Video: Inside MTN Qhubeka's service course
by Shane Stokes at 4:02 PM EST comments
Categories: Pro Cycling, Interviews, Video
A tour of African team's headquarters in Lucca, Italy
Racing against WorldTeams with far larger budgets, Team MTN Qhubeka had a fine season in 2013 and clocked up victories in a range of events. The African outfit notched up thirteen such wins, with Gerald Ciolek acting as David against the Goliaths in Milan Sanremo, and also picking up stage wins in the Driedaagse van West Vlaanderen, Bayern Rundfahrt, the Tour of Austria and the Tour of Britain.
Sergio Pardilla notched up a stage in the Volta Portugal, Jay Thomson won the South African national championships, while Tsgabu Gebremariam Grmay earned gold in the Ethiopian road race and time trial championships and also took a stage in the Tour of Taiwan.
The team's other winners were Tour de Korea stage victor Kristian Sbaragli and Ignatas Konovalovas, who became Lithuanian time trial champion.
The team stepped up a level this season in terms of the races it was taking part in and also the standard it achieved. The goal is for it to eventually ride the Tour de France and to progress to WorldTour status; before then, it hopes to make its Grand Tour debut in 2014, and also to rack up a greater number of wins.
New signings include former Tour de France stage winner and race leader Linus Gerdemann, and also the talented Eritreans Daniel Teklehaimanot and Merhawi Kudus.
VeloNation recently visited the team in Lucca, Italy, carrying out a video interview with Gerdemann there, and was also shown around its service course. In the video below press officer Xylon van Eyck talks about the team, its riders and its backers, and also explains the Qhubeka charity and its work.
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