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The first African team to participate in the Tour de France has just become the first African team to receive a WorldTour license. Team Dimension Data, formerly known as MTN-Qhubeka, announced this week they will be one of 18 WorldTour teams to compete during the 2016 season.
It’s an announcement that has been much anticipated, not least by Team Principal Doug Ryder, who has long maintained that the squad is ready to make the step up.
The achievement is a reflection of the team’s impressive progress and performances over the last few seasons.
There’s no doubt that their recently announced sponsorship deals with information technology company Dimension Data and consulting firm Deloitte provided the financial backing necessary to ensure they’re able to fulfil the financial and structural viability requirements of the UCI License Commission.
The step up from the Professional Continental status, which the team acquired in 2013, is the culmination of years of sustainable growth, and steady progress in building up the team to be what it is today. And it represents only the latest of the team’s many recent accomplishments, with 2015 being its most successful season yet.
Becoming the first African-based team to participate in the Tour de France this year was made even more impressive by their performances at the three-week race, where the team more than justified their wildcard invitation.
They finished fifth in the Tour’s teams classification, won Stage 14 into Mende with Stephen Cummings, and Daniel Teklehaimanot wore the King of the Mountains jersey over several days.
The team followed up on these impressive successes with Kristian Sbaragli’s sprint to victory on Stage 10 of this year’s Vuelta a España, Louis Meintjes’ 10th place finish in the Vuelta’s general classification, and Edvald Boasson Hagen’s overall victory at the Tour of Britain.
To ensure the team is able to continue these strong performances into the next season, they recently signed Mark Cavendish, who will join forces with former teammates such as Bernhard Eisel, Mark Renshaw and Boasson Hagen, as well as sports manager Rolf Aldag, who worked with Cavendish at HTC-Highroad and T-Mobile.
With these recent signings looking like a reunion of sorts for the old HTC-Highroad sprint train, the Manx sprinter will no doubt be harbouring hopes of returning to the form he experienced while at that team – arguably the most successful period of his career – to again produce multiple Grand Tour stage wins with his new team.
So how will things be different for Team Dimension Data now that it’s part of the WorldTour? Previously, as a Professional Continental team, it had to rely on wildcard invitations to participate in WorldTour races – like the Tour de France, Vuelta a España or Milan-San Remo, which their rider Gerald Ciolek won in 2013. Now, as a WorldTour team, they have an automatic right of entry to these races.
Wildcard teams often find themselves under pressure to justify their invitations to races on the WorldTour calendar, and as a result, tend to employ aggressive tactics, like getting into breakaways, to ensure their presence in the race is felt. Now, the focus for Team Dimension Data will most likely shift towards achieving greater consistency and focus on winning more races. It’s going to demand slightly different tactics and racing styles from the team.
And for those wondering about the disappearance of Qhubeka from the team’s name, Team Dimension Data will continue its long-standing association with the charity. Management has clarified that reference to the charity was removed to redress the perception that it was a title sponsor of the team.
The team will also be registering a Continental development team, based in Lucca, Italy, which will act as a feeder team and continue to provide young African riders a chance to progress to the European cycling scene.
Along with Dimension Data, the teams recently announced by the UCI as 2016 WorldTour license-holders 2016 include:
Ag2r La Mondiale
Astana Pro Team
BMC Racing Team
Cannondale Pro Cycling Team
Dimension Data
Etixx-Quick-Step
FDJ
IAM Cycling
Lampre-Merida
Lotto Soudal
Movistar Team
Orica-GreenEDGE
Team Giant-Alpecin
TeamKatusha
Team Lotto NL-Jumbo
Team Sky
Tinkoff
Trek Factory Racing
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