After naming a 13 rider long list for the Tour de France less than a week ago, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka has announces its final selection of 9 riders that will take on the 103rd edition of the Le Grand Boucle - the first ever for an African World Tour team.
 

Three African riders form part of the team. Newly crowned Eritrean Road and TT champion Daniel Teklehaimanot will once again be on the start of the race. After a strong month of racing, that also saw him winning the KOM classification for a second time at the Criterium du Dauphiné, he will again try to make the fans of the African team proud. He will be joined by his fellow countryman Natnael Berhane, who will race his first Tour de France, and South African Reinardt Janse van Rensburg.

Steve Cummings, who won the African team’s first ever stage at the Tour de France on Mandela Day 2015, will spearhead the rest of the line-up together with Mark Cavendish, who will seek to add a 27th stage win to his illustrious palmares. The Manx Missile will be able to count on his lieutenants Mark Renshaw and Bernhard Eisel, with the latter one also being the team’s road captain. Serge Pauwels and Norwegian Road and TT champion Edvald Boasson Hagen will round out the 9-rider line-up for the Le Grand Boucle.

Team Principal Douglas Ryder said:

"This was a really tough decision to make as all of the riders on the squad have stepped up and shown their potential to be in the Tour de France. We are one team with a single purpose to mobilise people on bikes in Africa so that they can realise their full potential. Through the bicycle distribution ceremonies we hope to uncover more cycling talent on the continent. This is a fantastic team of experienced riders we are hoping can deliver on our performance goals of winning stages, being competitive and visible every day, to raise our profile to even greater heights in the incredibly demanding stages of the 2016 Tour de France."

Head of Performance Rolf Aldag explained the team's goals:

"We have picked a very balanced team to be competitive and to represent the Qhubeka charity on every single stage the Tour de France offers this year. The first few days will be dominated by the sprinters and we are confident to be right up there with Mark Cavendish, Edvald Boasson Hagen and the committed lead out around Mark Renshaw and Reinhard Janse van Rensburg. Serge Pauwels,Daniel Teklehaimanot and Steve Cummings proved in the past that they can be very successful from breakaways and that is what we try to repeat. Bernhard Eisel will serve as a road captain, while Natnael Berhane will learn a lot in his first Tour as well as he will get his own chance on selective stages."

Dimension Data group executive Adam Foster said:

"Last year, the team was the first African team to participate in the Tour de France. This year Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka is the first African World Tour team to participate in the Tour de France. Dimension Data is extremely proud to be Title Partner of Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka, and excited by the rider line-up selected by the team management. We’re looking forward to working with Team Dimension Data and Qhubeka during Le Tour to help raise funds for its #BicyclesChangeLives campaign, and put 5.000 African learners on bikes."

Antoine Ballon, Global Marketing Director Cervélo, added:

"As thrilled as we were to be part of last year's historical first participation of an African team at the Tour de France, seeing this Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka squad ready to push our Cervélo bikes to new heights is very exciting for us. The team stormed the 2015 Tour de France and we can't wait to see what they achieve on the world's fastest bikes this year. We look forward to support them in their efforts."

From the long-list, Tyler Farrar, Jacques van Rensburg, Jaco Venter and Youcef Reguigui missed out on selection.

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka - Tour de France team

Natnael Berhane
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Mark Cavendish
Steve Cummings
Bernhard Eisel
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
Serge Pauwels
Mark Renshaw
Daniel Teklehaimanot