Tirreno-Adriatico #1: Dimension Data for Qhubeka finish 15th
African Team motivated to win stages in the coming days
The opening team time trial stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico went the way of the World Champions, BMC Racing. Etixx-Quickstep were the 2nd fastest team and FDJ finished in 3rd position.
The 22km course that started and finished in Lido di Camaiore was really fast and not all that technical with just a handful of corners on route. This meant that some really fast times were posted with very little room for error being accommodated. Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka were the 3rd team to start on the day, meaning there were no benchmark times from which to gauge our effort.
At the finish, our African Team came across the line in a time of 24'58". With the other World Tour teams aiming at our time, we would eventually place 15th out of 23 teams. Despite our Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka riders averaging 54.5km/h during the stage, BMC Racing stopped the clock 1'03" before us to place their rider, Daniel Oss, in the race leader’s jersey.
Attention will be focused on the upcoming road stages where our African Team are motivated to stand on the top step of the podium.
Kristian Sbaragli - Rider
We were motivated for today's team time trial. I saw the results now at the finish and it was not what we had expected. We have already lost time which will affect our general classification but we are looking forward to the week, aiming to win stages. Obviously today did not go according to plan but it is not every day that things will always work out, we keep on going from here as there is a lot to race for this week.
Team Dimension Data For Qhubeka
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka was founded in 2007, steadily working its way up from a regional team to now being a World Tour team with bases in South Africa 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 mobilise people on bicycles in Africa. To contribute to the #BicyclesChangeLives Campaign, click here.
Qhubeka is an Nguni word that means “to progress”, “to move forward”. Qhubeka (qhubeka.org) is part of World Bicycle Relief (worldbicyclerelief.org), a global non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing education, health and economic opportunities by providing simple, sustainable transportation through the power of bicycles.
Dimension Data harnesses the transformative power of technology to help organisations achieve great things in the digital era. As member of the NTT Group, we focus on digital infrastructure, hybrid cloud, workspaces for tomorrow, cybersecurity, and network as the platform. With a turnover of USD 7.5 billion and offices in 58 countries, we deliver services wherever our clients are, at every stage of their technology journey. Accelerate your ambition.
Learn more about the team at www.africasteam.com.
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