Unbelievable year for SA cycling

Chief Sports Writer Kevin McCallum reflects on a momentous 2015 for South African cycling.

On Boxing Day, Doug Ryder, the founder and team principal of MTN-Qhubeka-Dimension Data, sat in an emergency room battered and bruised. He had crashed during the traditional 25-mile race on the concrete velodrome in Paarl, taken out from behind by another rider.

His shoulder had separated and he had grazes on his back and shoulder. It was a painful end to what has been a wonderful year for Ryder and African cycling. It has been a year in which a seven-year dream became reality when an African-registered team went to the Tour de France, won a stage and wore the King of the Mountains jersey. It was a year in which Ashleigh Moolman Pasio continuted to wave the South African flag in women’s cycling. It was a year in which Greg Minnaar became the most successful downhill mountain biker in the history of the sport.

The year began in January when Ryder received the call to tell him his team had been given a wild card into the Tour de France. Yann Le Moenner, the managing director of the Amaury Sports Organisation that owns the Tour de France, described the team as a “very nice story” with their Qhubeka programme to provide bikes to make the lives of students and others easier.

“I loved the idea of an African team doing the Tour de France. France has a history and relationship with Africa, but it’s more than just France. The very first call I got (about MTN-Qhubeka) was from the UCI, to say, Hey, there is this great project in Africa that we must get into European professional cycling and into the Tour de France,” said Le Moenner.

ASO gave MTN-Qhubeka the honour of being the first rider to start the Tour de France, with Daniel Teklehaimanot, the Eritrean and one of five African riders in the team, rolling off the ramp at the opening time trial in Utrecht first. A few days later, Teklehaimanot was wearing the King of the Mountains jersey, the first black African to wear a major jersey at a Grand Tour. He held on to the jersey for four days. Their list of successes was long. They were second in the team competition at one time, took 14 top 10 finishes and won a stage, with Steve Cummings on Mandela Day. Serge Pauwels, their Belgian, finished 13th overall. They had to deal with racism at the Tour of Austria.

In August they went to the Vuelta a Espana, where Songezo Jim, who had only learnt how to ride a bike a decade ago, became the first black South African to take part in a Grand Tour. Kristian Sbaragli won a stage in Spain, while Louis Meintjes finished 10th overall, the highest place by an African rider. Meintjes later announced his intention to leave the team.

Edvald Boassen Hagen ended off the season by winning the Tour of Britain, their 17th victory of the year. And just when it seemed the team could catch its breath and reflect, they announced the signing of Mark Cavendish, the British superstar. Suddenly, the little team from Africa didn’t seem so little anymore. They have been promoted to the World Tour and next year will have a new title sponsor, Dimension Data, the South African technology company.

Moolman Pasio, riding for Team Bigla, took fifth on the final stage of the Giro Rosa, slipping from third to fourth on general classification. It was the best result by a South African there, after a week in which she had climbed as high as second on GC and been on the podium a handful of times.

Minnaar has been granted the moniker ‘Greatest of all time’ after he won his 18th World Cup race in Switzerland, the most by any rider in the history of the competition. His win in Fort William earlier in the year had given him a share of the record with his Santa Cruz teammate, Steve Peat. The celebrations were long and hard for the Maritzburg man.

For a while it looked as though he might win a fourth World Championship after setting the fastest time, but he was pipped into second.

It has been a year, as Ryder put it after Cummings won his stage on Mandela Day at the Tour, which Africa and South Africa ended by saying: “I don’t f**king believe it.”