Today, the men and women involved with the MTN-Qhubeka woke up in Paris knowing their lives may never be the same again. The careers of the eight riders to make it to Paris and the one who did not arrive, Louis Meintjes, whose journey was stymied by illness, will forever have these past three weeks. They have been part of what may be the best global sporting story of the year.
The careers of those riders will be marked by this Tour de France, where they took on the greatest of cycling races and emerged with results few would have predicted when they were chosen as a wildcard team by ASO. Daniel Teklehaimanot of Eritrea, a land left with a cycling culture by the Italians when they held the country as a colony, smashed any pre-held preconceptions of black African riders when he fought hard to win and hold on to the polka-dot jersey for a proud spell. At around the same time as Teklehaimanot was making history at the Tour, his compatriot, Natnael Berhane, was being called a “n****r” by a Belarusian rider on a Polish team at the Tour of Austria.
The UCI were ready to kick Branislau Samoilau out of the Tour for that most horrendous of slurs, but Berhane took the high road and told the race commissioners he had accepted Samoilau’s apology and asked them to let him race on. Samoilau donated a month’s salary to Qhubeka. While there is a valid and persuasive argument that the punishment should have been harsher, Berhane may have changed the mind of one white rider about black cyclists with his generosity. The point has been made that racism in cycling will not be tolerated. The enforcement of that intolerance needs to be taken more seriously by the UCI the teams and professional riders.
Confronting underlying racism in cycling was an unspoken theme of the message of MTN-Qhubeka at the Tour de France. Black African riders are an anomaly in professional cycling. With two black riders and three white South Africans in their nine-man Tour de France squad, MTN-Qhubeka have given African talent their head and confronted any belief that the continent does not have talent.
It most palpably does. Now it is up to the other professional teams to search for it and nurture it. MTN-Qhubeka will be the predominantly African team on the circuit for years to come, but it would be daft of the others to ignore the coming storm.
MTN-Qhubeka powered by Samsung are a different type of cycling team. They are a mix of experience, former big names and unknown African talent. Edvald Boasson Hagen, the Norwegian champion, was once regarded as the next Eddy Merckx. Tyler Farrar was America’s next big sprinting sensation, and a stage win at the Tour de France confirmed this. Steve Cummings, the former Barloworld rider, was offered to return to Sky this year, but opted for MTN-Qhubeka. Matt Goss, the Australian, was in a similar mould, so, too, Theo Bos. When asked, all replied they had liked what the team was about. They liked the story of the Qhubeka programme. They went to visit a township in the Western Cape in November during their training camp. The Europeans, the Australian and the American walked away with their eyes and hearts opened, and their resolve hardened. All had taken a pay cut to come to MTN-Qhubeka. The decision by Brian Smith, the team GM, to sign them, was questioned, but Smith, a former professional, is a canny Scot. He knew the Africans needed teachers to show them how to handle the maelstrom of the professional peloton. They needed heroes to show them how to become heroes.
Today, the lives of thousands of youngsters in South Africa may never be the same again as they become the recipients of bicycles raised by donations through the Qhubeka programme. The Q on the back of the black-and-white striped jerseys of the team was for them.
They had hoped to raise enough money for 5000 bikes by the end of the Tour. They were not far off that mark. One day, perhaps, one of those who received one of those Qhubeka bikes may ride for that team. It seems an impossible dream, but, then, having an African team win a stage and wear the polka dot jersey at the Tour seemed impossible not that long ago.