Angola in Portugal with an eye on the Rwanda World Cups: «We have already won our Tour» – Volta a Portugal
The ‘goal’ is Rwanda, but Portugal has served as a launching pad for BAI-Sicasal-Petro de Luanda, a team that aims to boost young Angolan talents and prepare them so that, in 2025, the national team a good figure in the first World Cup held in Africa. This team led by Carlos Araújo is not known for the great results it makes in the Portuguese calendar, but the sporting director guarantees that it “won the Tour” in the 5th stage, at the Vila Nova Observatory. in conversation with Recordthe former runner, now 54, spoke about the present, but also the past and future of this team.
Goals
“I usually say this: there are teams that come to win, others that come to be in the fight, others come to participate and there are those who come to cheer. That’s what happened in Miranda do Corvo. We have three boys who defend themselves well in this type of phases [montanha] and being in good shape, unlike Serra Estrela. It’s part of our goals to try to get someone on the podium in one stage, get into the top 15 teams and try to get someone into the top 30. For now, we are succeeding.”
only two angolans
“We had a life of a person where we are both equal and those who are not important to us. There is a difficulty that they would take to the rest of the staff. Our objective is to develop the invitation earlier, we hope the organization understands that we are worthy from here.
Few national athletes pinch the project?
We have a structure that is unique to Luanda. Petro de Luanda’s football team also has many foreigners and when one of them scores, Petro’s goal is not from the country the player represents. If we are fortunate enough to make a podium, the podium will belong to BAI- Sicasal – What is more likely – contact so that we cannot have a hegemony of Luanda, or enough, which in 2019/2020 we already have. that when we go to that matters to us, and that’s what matters to us, and that’s what we want.”
Reception in Angola in case of triumph
“If we won a stage in the Volta a Portugal it was as if we won the Volta. In fact, our result at the Vila Nova Observatory [6.º lugar de Barry Miller] it’s already like we’ve won. Our Tour is done, it was a huge joy, regardless of whether the cyclist is not Angolan, it was a huge joy in Angola.”
Rwanda World Cups in 2025
“I started to address the issue of the 25 World Cups, in Rwanda20, when we went to the Tour of Rwanda for the first time, the UCI president was there and he said that our team was a project for the future and that he would like to see us in 2025. Since then we’ve been working towards that, we’re also trying to get two athletes into the World Championships this year, to start working on these types of halls.”