Tirreno-Adriatico #7: Edvald Boasson Hagen caps off a good week of racing for Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka
Norwegian TT champion secures another top10 finish
Tirreno-Adriatico wrapped up with a 10km flat time trial today in San Benedetto del Tronto. Swiss Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) came out on top, sailing to the win by a margin of more than 10 seconds to 2nd place finisher Johan Le Bon (FDJ). Norwegian time trial champion Edvald Boasson Hagen held the flag high for Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka by finishing 8th on the day.
Boasson Hagen got off to a good start and would come close to eventual race winner Cancellara at the intermediate check, clocking the 2nd fastest time of the day at this point. Even though he wasn’t able to keep his pace towards the end, the effort meant another fine top10 finish for our African team.
Steve Cummings also proved to be in form after his stage win earlier this week. He would come home only a few seconds off of Boasson Hagen in 13th place, with Kanstantsin Siutsou rounding out yet another solid team performance.
Overnight GC leader Greg van Avermaet (BMC) held on to the blue leaders jersey, denying reigning World Champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) the overall win by only one second. Boasson Hagen ended 17th in the GC as the team's highest placed finisher.
Roger Hammond – Sports Director
It has been a good week for us. Tirreno-Adriatico is one of the first World Tour races in Europe and to come away with a stage victory as one of only a few teams is really good. Sure, we did have our ups and downs, but luckily our ups were really high. The team worked well together and it has been a great preparation for the upcoming Milan-San Remo.
Edvald Boasson Hagen – Rider
I was feeling good today, even though I didn’t go fast enough to get onto the podium. Overall it has been a good week for me. I’m up there with the others which is good to know, thinking of the races to come.
Steve Cummings – Rider
I started a bit to slowly today. Putting that into perspective I did a solid ride. The week has been good for me. It was difficult for to come here as I didn’t know where a was in terms of form. But I quickly found my rhythm and the win on stage 4 was a really nice result. I think it was a good start of the season for me.
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, Dimension Data focusses 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, Dimension Data delivers 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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