It’s not as much a new team, but a new look as BCX takes over from Telkom as the primary sponsor of South Africa’s most competitive professional cycling team.
BCX, a newly launched brand, is Africa’s premier end-to-end ICT solutions provider and serves the enterprise sector under the umbrella of the Telkom Group.
The official launch of the BCX team was held at the Sandton on 23 February to introduce the riders and sponsors to the media and showcase the new team look.
The eight-man BCX team comprises six road and track riders and two mountain bike specialists.
The primary team objective is to be a dominant force at the major South African races, including the popular one-day road races, the National and Continental Track Championships and the high profile mountain bike stage and one-day races.
“It’s an ambitious project trying to spread the team across three different cycling disciplines, but we feel that we have enough talented, committed riders to achieve our objectives,” said Malcolm Lange of Lange Sports, the company that owns and manages Team BCX.
“Track racing has always formed the foundation for any good road racer and unfortunately the South African cycling events scene marginalised track racing somewhat in the last decade and a half. With Team BCX we are making track a key part of our team’s training and racing for 2017,” said Lange, himself a former multiple national track and road champion.
The Team BCX road/track squad is headed up by Nolan Hoffman, South Africa’s most successful road and track sprinter over the past few years and man with a wealth of experience. He will once again be aiming for wins in the country’s three most popular road races, the Cape Town Cycle Tour (Argus), Telkom 947 Cycle Challenge and Tsogo Sun Amashova.
Ably backing Hoffman is another experienced campaigner, David Maree, who won the Berge en Dale Classic and finished second at The Fast One, getting the team’s 2017 racing year off to a successful start. Maree’s ability to read a race makes him an astute tactician, as can be confirmed by his winning of two South African track championship titles in the Elimination Race.
Reynard Butler is a quick sprinter that can also climb, as confirmed by his stage win at the recent Mpumalanga Tour, while Steven van Heerden is a new rider on the team for 2017, bringing his track cycling prowess to the team, which will be very useful in road sprints.
Wesley Eslick is also new to the team. He has been racing full time in the USA for the past two years and will add great value as a team workhorse as he continues to develop his strengths. Calvin Beneke adds great depth to the team. He raced for the MTN team in 2015 and is an accomplished allrounder with a strong awareness of tactics as seen in his winning last weekend’s Dischem Ride for Sight.
“It’s a really good mix of riders in our squad. We have a well-rounded blend of talented riders that have shown great commitment and produced a number of podium finishes already this year. Team BCX should be able to challenge for podiums at each event we enter,” said Lange.
The two mountain bike racers are HB Kruger and Waylon Woolcock . Both come from road racing backgrounds with Lange Sports and will also be used to add firepower to the road team when their schedule allows.
Kruger is a rising star in the mountain bike discipline, while Woolcock is an experienced campaigner who counts among his highlights winning the African jersey and finishing sixth overall at the Absa Cape Epic last year. They finished a respectable second overall at the recent Momentum Health Tankwa Trek against a strong international field.
They’ll be tackling the 2017 Cape Epic as Team BCX as well as all the other high-profile stage races, including Sani2c and Wines2Whales and the Ashburton Investments National Series.
“I’m excited about this combination. Waylon’s experience will undoubtedly help hone HB into an even more formidable mountain bike racer. I am sure we’ll be seeing the BXC kit on a number of podiums this year and are offering them maximum support at the Cape Epic, which really is a massive international event,” added Lange.
“We are thrilled to be the sponsor of the newly minted BCX cycling team,” said Johann Henning, chief customer officer, BCX. “These riders are truly a premier South African team, and are uniquely suited to represent the premium ICT Solutions BCX provides for its customers. It’s a perfect match.”
The team’s manager is Magnus Gouws, a man with years of pro-team support experience.
Team BCX 2017
Riders:
Nolan Hoffman (road & track)
Reynard Butler (road & track)
Wesley Eslick (road & track)
Steven van Heerden (road & track)
David Maree (road & track)
Calvin Beneke (road & track)
Waylon Woolcock (MTB)
HB Kruger (MTB)