The Importance of National Teams

Strength in Numbers

Dylan Girdlestone’s victory in the recent Tour of Rwanda was as important as it was impressive.

Arriving in Kigali resplendent in yellow is an achievement worthy of the highest praise, especially given the fact that Dylan was riding for the South African National Team.

African cycling has come a long way over recent years, with the combined efforts of people like Jock Boyer and JP van Zyl starting to bear fruit in the form of a broad talent base. If one examines the General Classification, you will notice the presence of several Europeans intertwined with a large number of riders from all over Africa. There are even a couple of riders from the USA. The cosmopolitan nature of the results sheet certainly lends credibility to this event and bodes well for the future of African cycling.

The 2013 Tour of Rwanda was particularly interesting given that Girdlestone finished over two minutes ahead of fellow South African, Louis Meintjies. Meintjies made headlines in October with his superb silver medal performance in the UCI World Championships U23 Road Race and was riding for Team MTN-Qhubeka in Rwanda.

It is not that long ago that the national team was perhaps the only opportunity for most South African riders to participate in international stage races. From the immediate post-isolation forays to the Milk Race and the Bayern Rundfahrt to the more recent Tour de Langkawi and Tour of Morocco, the national team has both launched and enhanced the career of many a local rider. Competing in the various African tours was - and still is - essential for South Africa to gain enough UCI points to send riders to world championships and the Olympics. 

Almost a decade ago, South Africa was able to field a team of six riders in the UCI World Championships Road Race. We had more riders represented than many stronger cycling nations, but only because of all the points gained by our young national team at unglamorous stage races all over the continent. It is important to note that none of those young riders were in the elite team at Worlds that year, but their sacrifice enabled this numerical presence as well as laying invaluable groundwork for their own careers later on. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of these benevolent youngsters was Daryl Impey, who is now South Africa’s foremost rider in the World Tour.

It was great to see two South African riders on the podium in Rwanda. But it was even better that they represented two different SA teams, underlying some promising depth in our local ranks. Add in the efforts of Jay Thomson and Johan van Zyl in the opening stages and it was great week for South African cycling. Bear in mind that this tour falls in late-November, which is effectively the off season for most professional riders; these guys certainly weren’t there to mess around on the rather bumpy local terrain.