Dean Edwards

Background

About Dean Edwards

I enjoyed a professional career in cycling from 2001 - 2011. I lived in Berlin, Germany from 2002-2005 while racing on the World Tour. I represented South Africa at World Cups, World Championships, International 6 Day events and two Commonwealth Games (2002 & 2010) I returned to South Africa in 2006 and began a management company, Sidewind Sports which focused on Professional Cycling management in South Africa. That same year we launched Durban's one & only professional cycling team, Chemspec-Spiga. In year two we more than tripled our annual budget and the team ran under then name, House of Paint, up till the end of 2010. In 2011 we signed a new principal partner in Tasol Solar, a renewable energy & solar company. The team under the ownership of Sidewind Sports ran as Tasol-GT Pro Cycling Team In April 2013 we launched Team Abantu - The Peoples Team, which was at the time the only pro cycling team in South Africa with a 50% BEE shareholding. Sidewind Sports acted as the parent company for Team Abantu and was responsible for all of the teams operations, riders contracts, logistics, infrastructure & staff as well as securing cycling specific sponsors in addition to numerous service providers and partners. We represented a number of top cycling brands within our portfolio as well as managed numerous corporate sponsorships from hospitality (Three Cities Group) to vehicles (Hoopers VW) Sidewind Sports facilitated the merchandising of Team Abantu in partnership with its cycling apparel partner, Panda Sportswear. On an athlete level, we managed & facilitated World Silver Medallist, Nolan Hoffman's personal International schedule which included numerous International 6 Day events & World Cup Championships. Now in the corporate sector I handle key accounts at Triocorp Pty Ltd who manufacture and supply self adhesive labels.