The professional peloton has announced that South African riders Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge), Louis Meintjes (Lampre Merida) and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka) will be taking part in the 103rd edition of Le Tour de France, which kicks off with a 188-kilometre stage from Mont-Saint-Michel to Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont on Saturday, 2 July.
Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge), from SA will be taking part in the 103rd edition of Le Tour de France. – Image By Cycling SA
Africa will once again be well represented at the Tour with Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eritrea) and Natnael Berhane (Eritrea) joining Reinardt Janse van Rensburg as part of Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka and Tsgabu Grmay (Ethiopia) riding with Louis Meintjes in Team Lampre Merida. Along with Daryl Impey riding for Orica-GreenEdge, the African presence will be felt throughout this gruelling three-week event.
Team Dimension Data’s announcement of its final selection was met with mixed emotions from fans who felt that with only three riders coming from South and Central Africa, the team is no longer Africa’s team; but Cycling SA said it is proud of the all the selected riders and is fully behind each of them during the Tour.
Read: Team Dimension Data Presents Tour de France Team
Over the years, the gruelling three-week cycle tour has seen Robbie Hunter as the first South African to compete in the 2001 event, and to win a stage in 2007. Ex-professional cyclist John-Lee Augustyn competed in Le Tour in 2008 for Barloworld and finished in sixth place in the Mountains Classification and seventh in the Young Riders’ Classification. Daryl Impey more recently made international cycling headlines when he became the first South African to wear the yellow jersey in 2013. 2015 witnessed the first time that a South African registered UCI Pro Continental team, Team MTN-Qhubeka powered by Samsung, was given a wildcard entry, with South Africans Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Louis Meintjes and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, taking part.
“Congratulations to all the riders on their selection to participate in this year’s Le Tour de France. The atmosphere at an event of this stature is one that cannot be described. Le Tour is arguably one of the greatest celebrations of cycling in the world and for three weeks, even non-cyclists are glued to their TV screens for riveting cycling action over spectacular scenery. It is also a milestone for African Cycling to have such a diverse representation from the African Continent at the Tour with the participation of South African, Eritrean and Ethiopian riders,” said Cycling SA President, William Newman.
Check out the 2016 Tour de France TV Times and get details on each of the 2016 Tour de France Stages.
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