South African team jumps to Continental level for 2019

South Africa will have a second team in the UCI ranks next year as TEG Pro Cycling will make a move to the Continental level. WorldTour team Dimension Data is currently the only UCI outfit registered in South Africa.

Team founder Hein Badenhorst will serve as general manager and team director in 2019 as the team focuses on the UCI Continental circuits, hoping to compete in six to eight international stage races in the UCI Europe Tour and Asia Tour races.

The team has already acquired invitations to five European UCI stage races, according to an announcement published on the team's website. The team's goal is to create a structure that allows elite and U23 South African riders to compete in 40-60 International UCI race days over a season. The development mission behind TEG Pro Cycling team is to have riders join the program for one or two years before progressing to Pro Continental or WorldTour teams.

TEG Pro Cycling will also work with the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre, which will serve as the team's base of operations.

“Our partnership with the high performance centre adds incredible value to our programme," Badenhorst said. "Their world-class facilities will provide the infrastructure for our team with an incredible support structure of physiotherapists, sport scientists and medical staff.

"The medical and sport science departments will continuously monitor our riders and use their performance data for cycling specific research at the University," Badenhorst said. "We are privileged to have Future Africa as our accommodation partner who will house our team on the University Campus. All our riders will also be enrolled for higher certificates at the University of Pretoria, furthering their education while they pursue their cycling careers. This is very important to me.”

The team also announced 32 GI and Token as the nutrition and wheel sponsors, saying the rest of the sponsorships for the 2019 season are being finalised and will be announced soon.