Nicholas Dlamini (born 12 August 1995) is a South African cyclist, who most recently rode for

UCI Continental team +Men Teams A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who a ...

Career

Growing up in Capricorn Park,

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, Dlamini's first sport was running, which he took up in 2009 along with his twin sister Nikita. In 2011 he took up cycling, initially alongside his running career. He pursued his development at the

World Cycling Centre The World Cycling Centre (WCC, ) is a coaching and training centre in Aigle, Switzerland. It contains a indoor velodrome, a BMX racing track and other non-cycling facilities. It was built in 2002 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Union Cy ...

. Dlamini turned professional in 2018: at that year's

Tour Down Under The Tour Down Under (currently branded as the Santos Tour Down Under for sponsorship reasons) is a cycling race in and around Adelaide, South Australia. It is traditionally the opening event of the UCI World Tour and UCI Women’s WorldTour ...

, the first

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an annual ranking system based upon perfor ...

race of his career, he won the King of the Mountains jersey, becoming the first

black South African Ethnic groups in South Africa have a variety of origins. The racial categories introduced by the colonial apartheid regime remain ingrained in South African society with the governing party of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) c ...

to win a major classification in a World Tour race. In August 2019, he was named in the startlist for the

2019 Vuelta a España The 2019 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tour cycling stage race that took place in Spain, Andorra and France between 24 August and 15 September 2019. The race was the 74th edition of the Vuelta a España and is the ...

. On 27 December 2019, Dlamini was assaulted by rangers at the

Table Mountain National Park Table Mountain National Park, previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, is a national park in Cape Town, South Africa, proclaimed on 29 May 1998, for the purpose of protecting the natural environment of the Table Mountain chain, and ...

where he was training and suffered a broken arm during an altercation. He was selected to represent South Africa at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. He rode in the

2021 Tour de France The 2021 Tour de France was the 108th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three Grand Tour (cycling), grand tours. Originally planned for the Denmark, Danish capital of Copenhagen, the start of the 2021 Tour (known as the ) was trans ...

, becoming the first black South African cyclist to ride the Tour, but was eliminated after finishing outside the time limit on the ninth stage.

Personal life

He is an ambassador for the

Elton John AIDS Foundation The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) is a nonprofit organization, established by musician Sir Elton John in 1992 in the United States and 1993 in the United Kingdom to support innovative HIV prevention, education programs, direct care and s ...

Major results

;2013 : African Junior Road Championships ::1st Gold medal africa

Team time trial ::10th Road race ;2014 : 1st Cape Rouleur ;2015 : KZN Autumn Series ::1st Mayday Classic ::3rd

PMB Road Classic The PMB Road Classic was a one-day road cycling race held in South Africa in 2015. It was held as part of the 2015 UCI Africa Tour The 2015 UCI Africa Tour was the 11th season of the UCI Africa Tour. The season began on 14 January with the ...

African Road Championships The African Continental Cycling Championships are a series of cycling races held annually in Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square& ...

::2nd

Team time trial ::7th Under-23 road race : 2nd

Time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

, National Under-23 Road Championships ;2016 : 9th

Piccolo Giro di Lombardia The Piccolo Giro di Lombardia is a one-day cycling race held annually in Lombardy, Italy. It is part of UCI Europe Tour in category 1.2U, meaning it is reserved for under 23 riders. The race acts as the U23 counterpart to the Giro di Lombardia T ...

;2017 : 1st Jersey green

Mountains classification,

Giro Ciclistico d'Italia Giro Next Gen, also known as Baby Giro, Girobio, Giro d'Italia Giovani Under 23 or Giro Ciclistico d'Italia, is an Italian road bicycle racing amateur stage race created in 1970. The race is considered to be the most important race on Italy's U23 ...

: 2nd

, National Under-23 Road Championships : 5th Overall

Tour de Hongrie The Tour de Hongrie () is a professional road bicycle stage race organized in Hungary since 1925. History The inaugural Tour de Hongrie took place on 27 June 1925. The cyclists hit the road as early as four in the morning, and the Budapest–Szo ...

: 6th

Gran Premio Industrie del Marmo The Gran Premio Industrie del Marmo is a professional one day cycling race held annually in Italy. It is part of UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Un ...

;2018 : 1st Mountains classification,

: 1st

Mountains classification,

Tour of Britain The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time. The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after th ...

;2019 : 5th Road race, National Road Championships ;2021 : 3rd Road race, National Road Championships

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dlamini, Nicholas 1995 births Living people South African male cyclists Cyclists from Cape Town Olympic cyclists for South Africa Cyclists at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century South African sportsmen