Janse van Rensburg 'happy' for TDF call-up

Cape Town - Reinardt Janse van Rensburg is a happy man after being named on Team Dimension Data’s final Tour de France line-up for the second year running.

The nine-strong side has been announced after being trimmed from 13 just over a week ago.

Team Principal Doug Ryder said: "This was a really tough decision to make as all of the riders on the squad have stepped up and shown their potential to be in the Tour de France. This is a fantastic team of experienced riders we are hoping can deliver on our performance goals of winning stages, being competitive and visible every day, to raise our profile to even greater heights in the incredibly demanding stages."

The side features Janse van Rensburg as one of three African riders. He’s the only South African in the squad this time around, as last year saw Louis Meintjes and Jacques Janse van Rensburg rode their first tour.

But Janse van Rensburg is firmly focused on France for now. "I’m very happy to be selected for my second tour,’ he told Road to Rio 2016.

"It’s definitely the big show, which every rider wants to be part of, so it’s again huge honour and privilege that the team showed confidence in me.

"I think this year will be more relaxed, especially in the beginning and that will help to save some energy which could be important."

Janse van Rensburg spoke about his team's expectations this year after their team won their first ever stage last year and also saw Daniel Teklehaimanot wear the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey for a good few days in the early stage:

"My goal is to firstly deliver the guys in the sprints for a victory and then to look for a stage myself. I think my form is really good, I feel good on the bike and my weight is right on target," said the Pretoria powerhouse.

The two other African riders in this year’s team are Eritrea’s Teklehaimanot and Natnael Berhane (the latter’s first Tour de France).

Other South Africans in action during the tour will be the Rio Olympics bound pair of Daryl Impey (Orica GreenEdge) and Meintjes (Lampre-Merida).

The full Dimension Data line-up for the 103rd edition of La Grand Boucle is:

Natnael Berhane, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Mark Cavendish, Steve Cummings, Bernhard Eisel, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Serge Pauwels, Mark Renshaw, Daniel Teklehaimanot.

Happy to be selected in a strong squad for my 2nd Tour! Another 21days of pleasure, pain, suffering and hopefully great memories coming up!

— Reinardt Jv Rensburg (@ReinvanRensburg) June 27, 2016