MTN-Qhubeka’s Teklehaimanot takes a huge step in changing perceptions

DANIEL Teklehaimanot,

is soft spoken but he carries a big stick, two of them, actually, judging by the sinewy power his legs give off. He is soft of word but hard by action, and so the MTN-Qhubeka rider proved again yesterday when he extended his lead in the King of the Mountains competition on the seventh stage of the Tour de France.

He sauntered off on a break early on, as he had on Thursday, in search of the points that would give him an extended run in the polka dots. There was just one point on offer today, on the Côte de Canapville after 12.5km, and he took it, taking his total to four points and his lead to two over the Spaniard, Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha. The real mountains are to come, but the weight of that jersey sits well upon the shoulders of the MTNQhubeka rider.

“It was a great moment to start in the jersey this morning,” said Teklehaimanot. “We obviously had a plan with the early categorised climb today so that is why our team was in front to keep things under control before the start. It was good, though, that I could get away early and then win the point. I wanted to keep going and wasn’t worried about saving power for the next weeks because I am feeling strong. Every day we can spend in the jersey helps our 5 000 bikes campaign so I will work for it each stage.” Another day in the jersey regarded as the second-most important on the Tour for an African may seem like a small thing, but for a black man on an African team it was another huge step in changing perceptions. It was learnt yesterday that Teklehaimanot’s countryman and teammate, Natnael Berhane, was racially abused by Branislau Samoilau, a Belarusian with the Polish CCC Sprandi Polkowice squad during the fourth stage of the Tour of Austria on Wednesday. Samoilau had apparently taken issue with Berhane overtaking him during the race and said, “F**k you, n****r” to the MTN- Qhubeka rider. The South African team made an official complaint to the race organisers and the UCI, the global governing body of cycling. Samoilau has been kicked out of the Tour of Austria.

Doug Ryder, the team principal of MTN-Qhubeka, described the slur as “outrageous” in public, although he had stronger words in private. As the first truly African team of the modern era and with five Africans in a team of nine at the Tour, many do not know what to make of MTN-Qhubeka. Yesterday they took seventh and eighth on the stage in the sprint behind Mark Cavendish, with Tyler Farrar and Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg respectively contesting the final kick. It was their fifth top 10 placing of the tour after just seven stages. There is much more to come.

Berhane shrugged off the controversy to take fifth on the Queen stage of the Tour of Austria and is now fourth overall. “It was a really hard start today,” said MTN-Qhubeka team director Jean-Pierre Heynderickx. “The first climb was really tough and very long, the bunch just exploded on the first mountain. We were hoping to move onto the podium of the GC today but we just missed it. There are still some stages left and we will definitely race for another stage win.”

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (Team Bigla) took another third place on the Giro Rosa yesterday.