{"id":35665,"date":"2013-04-14T12:16:47","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T10:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=35665"},"modified":"2013-04-15T09:19:34","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T07:19:34","slug":"mtn-gets-on-its-bike-with-qhubeka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/35665\/mtn-gets-on-its-bike-with-qhubeka\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN gets on its bike with Qhubeka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"MTN\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/forum\/showthread.php\/1640-MTN-Group\">MTN<\/a> is heralding a mobile success of a somewhat different nature to its industry convention &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SF5mv_bwYVI\">Team MTN Qhubeka<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The operator has naming rights sponsorship, with standard branding, leverage and activation rights associated with Africa\u2019s first ever UCI registered Professional Continental cycling team.<\/p>\n<p>The cycling team has recently started competing overseas, with the Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-Sanremo, its two first events.<\/p>\n<p>The Milan-Sanremo&#8221;the Spring classic\u201d race, is the longest professional one-day race at 298\u00a0km with recent winners including Mark Cavendish, Fabian Cancellara and Alessandro Petacchi.<\/p>\n<p>The 2013 edition saw MTN Qhubeka\u2019s German rider Gerald Ciolek unexpectedly win the race.<\/p>\n<p>To celebrate the team&#8217;s MTN has posted the first episode of a documentary of the squad on its YouTube channel:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SF5mv_bwYVI?list=UUtEQuR-kzCp8Fv6F5DY2wPg\" height=\"338\" width=\"600\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>MTN\u2019s cycling sponsorship started in (2007). This team sponsorship has evolved over the years, into what is now known as Team MTN Qhubeka.\u00a0 MTN\u2019s investment in cycling extends beyond the sponsorship of Team MTN Qhubeka, the portfolio also includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The MTN Mountain Bike Series;<\/li>\n<li>The MTN Panorama Tour (Stage race in Mpumalanga);<\/li>\n<li>The MTN OFM Classic;<\/li>\n<li>The MTN Tour of Legends;<\/li>\n<li>MTN Club 100;<\/li>\n<li>Think Bike.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;The sponsorship is a natural evolution of the relationship we have built with Team MTN Qhubeka team over the years. The parallel successes of the parties, from a brand and performance perspective, along with shared values and ambition of taking the first African team to the Tour de France, was instrumental in this decision,&#8221; MTN told BusinessTech recently.<\/p>\n<p>The group added that this initiative is not just a sponsorship project, but affirmation of South African\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n<p>MTN&#8217;s Qhubeka projects aim to help rural communities move forward and progress by giving bicycles to children in return for work done to improve their environment and their community.<\/p>\n<p>Through racing, Team MTN-Qhubeka \u00a0aims to build exposure for Qhubeka\u2019s rural initiatives and &#8220;to inspire potential new athletes within the community of Qhubeka bike recipients&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mmYVbW5yisc\" height=\"450\" width=\"600\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on MTN<\/h3>\n<p><a title=\"MTN clears first Myanmar hurdle\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/35617\/mtn-clears-first-myanmar-hurdle\/\"><strong>MTN clears first Myanmar hurdle<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"MTN lifts interim revenue by 17.5%\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/19628\/mtn-lifts-interim-revenue-by-17-5\/\">MTN lifts interim revenue by 17.5%<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"MTN could spend R71bn on acquisition: CEO\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/35512\/mtn-could-spend-r71bn-on-acquisition-ceo\/\"><strong>MTN could spend R71bn on acquisition: CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"MTN in Myanmar telco licence bunfight\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/33069\/mtn-in-myanmar-telco-licence-bunfight\/\"><strong>MTN in Myanmar telco licence bunfight<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MTN is heralding it mobile success, but of a somewhat different nature to its industry convention, that being, Team MTN Qhubeka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":35671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,1],"tags":[5592,5591,26,5590,28,5589,1246],"class_list":["post-35665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","category-trending","tag-alessandro-petacchi","tag-fabian-cancellara","tag-headline","tag-mark-cavendish","tag-mtn","tag-team-mtn-qhubeka","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35665"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35670,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35665\/revisions\/35670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}