Promoting Cycling Culture in Ivory Coast: Velafrica’s Partner Sport3

Velafrica’s partner in the Ivory Coast, Sport3, is more than just a bike shop. Led by founder Nicolas de Roux, the team actively promotes local cycling culture through regular bike races and a recreational program for children. An interview.

Nicolas, what led you to open a bike shop in the capital, Abidjan?

I was born in Brittany, France, but I came to the Ivory Coast when I was about 23 to set up a telecommunications company. After that, I founded Sport3 because I’m a huge cycling fan. Now, every year, we source around 1,300 used bikes from Velafrica and about the same number of new bikes from other dealers. We also sell accessories, offer bike rentals, and perform repairs.

What is the local cycling culture like? How widespread is cycling?

Cycling isn’t overly common in Abidjan yet. As elsewhere, there’s this persistent stereotype that cycling is something only poor people do. Those who can afford it buy a motorcycle or a car. There’s also no cycling infrastructure, so cyclists have to share the road with motorized traffic. This leads to dangerous situations time and again—I’m actually recovering from a collision with a motorcycle right now. Nevertheless, more and more mountain bike clubs are being founded in Abidjan.

What does it take to get more people in Abidjan to ride bikes?

The trend is slowly shifting as more and more people are discovering the joys of cycling. But for cycling to truly become popular, at least three changes are needed: safer bike paths; lower import tariffs so that more bikes can be imported into the Ivory Coast; and young people need to become familiar with cycling and have fun doing it. That’s exactly where we come in.

How does Sport3 promote cycling among children?

Since this spring, we’ve set up a training program for children from underserved neighborhoods near our store. The children can borrow a bike and a helmet from us for free, and I, along with three other coaches, teach them how to ride and organize short rides. Now, during summer break, the program takes place two to three times a week. After summer break, we’ll continue the program but adjust the times to fit the school schedule. There’s a lot of interest in the program: We’ve promoted it exclusively through word of mouth, and we now have nearly 100 children between the ages of 8 and 14 participating. We hope that one or two of these kids will go on to become professional cyclists!

How do you fund this program?

Sport3 funds it itself, for the most part. However, Velafrica is now donating several dozen children’s bikes, which we can use in the program. And in the medium term, we’re trying to attract local sponsors whose logos we’ll print on our sports T-shirts. Thanks to our reach and visibility, this is attractive to sponsors.

Sport3 also organizes bike races. How does that work?

We’ve been organizing these races for quite some time. Sport3 isn’t just a store—it’s also a recognized cycling club. As such, this September, for example, we’re organizing a mountain bike race for children ages 6 to 14 for the fourth time. We’ve also organized races for adults. That’s how we promote cycling culture—kilometer by kilometer.

Interview by Bettina Wyler (Velafrica), Photos from Sport3