Roger Hammond will be a key rider in the team's Classics plans(Image credit: Jesse Wild)
Roger Hammond (Cervelo TestTeam) finished fourth.(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Roger Hammond (Cervelo) won stage 2 in the 2009 Tour of Qatar(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Mark Cavendish on the stage 1 podium at the 2015 Tour of Britain.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Jim Songezo of MTN - Qhubeka leads the chase(Image credit: Mark Gunter)
Steven Cummings of African team MTN-Qhubeka wins stage 14 of the Tour de France on Nelson Mandela day.
Back at the MTN-Qhubeka team car(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Roger Hammond will join the Dimension Data team (formerly MTN-Qhubeka) as a sports director next season. Hammond was a professional rider for over a decade and was teammates at T Mobile with Mark Cavendish, who will ride for Dimension Data next year.
After retiring in 2011, Hammond took up a post as a sports director with the British-based Madison Genesis team in 2013.
“I am very excited to be joining this fantastic project, with so many ex-teammates or managers within the team it feels like I’m returning to my family. Cycling has been so influential in the path my life has taken and the rich experiences I have enjoyed along the way,” Hammond said in a team press release.
“To be part of this project that not only focusses on giving riders the chance to achieve their dreams competitively but – by supporting Qhubeka – also giving children the chance of an education through the medium of the bike was an opportunity not to be missed.”
Hammond is a former road race and cyclo-cross national champion, winning the latter a total of eight times. He was a consistent performer in the Classics and finished third at Paris-Roubaix in 2004.
The move to Dimension Data links Hammond up with a number of former teammates and managers. General manager, Brian Smith was heavily involved in Hammond’s penultimate team the Cervélo Test Team, where Theo Bos also rode. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Serge Pauwels, Bernhard Eisel and Tyler Farrar have all been teammates with Hammond. The 41-year-old also joins Rolf Aldag, who was a sports director at T-Mobile during the time that both Hammond and Cavendish both rode for the German team.
The announcement of Hammond's new role comes on the same day that it was confirmed that Cavendish would be collaborating with the Continental Madison Genesis team via his CVNDSH Scholarship.
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The African team also announced that Sapinda Holding B.V. global investment company would be the team’s third sponsor next season. The company joined Dimension Data and Deloitte as a major sponsors of the team and the Sapinda logo will have a place on both the team's jersey and the shorts.
The flurry of announcements have come as Dimension Data are looking to step up to WorldTour level in 2016. Team manager Doug Ryder is expected to hold formal discussions with the UCI on Wednesday about the possibility, with both the rider roster and sponsorship budgets making them a strong candidate to become the 18th team in the 2016 WorldTour peloton.
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