Shosholoza special on German TV
21 April 2006
Two of Germany's top sports stars, Jan Ullrich and Tim Kröger, are appearing in a special series on South Africa's Team Shosholoza and America's Cup defender Alinghi on ARD German TV.
The nine-part series focusing on the two teams' preparations for the Louis Vuitton Acts in Valencia, Spain in May, are being broadcast at 17:50 every day for three weeks, from 18 April to 12 May.
Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, was invited to sail with Team Shosholoza in Table Bay in Cape Town in December. Exhilirated by the experience, he in turn invited keen cyclists from Shosholoza to join him and his teammates on a training cycle through the Cape winelands.
Kröger, who raced in the Whitbread round the world races and the America's Cup, joined Shosholoza as part of T-Systems' sponsorship of South Africa's maiden bid to compete in the 155-year-old America's Cup.
The series gives viewers an insider's perspective of the South African campaign,
and follows the team's rise on the America's Cup class racing circuit in Europe since its first appearance at the opening Act at Marseille.
It shows the team's historical first match race win against Sweden's Victory Challenge in Malmö in August last year, and their tremendous fifth place in the final fleet-racing event in Trapani, Sicily.
There will be footage of the team training in Cape Town, where Table Mountain forms a magnificent backdrop, and of nearby Simonstown with youngsters from the Izivunguvungu MSC Foundation for Youth - the training and development wing of Shosholoza.
Shosholoza marketing director Lars Böcking said his team was looking forward to the collaboration with ARD, adding that it was Shosholoza's dream to "show the world a different face of this great young country."
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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