Tour de France #12: Cummings animates big day in the mountains
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka’s Steve Cummings put in a huge performance on stage 12 of Tour de France. Cummings were on the attack the whole day and he almost managed to hold off the top favorites all the way to the line.
With its 214.5 km and six categorized climbs, today’s big mountain stage in the Pyrenees was set to be one of the most challenging stages of this year’s Tour de France. However, the profile didn’t scare Cummings who made it into the early breakaway after a very fast start to the day.
Cummings and his 11 breakaway companions worked well together but as the riders started on the steep climbs, the front group began to split up. Ultimately, only Cummings and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) remained at the front.
With three kilometers to the top of Port de Balès, Cummings decided to go solo. The British national champion dropped De Gendt and took on the whole peloton in the difficult mountainous terrain. As Cummings started on the penultimate climb of the day, Col du Peyresourde, he had 2:10 minutes on the group of favorites chasing behind. However, as Team Sky upped the pace and the gradients started to get extra steep, the gap quickly came down. Cummings fought courageously but with 8.5 km to go, he got caught by the overall favorites.
At the end, Romain Bardet (Ag2r) won the stage, while Fabio Aru (Astana) moved into the overall lead of the race. Serge Pauwels crossed the line in 18th place as best Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka rider. He’s now 26th in the general classification.
Cummings finished the day on the podium as he was awarded the combativité award for this impressive performance on the stage.
Steve Cummings:
”From the beginning, Serge [Pauwels] and I tried to be at the front. Ultimately, I made it into the front group and it was all good. I felt I had the breakaway under control but I still can’t control what happens behind me. Unfortunately, they wanted to chase today. However, the legs are good. I will try again”.
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. In the team’s palmares you can find a Milan-Sanremo victory, numerous stage wins at the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, two Tour of Britain GC victories, and 36 National Championships. 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. The team races to raise funds for the Qhubeka Charity to change lives with bicycles in Africa. #DoYourPart and gift a bicycle or part of a bicycle, by clicking here.
Qhubeka is an Nguni word that means “to progress”, “to move forward”. Qhubeka (qhubeka.org) partners with communities, public sector, private sector, and non-profit organisations to provide people with bicycles in return for working to improve their community, environment or school attendance.
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 58 countries, and 31,000 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.
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