Cycling over the Alps for a good cause

The race climbs through the mountains of the Alps and Dolomites for 824km. Pogačar rode the first leg as #PSCC24 ambassador, marking the third year of a partnership between Plume — a Silicon Valley-based company that delivers cloud-managed, adaptive Wi-Fi services to more than 55-million smart spaces globally — and Street Child, an organisation that works with locals to ensure that disadvantaged children have access to an education.

This year, the collaboration focuses on a project to support the development of 15 rural secondary schools in Sierra Leone, providing education to more than 1,500 children each year, as well as teacher training and the establishment of a community agricultural project to help sustain the school.

The partnership has raised more than $1.3m (R23.2m) to support education through Street Child. Last year, Plume raised more than $575,000 to restore education for children affected by the Turkey-Syria earthquake. 

Andrea Nagel spoke to Fahri Diner, the co-founder and CEO of Plume and Pogačar about the #PlumeStrong Cycling Challenge and cycling in general:

Andrea Nagel: How did you get into cycling and how did you get so good at it at such a young age?

Tadej Pogačar: My first coach was a friend of my parents (they play volleyball together). He was recruiting kids and wanted my brother to join his cycling team. I wanted to do everything my brother did so I followed him when I was big enough to fit on the bike. I   fell in love with the bike. Since then I've been living the life of a cyclist. I'm lucky to be good at it also.

AN: Which of the many races you've won has been the most satisfying?

TP: Flanders is still top of the list as a one day race. It's high on adrenaline and hype for one day race.

AN: What's your favourite training route?

TP: I have a lot of favourite places. I love to train in Slovenia. In Skara there are beautiful routes but not for a long period of time because all the roads the same. I spend the most time around Monaco where I live. There's a lot of climbing and always good weather. I also enjoy Calpe in Spain and some routes in the Sierra Nevada when the training gets serious. 

AN: Your girlfriend, Urška Žigart is a top cyclist as well. Do you train with her and can she keep up with you?

TP: We train a lot together but stick to our training plans from our coaches. Maybe we'll separate on the climb sometimes or when we do intervals, or if one of us is riding at a different pace. On the climbs, she flies. She's a double national champion this year. 

AN: What do you do for fun in your downtime?

TP: I like to eat good food and drive fast cars. I read some books and watch Netflix. I like to walk in Monaco with my girlfriend, going to get gelato, ice cream.

AN: How did you get involved with PlumeStrong?

TP: I saw an interesting project, the #PlumeStrong Cycling Challenge. Five days of riding from Zurich to Ljubljana or Zurich to Nice. It's an interesting concept — raising money for a good cause and every year they double what they've raised. I started to enjoy their challenge. It's a nice way to grow the company and also help people in need. They asked me to be ambassador and I agreed because it's an extraordinary company that fits my image.

AN: Why is philanthropy important to you?

TP: It's the way my parents raised me. They taught me I don't need all the money in the world for myself. I'm lucky enough to be a top cyclist with decent salary and if I can help  people I will.

AN: How does Plume decide which charities to support?

Fahri Diner: We're a tech company based out of Silicon Valley where our headquarters are. Our European headquarters are in Ljubljana, Slovenia — so we have significant roots there. We met Tadej through those circles. In 2020, #PlumeStrong began as an internal initiative during the pandemic to support the mental and physical health of our global workforce. Four years later, we have raised over €1,300,000 and, through our partnership with Street Child, we've been able to extend our impact globally. We don't want to be just a successful company, but a good company too. This cycling challenge is our main fundraiser. We've built education centres in Moldova and Ukraine. We're building a high school currently in the earthquake impacted areas of Turkey.

AN: What exactly does Plume do?

FD: We do a lot of things related to internet connectivity at home, like Wi-Fi network management and making sure that you get unbelievable connectivity in every corner of your home all of the time, for all your devices. We also make the internet secure for you. We do things like parental controls for the consumers, to make sure that kids aren't being bullied. Think of us as an in-home services provider. We're in about 60-million homes, so we're the largest company in this space. 

For more info about Plume click here and about Street Child click here