http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-07-06-tour-de-france-what-will-define-success-for-team-qhubeka/#.VZs3SvlVhBc
Tour de France: What will define success for Team Qhubeka?
ANTOINETTE MULLER
SPORT
06 JUL 2015 11:36 (SOUTH AFRICA)
After day three of the Tour de France, Team Qhubeka had made a steady
start. Two riders finished inside the top 50 and just two were placed
outside of the top 100. Their success will not be defined by jerseys
and leader boards, though, it’s far more ambitious than that. By
ANTOINETTE MULLER.
The dictionary definition of success is pretty straight-forward. It
says, the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. In some sporting
contexts, success often borders on being content with mediocrity.
Sometimes, a team or an individual simply taking part in something is
seen as a “success”, regardless of the results. When Team Qhubeka team
principal, Doug Ryder, received a text message to inform him his team
had gained a wild card entry to this year’s Tour de France, many would
have seen that as a success, but Qhubeka’s Tour de France success will
stretch far beyond simply taking part.
By now you should know that this year is the first time since the race
began that an African team is taking part. Although that is partly
true. In the 1950s, a North African team with Algerian and Moroccan
riders took part in three editions. That team was, however, registered
in France. There have been a number of African riders since the tour
began with Ali Neffati, from Tunisia, believed to be the first when he
raced in 1913 and 1914. Team Qhubeka is different, though. They are
registered in Africa, backed by an African company, MTN, and five out
of the nine riders are African born. The team principal, Doug Ryder,
is a born and bred South African.
On day one of the tour, they had one rider in the top 10. By the end
of day three, three riders had crashed badly, but one, Jacques Janse
van Rensburg, was placed 36th with Serge Pauwels 48th and Louis
Meintjies 51st, only two of their nine riders were outside of the top
100.
There’s a long way to go in the tour yet and while the team probably
won’t go on to win the whole thing to define their success, it hardly
matters. But in Team Qhubeka’s case, success cannot be defined within
limited perimeters, because this is no ordinary story and the goal is
not an ordinary one and their story is far more important than winning
stages, races or jerseys.
South Africans and, to some degree, Africans, are quick to jump on
success of their own. Whether that’s claiming Chris Froome as our own
or even trying to lay claim to Roger Federer through his South African
mother, we love a sportsman achieving. While there have been a few
South African riders’ success to latch on to, for the first time ever,
South Africa and Africa now has its own team whose success will
stretch far beyond what they achieve on the roads of France, Belgium
and Holland.
Cycling, many say, is Africa’s sleeping sporting giant. The untapped
potential that lingers across the continent is so vast that when it is
eventually woken up, it will be a powerful force. Qhubeka, the charity
behind Africa’s first true Tour de France team, hopes to change that.
Like Team Rwanda and the Kenyan Riders, there is a deep belief in
Africa’s potential. But the challenges are as vast as the talent lying
in wait. There is no real ‘cycling culture’ and the lack of paved
roads to practice on all play a part. Then there is the small
challenge of the bikes. The gear required to take up cycling is
astronomically expensive and many of the bikes you see on the road
cost more than an average car. Needless to say that in a country, and
a continent, where the majority of the population still live below the
poverty line, getting a nice bike to race on is pretty low on the
priority list. But charities like Qhubeka are aiming to change that.
They provide bikes to people in exchange for community work, but
having a bike and becoming a pro-cyclist are two very different
things.
The plan for Qhubeka, both the charity and the team, is very much a
long-term one and one that has been in the making for many years. For
Ryder, there are many reasons to be optimistic.
“I believe in the next three years we could have a black African rider
on the podium in a grand tour,” he says. “The riders coming through
are young in age and experience. They are 24, 25, 26. They are still
getting used to riding in bunches, getting used to the tactics.
“There are certain things you just can’t simulate on a timed effort up
Alpe d’Huez. But the potential is there. As more riders come through
so the upward pressure will start to have an effect. My dream is that
in the next two to three years there will be an African rider on every
WorldTour team.”
He adds: “The funny thing is we presented a five-to-10-year plan to
[Tour organisers] ASO but it’s now been two years and we have already
got a place on the Tour. I did not think we would get there in the
first five years. But the riders are there on merit.”
The answer to the question of what will define success for the first
truly African team at the Tour, then, is simple: they’ve already had
it. Having the team at the Tour will, hopefully, have a knock on
effect. More people will be encouraged to take up the sport and more
sponsors will be keen to back the riders. The more sponsors there are,
the more bikes Qhubeka can get to people. The thought of having a
strong British rider or even Tour champion was inconceivable 20 years
ago, but with the work Team Qhubeka has done, the thought of having a
black African champion is no longer inconceivable, it’s simply a work
in progress.
“A bicycle has changed Boasson Hagen’s life but not as much as it
would a kid from a township in Soweto,” Ryder explains. “Our riders
are not just supporting themselves they are supporting their
communities and families — Daniel (Teklehaimanot, one of two Eritrean
riders in the team), for instance, is one of 17 children. It is
incredibly inspiring. They are heroes at home.
“And they are tough. [The Eritrean] Merhawi Kudus crashed at 70kph at
last year’s Vuelta. I guarantee you that no European rider would have
finished that race. But he did. The desire he showed was incredible.
It was like awakening the lion. In the Kruger he looks all peaceful,
but if you wake him up he becomes a different animal.”
Slowly poking the sleeping giant will be a long-term success of Team
Qhubeka, and if they can teach Europeans how to click when saying the
team name, that’ll be a bonus. DM
Received on Mon Jul 06 2015 - 22:25:58 EDT