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Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep) won stage 13 of the Tour de France, sprinting to the win in Carcassonne.

Stage 13 of the Tour de France was another long transitional stage, covering 220km of the Southern France countryside. The stage got off to another fast start with a number of riders again looking to make the break.

Team Qhubeka NextHash were once again very active and were rewarded for their efforts when American, Sean Bennett made the break of the day. Only two other riders joined Bennett on the attack, and so it was set to be a long and hard day under the baking sun for the trio.

They managed to force open a lead of 4-minutes at one point but the peloton easily had the gap under control. With a bit of wind about from 60km to go some attacks began in the peloton.

These accelerations quickly brought back the the three escapees and created some nervousness in the peloton, as nobody wanted to be caught out in echelons. A crash in the peloton created a small split, fortunately no Team Qhubeka NextHash riders went down.

Coming into the sprint, Max Walscheid was battling for position up at the head of the race for the final 20km. Deceuninck-Quickstep being the only team with a sprint train in the race, were in total control though. The finale was somewhat technical but that didn’t stop their sprinter, Cavendish, from taking another stage win, his fourth of the race.

Walscheid would finish as our best placed rider on the stage, crossing the line in 14th place after suffering a mechanical in with approximately 1.5km to go.

Sean Bennett

It’s a bit frustrating to get into the break and then only be three of us. We knew beforehand that it was 50-50 if they would let a big break go up the road and it sticks to the line or something like today happens where there’s just three of us and there’s really no chance. I tried to make the best of it and a long, fun day in the end.

There’s still a week left of the race and there’d better be something left in the tank, I’m now just going to recover for the next days and then see what we can do in the next week.

I want to thank everyone for all of their support. I really miss my family and friends back home but thank you for everything.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Team Qhubeka NextHash.

Media Contact: Jean Smyth (Head of Communications) Email: [email protected] Mobile: +27 63 470 1710 or +31 625 739 033

About Team Qhubeka NextHash: Team Qhubeka NextHash is a purpose-led, high-performance team, fighting to win on the world's biggest stage, to inspire hope and create opportunity. Founded in 2007, Team Qhubeka NextHash (formerly NTT Pro Cycling) became the first-ever African cycling team to gain a UCI WorldTour license, in 2016.

We achieved our first major win in 2013 when Gerald Ciolek won Milan-San Remo, one of the five Monuments of cycling. We have competed in six Tour de France’s and notched up 7 stage wins, with Mark Cavendish wearing the coveted Yellow Jersey at the 2016 Tour de France.

We are a multicultural, diverse team with bases in South Africa, the Netherlands and Italy. There are 19 nationalities represented across our World Tour and continental feeder team rosters. Our focus on developing African cycling has resulted in more than 55 riders from the African continent be given the opportunity to race on the world stage, since the team's inception.

We race to help people to move forward with bicycles through our relationship with Qhubeka Charity. Through our work with Qhubeka, we have contributed to the distribution of over 30 000 bicycles in communities in South Africa.

About Qhubeka: Qhubeka is a charity that moves people forward with bicycles. People earn bicycles through our programmes, improving their access to schools, clinics and jobs.

A bicycle is a tool that helps people to travel faster and further, and to carry more. In the face of extreme and persistent poverty, bicycles can change lives by helping to address socioeconomic challenges at the most basic level – helping people to get where they need to go. 

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