Cycling Star Pello Bilbao Joins Athletic Club Captains for Team Values Pow-wow
Basque cycling hero Pello Bilbao shared his insights on team dynamics with Athletic Club players in a special round-table discussion focused on collective strength.
Bahrain team cyclist and Basque sporting icon Pello Bilbao swapped his bike for the boardroom as Athletic Club invited him to share insights on teamwork with their men’s and women’s squads.
Cross-Sport Collaboration
You don’t often see cyclists and footballers sharing the same stage, but Athletic Club’s commitment to fostering a strong team culture saw them bring together these seemingly different sporting worlds. The Vizcaya-born cycling star joined club captains Iñaki Williams, Irene Oguiza, Iñigo Lekue and Ane Azkona for a proper chinwag about collective values.
The round-table discussion centered on “The importance of team at Athletic Club: the collective is what helps us grow and go far” - a philosophy that’s absolutely bob on for a club with Athletic’s unique identity.
Bilbao, who’s been with the Bahrain cycling team since 2020, helped explore how team values extend “beyond the pitch” and how collective strength multiplies individual talent - something that resonates deeply with Athletic’s ethos.
New Traditions Under Uriarte
This gathering represents a shift from the club’s traditional Christmas meet-ups. Since Jon Uriarte took over as president, these seasonal get-togethers have been transformed into more structured corporate events focusing on the club’s strategic direction.
Monday’s session was a proper deep dive, with presentations covering:
- Key economic budget figures
- Sporting objectives for the coming year
- Progress updates on the AC Aurrera Action Plan
This strategic plan contains 71 different proposals that the club reports on to members twice yearly. All these initiatives aim to modernize Athletic Club while maintaining its unique character in the ever-changing football landscape.
The event brought together not just the men’s and women’s first teams, but also reserve squad players, coaching staff, club employees, and the board of directors - a proper family affair, showing Athletic’s commitment to unity across all levels.
As they say in the Basque Country, the team is everything - and bringing in perspectives from other sports like cycling shows Athletic’s willingness to think outside the box to strengthen their collective identity. Not a bad bit of business, that.