The next stop on the racing calendar for Dimension Data is the Tour of Croatia which gets underway tomorrow. It will be the first time the Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka squad take on this UCI 2.1 category event.

The Tour of Croatia provides something for all types of riders as the 6 stages are made up by a flat stage, 3 hilly stages, a mountain summit finish and a 40km team time trial. The GC will certainly be decided on stages 4 and 5 where riders will face the 20km HC category climb to Ucka before the 40km team time trial to Umag the following day.

For the African Team, it will be the sprint and punchy stages where they really hope to thrive as they have a strong team to contend for the stage victory on these days. Mark Cavendish will lead the squad with Mark Renshaw, Bernhard Eisel, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Jay Thomson, Nic Dougall and Nathan Haas completing the line-up.

Adrien Niyonshuti was scheduled to start the Tour of Croatia as well but unfortunately he was not able to get his visa for the event in time.

Jay Thomson said:

"I am really looking forward to racing in Croatia. I've heard the country is amazing to see so there is no better way to see it than by bike. Some of the stages are super long but are pretty straight forward so this should give us a few great opportunities in the sprints with Mark Cavendish. There is one short but hard climbing day and a TTT so those days will be good if I can push a little more to see how the body is feeling."

Sports director Alex Sans Vega added:

"Tour of Croatia is going to be a good race to put some good kilometers in the legs for the riders as there are many long stages and also there are stages that suit all rider types. We are confident we can achieve good results and it is the perfect opportunity to build up team spirit and become even stronger as a unit."