PROTOUCH launches 12-man Pan African Continental Team for 2022 season, in the lead up to Kigali2025

PROTOUCH, Africa’s number one UCI-registered Continental Team today announced its roster for the 2022 season, including twelve riders from four African Cycling Nations. The South African-registered team, that commenced in 2019, has maintained its top ranking since inception and is now broadening this platform to include four Rwandan riders, an Eritrean and Ugandan rider alongside six South African riders [who were all part of the 2021 squad]. This exciting move aims to boost diversity in the cycling world and enable more African riders, in the lead up to Paris2024 and Kigali2025.

PROTOUCH is the only UCI-registered all-African team, with riders from more than one African country! The 2022 squad includes South African: Kent Main (ranked 3rd in Africa), Gustav Basson (ranked 22nd in Africa), Rohan du Plooy, Callum Ormiston (u23), Mitchell Eliot, Tiano da Silva (u23); Rwandan riders: Jean Eric Habimana (u23 ranked 24th in Africa), Moise Mugisha (ranked 26th in Africa), Samuel Mugisha and Jean Claude Nzafashwanayo (u23); as well as Eritrean Mehari Tewelde (u23); and Ugandan Charles Kagimu (ranked 33rd in Africa). The strong squad provides a combination of young, promising talent and more experienced continental riders, from Africa.

PROTOUCH is an African Sports brand, focussed on enabling Athletes to perform on the World Stage. “We take naturally-talented road cyclists from Africa and enable them to compete and perform in a global cycling ecosystem” announced Rebecca Eliot, business development officer for PROTOUCH AFRICA. “Our vision is to revolutionize Professional Cycling in Africa, by building a sustainable business that supports high performance and unlocks value for athletes, brands, cycling enthusiasts and investors” Eliot added.

Having run successfully the PROTOUCH Continental Team for the past three years – despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic – it is passionate about growing this Pan African Team, alongside an African Talent Agency and funded via a new business model that supports the migration of talented road cyclists from Africa, onto the global stage.

In partnership with Phil Liggett, the global voice of cycling, PROTOUCH has also established The Phil Liggett Foundation. The foundation will seek to raise funds for African road cyclists participating in UCI Teams, as well as those selected to participate in their national team events, that are often self-funded in Africa. “Over the past three years, there have been fewer than fifteen African riders in the Men’s World Tour, consisting of over 500 athletes across 19 teams; and, only one women in the Women’s World Tour. Currently approximately 150 African riders are competing in World Tour, Women’s World Tour, Pro, Continental and National Teams from Africa. Investing now, could not have come at a better time” commented Phil Liggett.

The PROTOUCH business model seeks to engage and monetise the cycling enthusiast fan base, by leveraging a combined reach of over 1,5 million followers, that already are engaged with African Cycling. As this community grows, PROTOUCH plans to monetise it using its Fan Engagement Platform, Foundation Merchandise and digital NFT’s. Fans will also soon be able to explore and build their ultimate African Cycling NFT Collections, featuring the top performing African Road Cyclists on the World Stage and be part of this incredible African ATHLETE IMPACT FUND story, from the beginning!

PROTOUCH is currently establishing a service course in Girona, Spain with one of the team’s investors and together with its partnership with The Flandrien Hotel in Belgium, plans to host African riders in Girona and Belgium each year – exposing young talent to international racing – and migrating the top performing riders into the PROTOUCH Continental Team to race in Africa, Asia and Europe UCI events. “Our vision is to see top riders from Africa migrating into bigger teams (Continental and Pro) through our Athlete Agency” added Eliot.

A new documentary series is also on the cards, coinciding with the PROTOUCH Team taking part in the 2022 Tour du Rwanda in February and then will follow the riders over the next four years through Africa >> Asia >> Europe leading up to Paris2024 >> Kigali2025 and, beyond… it will also include interviews with previous African Champions and riders who made their way onto the global stage [past and current] and explore the challenges and celebrations that face African riders in cycling.

The World’s top road cyclists are coming to Africa for the 2025 UCI World Championships in Rwanda. This will be the first time in 100 years, that the event will be hosted on the African Continent. “PROTOUCH could not be more excited. Every cyclist from Africa, we place into the global cycling ecosystem has the opportunity to transform many more opportunities for the cyclists that follow” concluded Eliot.

Plans are also already underway to add a women’s team to the PROTOUCH ecosystem and more information on this will be released soon. This is just the beginning of this incredible African Cycling Story.

MORE ABOUT THE PROTOUCH AFRICA BUSINESS

PROTOUCH is the exclusive distributor in Africa, of the Swiss-based Blocksport Fan Engagement Platform as well as representing a range of other EU-developed Sports Technologies including an athlete management system and real-time performance management platform, delivered by Inspire Sports in Belgium. PROTOUCH provides sports brands, teams, clubs and athletes with their own branded and fully managed mobile platform combining information, community management, gamification, e-commerce, rewards and crowdfunding – easy to implement and ready to roll-out within 30 days! Integrated to this is a Blockchain-based NFT Marketplace where fans can mint, share, collect and trade sports assets of their favourite sports stars and teams, enjoying secure copyright ownership.

Using Blocksport technology, PROTOUCH has built the PROTOUCH AFRICA Platform which aggregates African cycling news and on demand content, features top African athlete profiles [from the Top 15 cycling nations] with direct links to their social media channels and UCI Africa Tour rankings. Our business model leverages five pillars for commercialization – Broadcast Rights [a documentary series, following the journey to #Kigali20250], Merchandise and Events [a range of Phil Liggett Foundation apparel and events], NFT’s [African Cycling digital collectibles via a Blockchain marketplace], and an African Athlete Agency [focussed entirely on tracking and identifying talent in Africa] – each of these components will drive revenues into our planned Athlete Impact Investment Fund, managed in partnership with The Phil Liggett Foundation.

DOWNLOAD OUR APP –

 FOR MORE INFORMATION:

 Rebecca Eliot

+27 83656 4632

rebecca@protouch.africa