Tao Geoghegan Hart will fund a spot on the Axeon team to increase diversity
Reigning Giro d’Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart said on Thursday that he will sponsor a roster spot on the Axeon Hagens Berman team in what he is hoping will be “the beginning of a joint effort to increase racial diversity within the amazing sport of cycling.”
Geoghegan Hart, who rode for the Axeon Hagens Berman squad from 2015 to 2016 before joining the Sky/Ineos organization, announced the news via Instagram.
“Cycling has a problem with diversity and inclusivity,” Geoghegan Hart wrote in a post. “This is a fact. It is not unique within sport, but we must face it head on all the same.”
The 25-year-old Brit said that he will be working with Axeon team manager Axel Merckx “to identify, coach and mentor the person, and athlete, to join the team on August 1st.”
The US-based Axeon Hagens Berman team, which currently races at the Continental level, has established itself as one of the sport’s top development squads over the past several years. Geoghegan Hart is one of several alumni now racing (and thriving) at the sport’s highest level. Other former team members include Jasper Stuyven, João Almeida, Jasper Philipsen, and Ruben Guerreiro, to name only a few.
Geoghegan Hart said more details on the initiative would be forthcoming.
“I don’t have all the answers but I do know that I want live in a world that fights for social justice,” Geoghegan Hart wrote. “A world that shares all the good that we have.”
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