Thanks to a new partnership with Cervélo bicycles and Rotor components, Team MTN-Qhubeka is continuing its ambitious growth plans for 2015 and beyond.
The new Team MTN-Qhubeka partnership is built around a fresh team concept designed to take fan experience and interaction to a whole new level, with Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen heading up the effort. Building on ideas developed with the highly successful Cervélo Test Team of 2009-10, the ‘concept is designed to bring fans closer to the team and its riders than ever before.’
Team MTN-Qhubeka was founded in 2007, steadily working its way up from a regional team to now being a Continental Pro team with bases in South Africa and Italy. It will participate in its first Grand Tour this autumn/fall at the Vuelta a España.
MTN-Qhubeka’s goal is to give talented African riders a path into the pro peloton while raising funds for the Qhubeka charity.
Racing ambitions for the team are high. The new partnership allows Team MTN-Qhubeka to support a contingent of talented young African riders, and to match them with seasoned professionals from Europe and North America. The goal is clear: showcase the team and the Qhubeka Foundation within the top echelons of the sport. The rider roster is currently being set and will be announced soon.
“Cervélo has always been synonymous with the highest levels of racing performance, “said Team Principal Douglas Ryder. “The new team will be competitive on the world stage, and Cervélo has already won everything from the world championships to cobbled classics like Paris-Roubaix and Grand Tours including the Tour de France. Who better to give Team MTN-Qhubeka’s riders the best opportunity to succeed?”
As Africa’s first Pro Continental team, Team MTN-Qhubeka—and now Cervélo, together with its equipment partner Rotor — also races with extra purpose, raising money for the Qhubeka Foundation to bring bicycle mobility to isolated areas of Africa.
“Cervélo is excited at the opportunity to support both the team and the Qhubeka Foundation,” said Cervélo Managing Director Robert Reijers. “Not just in terms of high-performance racing, but also because we truly believe that by providing cycling mobility, we can directly benefit people’s lives by increasing the distance they can travel, what they can carry, where they can go, and how fast they can get there.”
To support those efforts, Cervélo will initiate programs to actively support the QhubekaPage Foundation. The company will introduce team-replica bike models in 2015, with Cervélo donating a Qhubeka Foundation bicycle for every team-replica Cervélo sold.
“We’re delighted that Cervélo has proposed matching its team bike sales with the donation of a Qhubeka bike. It brings the ability to support Qhubeka directly to hundreds of Cervélo retailers and thousands of individual riders worldwide,” said Gerard Vroomen.
“Like no other bike company, Cervélo understands that cycling needs new and better ways to connect with its fans. It’s a great feeling to align Cervélo’s DNA with the MTN-Qhubeka project.”
Qhubeka is an Nguni (Zulu, Xhosa) word that means ‘to carry on’, ‘to progress’, ‘to move forward’. Qhubeka helps people move forward and progress by giving bicycles in return for work done to improve communities, the environment or academic results. Having a bicycle changes people’s lives by increasing the distance they can travel, what they can carry, where they can go and how fast they can get there.
MTN is ‘Africa’s leading telecommunications network’ and is a long-time supporter of Qhubeka and the team. Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is an emerging market operator, connecting 210 million subscribers in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
www.teammtnqhubeka.com
www.cervelo.com
www.rotorbike.com
www.qhubeka.org
www.mtn.com
