The final grand tour of the season is upon us and Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka are happy to announce an exciting lineup of climbers for the 72nd edition of the Vuelta a Espana.
After a strong showing at the Tour de France this year, Serge Pauwels will lead our African Team come Saturday together with our Basque climbing duo of Omar Fraile and Igor Anton. Pauwels and Anton will be able to target the most difficult of climbing stages while Fraile will adopt a similar attacking strategy to that which has won him the King of the Mountains jersey at the last two editions of this race.
With no less than 15 of the 21 stages considered either hilly or mountainous this year, our African Team is littered with climbing talent. Merhawi Kudus, Ben King, Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Lachlan Morton provide us with numerous options for each stage, be that in a support role or in going for personal stage glory. It will also be Morton’s debut grand tour appearance.
Youcef Reguigui, also capable of climbing his way into smaller groups, showed his turn of speed at the recent Tour of Poland and will be our go to man for the limited sprint stage options. Nic Dougall, our South African all-rounder, will complete our 9-man team.
Bingen Fernandez – Sport Director
Serge Pauwels – Rider