PHILADELPHIA — Fuji Bikes is expanding on a 30-year relationship with the Cuban national cycling team, inking a five-year, $200,000 agreement to sponsor the team and supply it with 10 bikes per year.
The agreement will be formally announced on March 21 in Havana, on the first day of President Obama's historic visit to Cuba.
"Since before I joined Fuji, Cuba has been a part of Fuji's sponsorship and cycling advocacy conversation," said Pat Cunnane, president and CEO of Advanced Sports International, Fuji's parent company. "With the new changes the Obama Administration has put in place, it makes working with Cuba easier and more of a priority."
For decades, the majority of competitive cyclists in Cuba had to piecemeal together bikes and equipment through donations and other means. Jose Manuel Pelaez, the president of Cuba Cycling Federation, said that Fuji's collaboration with Cuban cycling runs deep.
"We are excited to solidify this relationship that we've had for many years with Fuji," Pelaez said in a statement released by ASI. "We still have athletes training on Fuji bikes donated in the past."
Tracy Lea, team manager of the original Fuji-Suntour program and member of the UCI Master's Commission, was instrumental in assisting Cuba to host its first Pan American Masters Championships in the mid-1990s.
Since then, Lea along with Mike Fraysee, vice president of the UCI Pan American Confederation and three-time president of the U.S. Cycling Federation (now known as USA Cycling), has brought hundreds of Fuji bikes to Cuba. "Sport transcends everything," Lea said. "There are no politics at the track or on the road. Cycling is more than just riding your bike, it opens up doors."
Pelaez said the legacy of Fuji in Cuba continues as Cuban track racer Arlenis Sierra recently won the bronze medal in the women's points race at the Track World Championships in London on a Fuji Track Elite. Sierra also trains on a Fuji Altamira provided by Bike Masters Miami shop owner, Eliecer Padron.
Milay Galvez, Fuji's manager of sponsorship and international marketing, was born and raised in Cuba.
Lisa Nutter, a Fuji Ambassador and U.S. National medalist on the track, will travel to Cuba this week with her husband Michael Nutter, the former mayor of Philadelphia, to make the sponsorship official. The Nutters were instrumental in bringing the women's World Cup back to the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic as well as elevating the status of the event.
