Back at ambitious DiData, Meintjes loves flying SA flag

TEAM DIMENSION DATA hopes the return of Louis Meintjes will see the South African sensation claim victory at the Tour de France by 2020.

Africa’s premier World Tour outfit shared some of its plans for next year in Paarl where they handed out 175 Qhubeka bicycles. Team principal Doug Ryder also unveiled Nicholas Dlamini as one of the newest members of Qhubeka’s World Tour team.

Dlamini has been one of the rising stars of South African cycling and has his sights set on becoming the first black South African to ride in the Tour de France.

“If we look ahead at our 2020 plan, Louis Meintjes is a core part of our strategy and he would like to stand tall on the podium in the next three years,” Ryder said.

“We will build into that as a team next year already, and it is also a big opportunity for Nicholas Dlamini. We would like to try to get up to 30 stage wins and move our ranking up into the top 15 teams on the tour and fight our way into a top-five placing on the Grand Tour.”

Meintjes started out with Dimension Data before he left for Lampre-Merida, which became UAE this year.

It proved to be a dream two years for South Africa’s top road cyclist as he earned two successive eighth-placed finishes in the Tour de France. “The plan is to try for a podium by 2020 and for next year we will take a slightly different approach where I will try to get more experience through the Giro,” Meintjes said.

“The last few years have been a good experience. I think I learned a lot and now it is nice to be back where things are familiar. It is great to be able to fly the South African flag, I always ride for my country.”

Ryder labelled the year a success despite the odd snag such as sprint king Mark Cavendish’s crash at the end of the fourth stage of this year’s Tour de France.

“If we reflect on our 2017 season, we raced in 25 nations more than any other team in the world... we had 273 race days, which is pretty significant,” Ryder said.

“We managed to rack up 25 wins, so it was a successful season for the team.

“The highlight was definitely the Giro d’Italia stage win, our seven national champions is also a highlight.

“The maiden victories for Mekseb Debesay, Ryan Gibbons, and Ben O’Connor showed the emerging talent in our team.”