CyclistRiding on Tadej Pogaars wheel was amazing, even though I was redlining: Q&A with Fahri Diner from PlumeStrongCyclist: Plume is your tech company, PlumeStrong is its CSR program, and Tadej Pogaar is PlumeStrongs ambassador. Youre both busy guys one a billion-dollar tech entrepreneur, the other one of the greatest cyclists of all time so how did it all begin?Fahri Diner: Honestly, we were lucky. We started the PlumeStrong initiative during Covid. At Plume [Diners tech company] we were trying to be healthy, active, eat well, because nobody knew anything about this virus, right? So a bunch of us started riding in this informal way. That somehow morphed into the first PlumeStrong Cycling Challenge in 2021, but heres the thing although were based in Silicon Valley our European headquarters are Ljubljana in Slovenia. We have a lot of Slovenians in the company, so we talked to Tadej [who is of course Slovenian] about supporting us, and here we are. He has his own initiatives helping people in and around where we work, and so he just resonated with our cause.This year that cause is Street Child, with whom youre working to raise money to build 15 secondary schools in rural Sierra Leone. By our reckoning youve raised 650,000 and counting this year, nearly 2 million cumulatively, and much of it through the PlumeStrong Cycling Challenge whats the deal with that ride?Every year I kind of crank it up a bit, so this year it was 824km over five stages, 2nd-6th September, from Zurich to Venice, with over 15,200m of climbing. Look at the course and it has a roughly 2% average gradient across the whole thing, so it looks a lot like what they do in the WorldTour. We do it slower, obviously. But the challenge is serious and people really train for it. This year we rode over the Stelvio, Pordoi and Zoncolan, and thats just the bigger ones.We did the first stage with Tadej, part of which was a recce for him for the Worlds. Riding on his wheel was amazing, even though I was redlining.What is the driver behind starting PlumeStrong? Its not like you dont have a lot on your plate as CEO and co-founder of PlumeListen, first, its zero profit. So Plume, our company, is there to make money for our investors, were a capitalistic endeavour, but whats unifying for our people inspiring isnt just to make money for our investors, its to do good. So weve jokingly said we want to be the goodest company around, which is where PlumeStrong comes from. Were in Silicon Valley, were kind of living in la la land, but there are people everywhere all over the world with needs, and we need to help.Last year we raised money to rebuild high schools in the earthquake-impacted area in Turkey, and those schools will be finished this year. In 2024 its Sierra Leone. You see a lot of people in Africa that, when they raise money, they spend it on young kids, elementary school. Thats great, but then what happens after elementary school? So our idea, with Street Child, is to build secondary education centres so these girls and boys can go on to further education. Related Posts Pro bike: Tadej Pogaars Colnago V4Rs for the Tour de France 2024 We expect a completely new level from Tadej Pogaar: Mauro Gianetti Q&A Every Tadej Pogaar Grand Tour performance ranked When do you manage to sleep in all this, or are you one of those four hours a night mad people?No I need a solid eight hours! But the secret is you have to integrate your work, your life, your being healthy. Were living and working in a 24/7 world. Every day I wake up to gazillion emails and you can easily get sucked in to answering them and before you know it, its been four hours and all youve done is respond to people theyre controlling you. You have done no work really. So its a choice, and I encourage everyone to make that choice, whether its running, swimming, cycling make time for it, because its thinking time.Thats a wonderful philosophy to share with our bosses when they ask why were out riding bikes on a Tuesday afternoonBut its true, youre way more valuable to yourself and everybody around you if youre healthy, getting oxygen to your brain and having clarity of thought.In the US we call it a Dr Phil moment, you know hes this American TV psychologist, and its that moment when you feel vindicated in your position, and I get my Dr Phil moment when I go for a ride. I can go out with that feeling of The world is my oyster or sometimes oh God everything is going wrong, its going to implode, and then through the highs and lows of a bike ride, it kind of clips those highs and lows in my brain. So when youre feeling really, really good you remember things are not really that good which is a good thing, it grounds you and when youre down you come back from a ride realising its not as bad as you think.Then there is another aspect thats connected exercise is one of those curious places where it can feel like you have perpetual energy. So my advice is to block out your calendar, for you or for others, and make cycling or any exercise a priority. And set a challenge, a goal that gets you out when you dont feel like it and its raining.You know, the PlumeStrong Cycling Challenge 2025 could be a fantastic one of thoseTo find out more about PlumeStrong and to find out about how you can donate or even sign up to next years cycling challenge yourself head to plumestrong.plume.com or search #PSCC24 on Instagram.To find out more about Plumes work with Street Child in Sierra Leone, head to street-child.org. 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