A team, dressed in black and white, will lead a charge of Africans aiming to shine light on the so-called Dark Continent during the Tour de France when it begins tomorrow.
The African and, indeed, South African influence is the strongest it has ever been at the grandest bicycle race of them all.
MTN-Qhubeka powered by Samsung may be a long name for a team, but, then they are a team that have come a long way, fulfilling the vision first dreamt up by Doug Ryder all those years ago to get an African team into the Tour de France.
They will be hard to miss in their distinctive black-and-white striped kit with the huge “Q” on the back. Daryl Impey, the first African to wear yellow at the Tour, was announced for his Australian Orica-GreenEdge squad this week. Dimension Data, the South African IT giant, has partnered with ASO, the organisers of the Tour, as their technology partner for the next five years.
They have promised to “revolutionise” the viewing experience for cycling fans by providing real-time data on each and every single rider at the Tour.
Dimension Data have also announced a long-term sponsorship of MTN-Qhubeka this week. Rob Hunter, the first South African to win a stage at the Tour de France, will be back at the race as a team manager for the US-based Cannondale-Garmin outfit, while David Higgs, one of South Africa’s top chefs, will be touring around France cooking for the riders and staff of MTN-Qhubeka.
Then there is Chris Froome, the 2013 champion, Kenyan-born, South African-raised and riding with a British passport, but with Africa very much in the Parkhurst resident’s heart.
The focus, though, will be on the team that has been making history for some years. Five out of nine of the riders on the squad are from Africa. The most in one team before that in the modern era were two in the 2008 Tour when Barloworld had Hunter and John Lee Augustyn.
Jacques Janse van Rensburg, the South African champion, rides with countrymen Louis Meintjies and Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg, with Eritreans Merhawi Kudus, who is the youngest rider at the Tour, and Daniel Teklehaimanot. They are joined by American Tyler Farrar, winner of a stage in 2011, Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway has two Tour stage wins, and twice won the race with Sky, Brit Steve Cummings is a strong time trial rider, while Serge Pauwels of Belgium is a potent all rounder.
Being an African team could mean that MTN-Qhubeka are something of a novelty at the Tour, but they dispelled that at the Critérium du Dauphiné when Teklehaimanot won the King of the Mountains category, the first World Tour jersey won by the team.
“We’re not here just to make up numbers. We want to win a stage and we have the riders who can do that,” said Farrar. “We want to challenge for some of the jerseys. We have a really strong team, and the goal today is to be a major factor in the Tour de France. I’m here in a road captain’s role. There will be a chance for me to go for results on some of the days. My biggest priority is to make that stage win happen in whatever way I can.”
“I’m really excited, really looking forward to starting the prologue,” said Jacques Janse van Rensburg. “It’s starting to sink in that I’m going to be realising my life goal of riding in my first Tour de France.
“I’m not really scared, just excited now. Maybe if I can chose the right breakaway on the right day and have good legs, then maybe I can get a good result for the team.”
For Meintjies, who should feature in a race geared towards climbing, the Tour is a dream realised. “For a long time people thought this was impossible, that we were too optimistic, but now we are showing them it is possible.” - The Star