Sergio Henao, Sander Armée, and Mauro Schmid to join Qhubeka-Assos in 2021
Henao, 32, is set to be the first Colombian rider to sign with the South African based WorldTour squad.
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Sergio Henao, 32, is set to be the first Colombian rider on the South African based WorldTour squad Qhubeka-Assos.
Henao brings a wealth of experience from his days racing on Team Sky (2012-18) and UAE Team Emirates (2019-20). His palmares impressively boasts of wins at the 2017 Paris-Nice where he took the overall, as well as earning the Colombian national championship in 2017 and 2018.
The team also announced that Sander Armée and Mauro Schmid will be joining the ranks of the team which is taking over the NTT Pro Cycling license for the coming season.
Armée, a rouleur, comes over from Lotto-Soudal where he has been since 2014. He is a former teammate of current world hour record holder Victor Campenaerts.
“I want to use my experience and give the best of myself to achieve all of the team’s goals next year. It will also be nice to team up again with Victor Campenaerts, we were in the same team for two years and have also lived in the same village for a number of years, too,” said Armeé. “I’ve had some personal success in the past but that won’t stop me from looking to improve even further; and so with the passion, knowledge, equipment, and race mentality of Team Qhubeka-Assos — I want to make this happen.”
His palmares includes a stage win at the 2017 Vuelta a Espana in 2017, and general classification top-10 finishes at the Tour of Norway among other results.
Schmid joins Qhubeka-Assos after two years at the UCI continental level. He is a self-described time trailer, who boasts of a second-place GC at the Tour of Black Sea (2018), and in 2020 he was 11th overall at the Tour of Luxembourg.
The Swiss said, “I’m looking incredibly forward to make the step to the WorldTour with Team Qhubeka ASSOS.” He continued, “I am also very proud to represent the Qhubeka Charity which has a huge influence on people‘s lives. I can’t wait to find out more and meet the people directly involved to ensure that I use my talents on the bike to the best of my ability to also drive awareness to such a great organization.”
In late November the team announced that it was parting ways with Bjarne Riis.
Last week, VeloNews reported that American Sean Bennett had joined the Qhubeka-Assos squad as the team looked to strengthen its ranks for the coming season. This announcement also included the addition of Lukasz Wisniowski and Karel Vacek to the team’s roster.