Boasson Hagen claims the first stage in the Tour of Norway
The Tour of Norway could not have got off to a better start for Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka and Edvald Boasson Hagen, as our Norwegian Champion won the opening stage on his birthday. Boasson Hagen beat Tosh van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal) and Simon Gerrans (Orica-Scott) in the sprint for the line.

The opening stage of the Tour of Norway took riders on a 170km trip from Honefoss to Asker. There were numerous undulations throughout the stage with a final drag all the way to the line finish as well. The stage suited our Norwegian Champion to a tee and most of the rival teams were looking to our African Team to make the decisive moves.

With only three riders going up the road, it made things slightly easier to control for our African Team and we worked together with a few other World Tour teams to ensure the leaders were brought back before reaching the finishing circuit in Asker. The attacks came thick and fast over the final 25km and we kept it together as best we could before young Ben O’Connor had a go in the final 10km.

With O’Connor up the road Boasson Hagen could sit back and let the other teams chase, which they did do. O’Connor’s move was brought back just before the line and then our Norwegian Champion did the rest by sprinting to a special win. With the stage victory, Boasson Hagen also pulled on the overall race leaders jersey as well. The victory was made ever sweeter by the fact that Omar Fraile had also just won stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia minutes earlier.

Alex Sans Vega – Sport Director

“Wow, what a great day it is for the team. Here in Norway we had a special final, we knew it would be a sprint but it was all uphill. Teams like Orica had good options for today so we didn’t want to take responsibility too early. We let the break go and when they got to 8-minutes, Cannondale, Orica and our guys all started working to reduce the gap. Ben was in a tricky move in the final and he was only caught with 2km to go. This was good for us though because guys like Mekseb Debesay … could prepare Edvald for the sprint.”

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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