MTN- QHUBEKA
In 2017, finally the puzzle fit together in the last stage of the Tour de Yorkshire where I won
Isent an email to Douglas Ryder in June or July. He still tells people about that email. I told him why I liked his team and why I wanted to ride for it; I think I mentioned the Qhubeka charity but I also mentioned the way the team stood out in the peloton, and the way they did an exotic programme at that time. Funnily enough, one week later I was contacted by Brian Smith - so many years after Cervélo - he didn’t know about that email but he told me, ‘I need to strengthen the MTN Qhubeka team for next year.’ He was asking if I was interested or if I knew riders who were out of contract, so I told him about the email.
The African riders didn’t come from a culture of cycling, they had been in the team for a couple of years, they were still growing and they still needed to learn some tips and tricks from more experienced bike riders. For them it was also nice that that team stepped up and they could dream of riding the Tour de France.
That 2015 Tour was amazing, one of the best memories of my career, maybe the best. There was no pressure at all on us, we wanted to do well but we could just try and go in the breakaways, show our jersey. Steve Cummings won a stage and I was in the break in the mountains almost every day. I didn’t win a stage but I rediscovered myself and it turned out to be a nice spot on GC in the end [13th]. If I look back, I’ve always ridden best in teams who were pretty similar to each other, with this underdog status. I gained a lot of confidence in 2015 to believe in myself again. I kept that momentum in all the years after and in 2017 finally the puzzle fit together in the last stage of the Tour de Yorkshire where I won. It was a really hard final but that was how I liked to race. We were in the final with 12 or 15 riders and we were three from Dimension. I took my chance and I fought very hard to the finish, and Omar Fraile came across and we crossed the finish line, the two of us.
The team started as the African dream but then we were so successful in 2015 and also so popular. I got requests from riders in
Belgium, they all wanted to ride for that team. One day on Sporza during the 2015 Tour there was this poll and they asked people which team would you like to ride for. Of course, Quick Step was number one, but second was MTN Qhubeka and probably no one had ever heard of the team two months before.
They had the chance to sign Cavendish and Dimension Data wanted to be in the WorldTour - the team became bigger and it wasn’t an underdog team any more that was focussing on the Africans. That was not their core business any more. I can understand, it was not maintainable - you cannot stay small and be in the Tour de France and be successful and popular at the same time.