Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka have gone with a team of climbers for the 72nd edition of the Vuelta a Espana, which starts on Saturday in Nîmes, southern France.
Africa's Team will return to the Spanish Grand Tour for the fourth straight year on the back of another strong showing at the Tour de France, which yielded one stage win among a few other near misses.
Belgian climber Serge Pauwels was one of those riders who impressed at the Grand Boucle and will lead the team's charge alongside the Basque climbing duo of Omar Fraile (who won a stage of this year's Giro d'Italia) and Igor Anton.
Pauwels and Anton will be able to target the most difficult of climbing stages while Fraile will adopt a similar attacking strategy to that which has won him the blue polka dot 'King of the Mountains' jersey at the last two editions of this race.
"The Vuelta is traditionally a hard race with lots of climbing, that is why we are bringing a lot of climbers to the race," said Pauwels.
"We have a strong group that can race aggressively and try to hunt for stage wins. I am really looking forward to my second grand tour this year. I have taken a short break after Le Tour then put in a good training block last week. I hope to take my opportunity as well by picking a stage and trying to get the victory."
To deal with the 15 stages out of 21 which can be considered either hilly or mountainous this year, Africa's Team have also included further climbing talent in Eritrea's Merhawi Kudus, Ben King (USA), grand tour debutant Lachlan Morton (Australia) and Jacques Janse van Rensburg of South Africa. Their primary jobs will be support roles or going for personal stage victories from breakaways.
While capable of climbing, Algeria's Youcef Reguigui is nominally a sprinter and will thus target the limited sprinter-friendly stages. Nic Dougall, the South African all-rounder, will complete Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka's nine-man team and perform the role of team workhorse.
The 2017 Vuelta a Espana begins on Saturday with its traditional team time trial, but the 13.7km stage in Nîmes will be just the third time in the race's history that it has started outside of its home country.