'African cycling has not arrived, it is leaving' - Q36.5 set to close its Continental team
Q36.5 Conti team manager Kevin Campbell explains closure of development squad in open letter as focus moves to ProTeam
The Q36.5 ProTeam is shutting down its Continental team after nine years of operation, team manager Kevin Campbell has announced.
The Italy-based squad is a successor of the Qhubeka development team, itself a feeder programme for the defunct Dimension Data/Qhubeka squad, which was also run by Q36.5 boss Doug Ryder.
News that the Continental development squad would be shut down was broken by Global Peloton, with Ryder telling the site that he and the team would be focussing efforts and resources on the ProTeam going forward.
"We are one of the few Pro Tour teams with a U23 team and we have decided to align all our efforts in making the ProTeam successful, we struggled this year and that is our priority for now," he told Global Peloton.
The ambitious Swiss squad has scored five wins in 2024, with the team counting on riders including Giacomo Nizzolo, David de la Cruz, Damien Howson, Matteo Moschetti and Gianluca Brambilla.
Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto-Dstny), Sjoerd Bax (UAE Team Emirates) and Emils Liepinš (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) are among five new faces already signed up for the 2025 season and the team has recently been linked with a potential shock move for Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers).
The Q36.5 Continental squad has, since 2016, provided a pathway to the pro peloton for numerous African riders including Stefan de Bod, Natnael Tesfatsion, Henok Mulubrhan and Ryan Gibbons.
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Other notable names who progressed to the WorldTour after coming through the ranks at the team include Matteo Sobrero, Luca Mozzato and Samuele Battistella.
Since the ProTeam's refounding as Q36.5 in 2023, five African riders formed part of the Continental squad, though only two – Nahom Zeray and Travis Stedman – are on the current roster.
In an email titled "An open letter: Dear cycling, goodbye, from Africa," Campbell laid out his team's history and the vital role it has played in bringing opportunities and development to African riders over the years before confirming the squad's shuttering.
"Biniam, Louis, Hagos, Natnael, Henok, Stefan, Ryan, Mulu, Amanuel, Negasi. I know them all, I’ve worked directly with 9 of them and 7 of them have passed through our development team, which I have managed for the past 8 years," Campbell wrote.
"Unfortunately, the decision-makers on our team’s management have decided that there is no longer a need for our development team to continue. Come 2025, Q36.5 Continental Team will be no more."
He went on to lament the decreasing number of African riders competing in the WorldTour – something which has in large part been caused by the 2021 closing of Dimension Data/Qhubeka project.
"The reality is African cycling has been experiencing a steady decline in representation at the highest level of the sport over the last 10 years. In 2014 there were 23 African riders with pro contracts, the most there has ever been, and we know that next year there will probably be less than 10.
"African cycling has not arrived, it is leaving."
With the loss of the senior team, which featured just two African cyclists in its final year, three years ago and now the closure of the development programme, there appear to be few, if any, reliable pathways to the WorldTour for riders from Rwanda, Eritrea, South Africa, Ethiopia and beyond.
Campbell wrote that the teams provided opportunities for African riders that simply don't exist elsewhere in Europe-based racing.
"All those talented athletes need is opportunity. What our team did was provide the opportunity… The hard part was theirs to do. And these riders did it!" he wrote.
"So, our team is no longer required. We had hoped that there’d be more African teams following our lead, but not all hopes turn into reality. We did not do this completely alone.
"There have been and still are a few teams actively trying to find opportunities for African riders, but these teams tend to be underfunded while looking for opportunities all over the world.
"The question is not: where does the next generation of African riders come from? We know where they are from. The real question is how are they going to get here, to Europe? All they are yearning for is an opportunity. Who is going to provide that opportunity now?"
The decision to close the Continental team means that 10 riders in the current squad, including Zeray, who won the recent Piccola Sanremo and finished 11th at the Tour de l'Avenir, and Stedman, this year a podium finisher at the Coppa della Pace and Ruota d'Oro, are without contracts for 2025.
Read the full open letter by Kevin Campbell below.
An Open Letter: Dear Cycling, good-bye, from Africa.
There are 10 of them, 10 African riders currently riding on UCI-registered Professional Teams:
Biniam, Louis, Hagos, Natnael, Henok, Stefan, Ryan, Mulu, Amanuel, Negasi.
I know them all, I’ve worked directly with 9 of them and 7 of them have passed through our development team, which I have managed for the past 8 years. Unfortunately, the decision-makers on our team’s management have decided that there is no longer a need for our development team to continue. Come 2025, Q36.5 Continental Team will be no more.
Oh well! Another Conti team closing, but at least there are still many more around. But wait a second, there are still opportunities for African riders, aren’t there?
Yes I hear. Biniam won the Green jersey at the Tour de France. The UCI World Championships are heading to Rwanda. African Cycling has arrived! But didn’t they say that in ’22 when Binni won Ghent- Wevelgem? That year there were 12 African riders in the pro peloton.
Daniel Teklehaimanot won the Mountains jersey in the Dauphine in 2015, riding on an African-registered team. Eritrea celebrated and Africa had also arrived, back then when there were 16 African riders racing professionally.
The reality is, African cycling has been experiencing a steady decline in representation at the highest level of the sport over the last 10 years. In 2014 there were 23 African riders with pro contracts, the most there has ever been, and we know that next year there will probably be less than 10.
African cycling has not arrived, it is leaving.
Doug (Ryder), Carol (Austin) and I decided to address the issue. We started our African development team, registering as a continental team in 2016 and basing ourselves permanently in Italy. The team’s name changed over the years, as team names do in cycling, but the core aims remained the same: Provide opportunities for African riders.
We soon realised though, that cycling actually doesn’t care. Yes, some rider stories make for great marketing opportunities, some riders provide great photo opportunities, but the game, the sport, the business of cycling doesn’t care. A rider has to perform!
Nobody in cycling cares where an athlete comes from or what they’ve had to overcome to get to the start line. It’s all about performance. And this is as it should be. Professional sports is demanding. There’s no place for sentiment. Language barriers, cultural differences, time zones, visa restrictions, these don’t count. Either a rider can, or he cannot.
But if a rider has the talent, I was told time and time again, they’ll ‘make it’. Talent always shows.
Oh yeah? Who then is looking to Africa for cycling talent?
Cycling is traditionally a European sport. The cycling monuments and biggest cycling events are all European. The riders need to prove themselves in Europe, said the wise cycling heads.
Sure. So they can ‘just’ travel to any European cycling country, find a team and then all will be well.
Yes, as you can imagine, the EU teams were falling over themselves to find undiscovered African riders. For the last 8 years, almost all the non-white faces appearing on the start lines of major and minor cycling events in Europe were from the same organisation, our organisation.
Apart from consistently graduating riders into the pro ranks every year since 2016, we had our success stories: Joseph Areruya was the first African to win a stage in the Baby Giro. He also won 3 tours in Africa over the next year and thoroughly deserved a place on a professional team.
Nic Dlamini won the KOM jersey in the same Baby Giro. He also deserved his place on a WT team in 2018.
Mulu Kinfe Hailemichael, Stefan de Bod, Ryan Gibbons, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Natnael Tesfazion, Henok Mulueberhan, Negasi Haylu Abreha. Not all with names that roll easily off the tongue, but they have all earned their place in the Pro peloton. Biniam Girmay entered the pro ranks with a bang, while Louis Meintjes has been a regular name on commentators' lips in grand tours for years.
As cycling dictated, if they’re good enough they’ll make it.
All those talented athletes need is opportunity. What our team did was provide the opportunity. The team staff did not ride their bikes for them, did not put in the many miles of training, did not learn about the high level of European racing the hard way. All the team tried to do was give them world-class equipment, coaching and guidance. The hard part was theirs to do. And these riders did it!
Not all our talented African riders were talented enough though. Some just could not make the performance leap but isn’t that true in all sports. Sometimes trying and desire is just not enough, but you have to try.
So, our team is no longer required. We had hoped that there’d be more African teams following our lead, but not all hopes turn into reality. We did not do this completely alone. There have been and still are a few teams actively trying to find opportunities for African riders, but these teams tend to be underfunded while looking for opportunities all over the world. African names regularly appear in the results and on the podiums in Asian events.
The question is not: where does the next generation of African riders come from? We know where they are from. The real question is how are they going to get here, to Europe? All they are yearning for is an opportunity.
Who is going to provide that opportunity now?
Kevin Campbell – Team Manager, Q36.5 Continental Cycling Team.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
