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’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 4th 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”.
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.
Doug Ryder – Team Principal
Ben King
Michael Valgren
Giacomo Nizzolo
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
Steve Cummings
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.