Team Qhubeka ASSOS (www.TeamQhubeka.com) will take the start of the famous Strade Bianche on Saturday. The famous Italian UCI World Tour single day classic will be run over 184km around the Siena countryside, including numerous white gravel road sectors.
Strade Bianche, one of the most exciting one day classics of the season, will see the UCI World Tour peloton descend upon the dusty white roads around Siena, for the 184km Strade Bianche.
At last year's edition of the race, which took place under very different circumstances in August, due to Covid-19, Michael Gogl brilliantly fought his way to a 9th place finish. Our Austrian specialist has been eagerly awaiting his chance to return & lead our team on the white Tuscan roads.
Simon Clarke, our Australian road captain who showed his strong form at the Royal Bernard Drome Classic with a 5th place finish last week, will no doubt be calling upon his years of experience and the memory of finishing 8th in the 2019 edition of Strade Bianche, to get the best result possible for Team Qhubeka ASSOS on Saturday.
Another previous top 10 finisher of Strade Bianche, Robert Power, will be joined by fellow teammates Bert-Jan Lindeman, Emil Vinjebo, Mauro Schmid, Karel Vacek as they look to support Gogl and Clarke in what should be an incredible race on Saturday.
Team Qhubeka ASSOS would like to give our thanks to The British School in The Netherlands for their fantastic short video (https://bit.ly/2PAliYA), which announces our 2021 Strade Bianche team!
Michael Gogl
I think we have a really strong squad here for the race and as a team we have also shown some strong performances in the last races. I am really looking forward to Saturday and am super motivated after a strong Strade Bianche last year. I have been preparing really hard and well for this race, so I definitely feel ready. Of course in a race like this you need to have some luck or at least no bad luck because that can influence the race a lot, punctures, mechanical's etc. so we hope for the best and look forward to Saturday.
Simon Clarke
Strade Bianche is by far my favourite race of the whole year so I'm super excited for this weekend. Doing it with a new team on new equipment and so far, so good. I am looking forward to attacking it on Saturday, we have a great team here with Michael Gogl also in great form so looking forward to working closely with him and trying to take home a good result for the team.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Team Qhubeka ASSOS.
About Team Qhubeka ASSOS:
Team Qhubeka ASSOS (TeamQhubeka.com) is a purpose-led, high-performance team, fighting to win on the world's biggest stage, to inspire hope and create opportunity. Founded in 2007, Team Qhubeka ASSOS (formerly NTT Pro Cycling) became the first-ever African cycling team to gain a UCI WorldTour license, in 2016.
We achieved our first major win in 2013 when Gerald Ciolek won Milan-San Remo, one of the five Monuments of cycling. We have competed in six Tour de France’s and notched up 7 stage wins, with Mark Cavendish wearing the coveted Yellow Jersey at the 2016 Tour de France.
We are a multicultural, diverse team with bases in South Africa, the Netherlands and Italy. There are 19 nationalities represented across our World Tour and continental feeder team rosters. Our focus on developing African cycling has resulted in more than 55 riders from the African continent be given the opportunity to race on the world stage, since the team's inception.
We race to help people to move forward with bicycles through our relationship with Qhubeka Charity. Through our work with Qhubeka, we have contributed to the distribution of over 30 000 bicycles in communities in South Africa.
About Qhubeka:
Qhubeka (Qhubeka.org) is a charity that moves people forward with bicycles. People earn bicycles through our programmes, improving their access to schools, clinics and jobs.
A bicycle is a tool that helps people to travel faster and further, and to carry more. In the face of extreme and persistent poverty, bicycles can change lives by helping to address socioeconomic challenges at the most basic level – helping people to get where they need to go.
All images attached to the press release can be used with the respective image credit in combination to this release.
