Five year's ago, Nicholas Dlamini made the decision to pursue cycling as a professional career. On his WorldTour debut at the Tour Down Under on stage 1, the 22-year-old collected the king of the mountains jersey as reward for his efforts in the breakaway.
The Dimension Data rider was also active in Sunday night's People's Choice Classic criterium but had better luck when the stakes were higher and the prize of a classification jersey was on the line.
"It was the plan actually to try and go out and get the KOM jersey. As there was only one king of the mountain for the day we thought we might as well give it a go. It worked out well," Dlamini tells Cyclingnews in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in Adelaide.
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Up against serial breakaway artist Will Clarke (EF Education-Drapac) and Olympian Scott Bowden (UniSA-Australia), Dlamini was arguably the least known of the trio who formed the stage 1 breakaway. The Baby Giro king of the mountains winner last year, Dlamini can climb and also packs a fast sprint finish. Two qualities suited to the Humbug Scrub KOM point on the stage.
While the spectators on the sole KOM of the day, and later at the finish line in Lyndoch, were getting their first glimpse of Dlamini, he has steadily built his reputation as a rider to watch since impressing the likes of Stephen Roche and Maurizio Fondriest at the 2013 Cape Rouleur event organized by HotChillee.
At the time, Dlamini didn't know of Roche and his palmares - no surprise considering Roche had been retired for two years when Dlamini was born in 1995. At the Cape Rouleur, he was simply riding his bike without expectations across the five-day 600-kilometre event.
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