Schlagwort-Archive: Douglas Ryder – Team Principle

Tour de France #10: Boasson Hagen places 3rd from select group sprint

Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka come agonisingly close to another stage win
Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange) won the 10th stage of the Tour de France, out sprinting Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Edvald Boasson Hagen respectively.

The 10th stage was seen as a slightly unpredictable stage as it began with a 22km category 1 climb and then gently rolled downhill to finish after 197km in Revel. Our African Team saw it as an important stage to get riders into the break and so Boasson Hagen and Steve Cummings did just that. A total of 15 riders made the break of the day, with some of the highest profile riders represented in the move from a variety of teams.

The peloton was in two minds as to whether they should or even could, chase the breakaway. In the end, with the rain falling throughout the day, the peloton didn’t really stand much chance with riders like Cummings, Boasson Hagen, Sagan, Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing), 3 Orica-BikeExchange riders and a few others driving the break. With 25km to go, Sagan took matters into his own hands and split the breakaway group with 7 riders going clear.

The Orica-BikeExchange team was in the driving seat as Luke Dubridge, Daryl Impey and Matthews all made the front split. Boasson Hagen, Sagan, van Avermaet and Samuel Dumoulin AG2R La Mondiale) were the 4 riders that rode away with the Orica trio and the 8 former breakaway riders quickly lost time to the new leaders. There was a short category 3 climb in the final 10km and it was thought the incline could make the difference but the Orica team did well to keep everyone in check.

Over the top of the climb, Boasson Hagen sped things up a bit before Impey then put in 2 stinging attacks but both were impressively covered by the World Champion, Sagan. Matthews who had been glued to the back wheel of Sagan from before the climb, now certainly had the upper hand being the known fastest finisher in the group. Eventually the riders rolled onto the finishing straight and it was van Avermaet who made the first move. Boasson Hagen followed and then the others did too. It was a scrappy sprint and unfortunately our Norwegian champion had to check his sprint twice as Matthews surged ahead with clear road in front of him to take the win.

Sagan just got his front wheel ahead of Boasson Hagen’s before the line which saw the World Champion take back the lead in the green jersey competition. The peloton rolled home over 9 minutes down but Chris Froome (Team Sky) comfortably kept his lead in the overall yellow jersey competition.

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Tour de France #1: Mark Cavendish sprints to stage victory and yellow jersey

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Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka sprinter places Qhubeka under world stage spotlight
The opening stage of the 103rd Tour de France came down to a bunch sprint in Utah Beach and Mark Cavendish gave Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka an incredible stage victory and also secured his, and our African Team’s, first ever yellow jersey of the Tour de France.

Starting in Mont-Saint-Michel, Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka had a clear plan of delivering Cavendish to the sprint finale with the hope of taking the stage victory and the yellow jersey. The 188km stage to Utah Beach suited the sprinters perfectly and so the 5 rider breakaway that did go clear early on, had zero chance of making it to the finish first.

Etixx-Quickstep and Lotto-Soudal did the lion’s share of the pace making from the peloton while Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka rode near the front, out of trouble, during a nervy stage which saw a number of crashes and splits in the peloton caused by crosswinds. With 5km to go, the race was all together and our African Team started to put our stage plan into action.

Moving up the left side of the peloton, Bernhard Eisel led Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish to the head of the bunch. Our African Team was shoulder to shoulder with the Belgian Etixx squad, as they had the stage favourite, Marcel Kittel, at the rear of their train.

After two powerful turns by Janse van Rensburg and Boasson Hagen respectively, our African Team edged ahead as Renshaw led under the 1 kilometer to go sign. Cavendish waited in the wheel of Kittel who had to start sprinting early, before our Manxman burst out of the German’s slipstream with 200m to go, to take a historical victory.

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Mark Cavendish – Rider
This is a very special win. It is the first time I have had the honour of wearing the yellow jersey. What a special moment to do it, with such special people. Three of my last guys, Edvald, Mark and Bernie were guys that have been with me my whole career and to have Reinardt Janse van Rensburg pulling full on for me in the final, it was super emotional for me. In this team, we race for more than just our sponsors, we race to raise the profile of the Qhubeka charity and to put 5000 kids on bicycles. There is no better way to do that than to wear the most iconic symbol in cycling and that’s the yellow jersey. I am very, very happy.

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