Tour de France: Line Up
8 riders “capped” for the 2019 Tour de France
Team Dimension Data is delighted to announce our eight riders for the 106 th edition of the Tour de France which gets underway in Brussels on 6 July.
It’s a squad that carries a huge amount of experience and will look to challenge by way of aggressive racing, while at the same time staying true to our team’s goal of changing lives through bicycles.
Among a host of fast men in our line up Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen is one of a handful who has represented us at every one of our appearances at the race since 2015. He’s won three stages of the Tour and comes into the race in good form with three wins under his belt this year, looking to again peak on the biggest stage.
There’s a Tour de France debut for sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo who is full of confidence having won the final stage at the recent Tour of Slovenia. The Italian, who has raced seven Giro dÍtalia’s, brings a huge amount of experience into our line-up.
South Africa’s Reinardt Janse van Rensburg will be eyeing a series of stages for the fast men who are keen on tackling the hills as he competes in the race for a fifth time. He made his debut for us in 2015 and has seven top-10 finishes to his name this season.
Stephen Cummings will be looking at repeating his heroics on Mandela Day in 2015 as this year’s parcours is well suited to his style of racing. The former British champion has won two stages and will be looking for more in his sixth appearance at the race.
There are two very exciting “new caps” in Roman Kreuziger and Michael Valgren. The former has four top-10 finishes at Le Grande Boucle and will relish the challenge that this very tough route poses.
While for Valgren, one of the most exciting riders in the world in recent years, he’ll be looking forward to making his debut for the team, targeting a podium spot on a number of stages and going one better than his 4 th place on stage 15 in 2018.
Lars Bak joins countryman Valgren in a crucial support role in the team. This will be his eighth time taking on Le Grande Boucle and his versatility over varied terrain will make him a key asset to our team throughout the race.
Concluding our selection is Ben King who joined our team in 2017 and rides the Tour de France for a second time having first ridden it in 2014. Last year was in some ways a breakout year for the American, as he impressed with two stage victories at the Vuelta a Espana.
In an exciting innovation for our team in 2019 each of the selected riders has been assigned a unique Tour de France cap, chronologically referencing the number for which they have been “capped” for our team at the race since 2015. These are revealed for the first time in our team announcement video which was filmed on location in Khayelitsha, Cape Town at the Velokhaya Life Cycle Academy by young members who dream of competing in the future on the biggest stage. Our team visited Velokhaya on our annual training camp in November last year and it proved to be a source of great inspiration to our riders and staff who were present.
In the last five editions of the Tour de France, 18 riders have represented our team and so this year sees a number of new riders being “capped”. [See attached table]
Edvald Boasson Hagen, Stephen Cummings and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, are our only riders from our Tour de France debut in 2015 and so are assigned as numbers one, two and five respectively. While Valgren, Kreuziger, Nizzolo, Bak and King are all new additions.
QUOTES
Doug Ryder – Team Principal
“Really excited to announce this great group of riders who we feel will be the best suited to meet the team’s objectives we have set out for this years Tour de France. It’s a tough course but one that we’d like to be competitive in every stage, while at the same time continuing with our goal of changing lives through bicycles.”
Ben King
“I finally got the call that I’ve been waiting for! I have been selected for the Tour de France with Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka. For many Americans the Tour is the only race that they know so it’s a huge deal. I can finally tell everyone who asks every year “Yes, I’ll be there”. It’s a massive honour but also a huge responsibility, there’s really nothing like it.”
Michael Valgren
“I’m super excited to be part of the Team Dimension Data Tour de France team. We are aiming for some wins and I can’t wait to go there and help a teammate get a stage win or perhaps even myself – that would be quite cool. So, I’ll see that I’ll be having another holiday in France – three weeks! It’s going to be perfect.
Giacomo Nizzolo
“I’m very excited to be at the Grand Depart for the very first time. So at the moment I’m really looking forward to that opportunity and to enjoy the experience as it will be without a doubt one of my career highlights.
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
“I’m really looking forward to starting another Tour de France, it will be my fifth Tour this year. I think that we’ve got a good team to target for stage wins and there are some good stages that suit me. So I’m really looking forward to this year’s tour again, three weeks of racing in the heat so I’m just completing my final preparations for that at the moment.”
Steve Cummings
“I was pleasantly surprised about the Tour selection, I wasn’t expecting that. I’m very grateful to the team again for the opportunity to go to the Tour and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I think it’s a pretty open Tour, there are a lot of chances to be aggressive and I think it suits the team that we have very well and I hope that we can have a great July and every one can be proud of us.”
| Cap Number |
Rider |
TDD TdF Debut |
Best Result |
| |
|
|
|
| 1 |
Edvald Boasson Hagen |
2015 |
3 x stage wins |
| 2 |
Stephen Cummings |
2015 |
2 x stage wins |
| 5 |
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg |
2015 |
8th on stage |
| 19 |
Michael Valgren |
2019 |
4th on stage |
| 20 |
Roman Kreuziger |
2019 |
4 x GC top 10 |
| 21 |
Giacomo Nizzolo |
2019 |
n/a |
| 22 |
Ben King |
2019 |
n/a |
| 23 |
Lars Bak |
2019 |
4th on stage |
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka will complete the 2019 season under the Dimension Data brand. In July this year, Dimension Data joined 28 remarkable companies, to become NTT (NTT Ltd.). The Team will rebrand to wear the colours of NTT in the 2020 season. We’re excited about the journey ahead of us as we work together to continue to innovate and reshape the sport of professional cycling.
Team Dimension Data For Qhubeka
Founded in 2007, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka became the first ever African cycling team to gain a WorldTour license, in 2016. The team has bases in South Africa, the Netherlands and Italy. It’s also known as Africa’s Team due to its focus on helping African talents to the world stage of cycling.
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka races for something bigger than wins. Through our relationship with Qhubeka, a global charity operating in South Africa, we raise awareness for #BicyclesChangeLives.
Qhubeka gives people a helping hand up by providing them with bicycles through its learn-to-earn and work-to-earn programmes. That’s what the hand on our team race jersey stands for. It’s a reminder that every Qhubeka bicycle is a helping hand to a Qhubeka beneficiary.
By supporting #BicyclesChangeLives you can help children to access education and help support skills development and job creation in South Africa.
Qhubeka
Qhubeka is a charity that moves people forward with bicycles. People earn bicycles through our programmes, improving their access to schools, clinics and jobs.
A bicycle is a tool that helps people to travel faster and further, and to carry more. In the face of extreme and persistent poverty, bicycles can change lives by helping to address socioeconomic challenges at the most basic level – helping people to get where they need to go.
Dimension Data
Dimension Data (dimensiondata.com) uses the power of technology to help organisations achieve great things in the digital era. As a member of the NTT Group, we accelerate our clients’ ambitions through digital infrastructure, hybrid cloud, workspaces for tomorrow, and cybersecurity. With a turnover of USD 7.5 billion, offices in 57 countries, and 28,000 employees, we deliver wherever our clients are, at every stage of their technology journey. We’re proud to be the Official Technology Partner of Amaury Sport Organisation, organiser of the Tour de France, and the title partner of the cycling team, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka.
Learn more about the team at www.africasteam.com.
All images attached to the press release can be used with the respective image credit in combination to this release.
