Hard-riding Smit secures spot on World Tour team
South African cyclist Willie Smit has been signed by Team Katusha Alpecin to ride for the Swiss-based World Tour team for the 2018 season. Smit was in excellent form at last Sunday’s World Championships road race in Bergen, Norway and it was that performance that persuaded Katusha to make Smit their first recruit from Africa. The 24-year-old is the current leader in the UCI Africa Tour and earlier in 2017 he won the gold medal at the African Continental Championships. Determined to make a breakthrough in Europe, Smit paid his own way and spent three months in Spain riding for Club Ciclista Rías Baixas where he won six races.