Abraham Olano as national coach and now the training camp.

The Contador Foundation has provided bikes for the Gabonese riders in Spain and has donated racing kits for their training, as well as equipment from the Flex and Specialized teams. In addition to this support, Olano has already secured the first sponsor for the Gabonese team, Insalus which has provided water for the riders in Spain.

Fran Contador, manager of the Foundation, will extend this collaboration over the next season and not only support the selection of Gabon, but also build a cycling base. "Once you finish the next edition of Amissa Bongo which is the first goal, we plan to do a large shipment of bikes through our project 'Bikes for Life' with the aim of promoting cycling among the kids throughout the country."

For his part, Abraham Olano, who has been developing his work in Gabon since last October, is optimistic about the performance of his riders. "They have a lot to learn, but also have much room for improvement, because until now they have trained very little. In these 45 days of work in Spain I hope they will improve their performance greatly and be able to do well in Tropicale although it will be a very difficult challenge."

Olano's plan then passes through promoting cycling across the country and creating a national calendar in the nine provinces of Gabon, hoping to secure a greater number of riders in the future. Meanwhile, the eight members of the team continue their work in Spain in order to deliver the best performance so far in the ten editions of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo.