On Sunday, July 2, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka lines up for Tour of Austria with a strong and very motivated team ready to fight for glory every day.

The opening stage of the race is a short prologue. However, despite its distance of only 800 meters, it’s far from easy. The riders climb all the way from the start to the finish in Graz, tackling an ascent with an average gradient of over 10 %. The next day, the sprinters will have a chance to shine as the peloton heads into Vienna for an expected bunch sprint in the Austrian capital. Two undulating finishes then follow before it’s time for the queen stage of the race.

The total distance of stage 4 is only 82.7 km but with the mountain top finish on the infamous Kitzbüheler Horn (7.6 km / avg. 12 %), only the best climbers in the race will be able to take the win. Stage 5 is another day in the mountains before it all finishes with a sprint stage in Wels on Saturday, July 8.

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka sends eight riders well-suited for all terrains. Igor Antón, Mekseb Debesay and Ben O’Connor will be the cards to play in the mountains, while South African neo-pro Ryan Gibbons is the designated sprinter. For support and with an opportunity to fight for a top result themselves, Youcef Reguigui, Daniel Teklehaimanot, Jay Thomson and Johann Van Zyl complete the team’s lineup for Tour of Austria.

Ryan Gibbons:
“I’m really looking forward to Tour of Austria. It starts off with an uphill prologue, which is exciting for me as it will be my first time ever doing something like that. There are a few sprint opportunities in the following days and I feel that if all goes well, I should be competitive in those stages. We have a well-balanced team here, so I’m confident we will be up there in the mountain stages and in the GC as well. Personally, I would really like to pick up a podium or two and then help the team the best I can in the stages that don’t suit me”.

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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