These heady days for African cycling. On Saturday, a few hours before Daniel Teklehaimanot, the Eritrean on the MTN-Qhubeka team, held on to his King of the Mountains jersey at the Tour de France for the third day in a row, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, the South African champion, geared up for today’s final stage of the Giro Rosa in third place and looking for the win.
Moolman Pasio (Bigla) took third in the time trial on the eighth and second-last stage of the most prestigious stage race on the women’s calendar yesterday, one minute and 16 seconds behind Anna van der Breggen (Rabo Liv) of the Netherlands. Van der Breggen has moved into the overall lead, with Moolman Pasio one minute and 15 seconds behind.
“It was a tough day,” said Moolman Pasio. “The time trial is hard because it’s also a mental game – just you, the bike and the road. I gave it my all. Initially crossing the line there’s always emotions but in hindsight I am happy with my ride. I was competing against the world’s best time triallists and to finish third with the world’s best is something to be proud of. The race isn’t over. Tomorrow is a hard day and we won’t give up. The race is only over at the top of the climb.”
The ninth and final stage of the Giro Rosa is a hilly 92.7km from Verbania to San Domenico di Varzo.
Teklehaimanot stood on the podium and grinned for the third day in a row. As the first African to wear a major jersey at a Grand tour he has been rightly lauded, but there lingers some sour aftertaste after the racial abuse suffered by his countryman and MTN-Qhubeka teammate, Natnael Berhane, at the Tour of Austria. Berhane was called a “n****r” by the Belarussian Branislau Samoilau.
“Racism and saying what was said, that’s unacceptable. We have no tolerance for that at all,” said Doug Ryder, the MTN-Qhubeka founder and team principal. “Hopefully, it’s an isolated thing. A guy was silly, he’s said something but it’s good that the team has taken a stance against it and he’s realised his mistake. Natnael was incredibly upset at the time, because it’s a terrible thing. They had a discussion, the team came and apologised, the rider came and apologised. Natnael has forgiven the guy. The UCI wanted to kick him out of the race, but Natnael said no, it’s okay.
“The nice thing about our team is that we are multi-cultural and our riders learn from each other, they learn about different cultures from different countries. It makes our team stronger and that’s a good thing. If other riders feel threatened about this African invasion, and the transformation in cycling, then fine. This is not a European sport, it’s for the world. It’s amazing that we are here and we can show the performance of the riders that are here.”
The UCI said their officials at the tour of Austria had spoken “to both riders and their teams. Everyone agreed that it was unacceptable and the rider apologised and offered to donate one month’s salary to team MTN-Qhubeka’s foundation. All parties were satisfied with the outcome.”
Berhane slipped to fifth overall on the seventh stage of the Tour of Austria yesterday. It was a short stage, just 124km, with South Africa’s Jaco Venter getting into the 21-rider break. Venter took 11th on the day, with his German teammate, Gerald Ciolek, 12th. The Tour of Austria finishes today with Berhane two minutes and 16 seconds off the lead.
“I am really disappointed,” said Venter. “I made the big break of 21 guys and I was sitting on for a lot of the stage so I was hoping to get away in the end. I tried quite a few times but each time I couldn’t get enough of a gap and wasn’t able to get a good result. I feel really bad for the team.”