{"id":15419,"date":"2019-07-02T12:55:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2019\/07\/02\/team-dimension-data-announce-team-for-2019-tour-de-france-r7873\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T05:19:19","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T05:19:19","slug":"team-dimension-data-announce-team-for-2019-tour-de-france-r7873","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/team-dimension-data-announce-team-for-2019-tour-de-france-r7873\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Dimension Data announce team for 2019 Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Team Dimension Data is delighted to announce our eight riders for the 106th edition of the Tour de France which gets underway in Brussels on 6 July.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-05389100-1562071910.jpg\" data-fileid=\"1538479\" data-fileext=\"jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"1538479\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-05389100-1562071910.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-05389100-1562071910.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s 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\u2019s goal of changing lives through bicycles.<\/p>\n<p>Among a host of fast men in our line up Norway\u2019s Edvald Boasson Hagen is one of a handful who has represented us at every one of our appearances at the race since 2015. He\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s 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 d\u00cdtalia\u2019s, brings a huge amount of experience into our line-up.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Cummings will be looking at repeating his heroics on Mandela Day in 2015 as this year\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>There are two very exciting \u201cnew caps\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>While for Valgren, one of the most exciting riders in the world in recent years, he\u2019ll 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 4th place on stage 15 in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"w-full aspect-video\">\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HqdPJVuCnYU?feature=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201ccapped\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201ccapped\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image\" href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-65063200-1562072055.png\" data-fileid=\"1538481\" data-fileext=\"png\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-fileid=\"1538481\" class=\"ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed\" alt=\"ccs-62657-0-65063200-1562072055.png\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-65063200-1562072055.png\" title=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pullquote\">\nReally excited to announce this great group of riders who we feel will be the best suited to meet the team\u2019s objectives we have set out for this years Tour de France. It\u2019s a tough course but one that we\u2019d like to be competitive in every stage, while at the same time continuing with our goal of changing lives through bicycles.<br \/>\n<cite>Doug Ryder \u2013 Team Principal<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pullquote\">\nI finally got the call that I\u2019ve 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\u2019s a huge deal. I can finally tell everyone who asks every year \u201cYes, I\u2019ll be there\u201d. It\u2019s a massive honour but also a huge responsibility, there\u2019s really nothing like it.<br \/>\n<cite>Ben King<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pullquote\">\nI\u2019m super excited to be part of the Team Dimension Data Tour de France team. We are aiming for some wins and I can\u2019t wait to go there and help a teammate get a stage win or perhaps even myself \u2013 that would be quite cool. So, I\u2019ll see that I\u2019ll be having another holiday in France \u2013 three weeks! It\u2019s going to be perfect.<br \/>\n<cite>Michael Valgren<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pullquote\">\nI\u2019m very excited to be at the Grand Depart for the very first time. So at the moment I\u2019m really looking forward to that opportunity and to enjoy the experience as it will be without a doubt one of my career highlights.<br \/>\n<cite>Giacomo Nizzolo<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pullquote\">\nI\u2019m really looking forward to starting another Tour de France, it will be my fifth Tour this year. I think that we\u2019ve got a good team to target for stage wins and there are some good stages that suit me. So I\u2019m really looking forward to this year\u2019s tour again, three weeks of racing in the heat so I\u2019m just completing my final preparations for that at the moment.<br \/>\n<cite>Reinardt Janse van Rensburg<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pullquote\">\nI was pleasantly surprised about the Tour selection, I wasn\u2019t expecting that. I\u2019m very grateful to the team again for the opportunity to go to the Tour and I\u2019m looking forward to the challenge. I think it\u2019s 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.<br \/>\n<cite>Steve Cummings<\/cite>\n<\/div>\n<p>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\u2019re excited about the journey ahead of us as we work together to continue to innovate and reshape the sport of professional cycling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Team Dimension Data is delighted to announce our eight riders for the 106th edition of the Tour de France which gets underway in Brussels on 6 July. It\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[344,232],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-15419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-team-dimension-data","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15419"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=15419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}