At a watering hole in Johannesburg on Monday afternoon, two elderly gentlemen, sat down and called for the Open to be put on the telly. It wasn’t on, they were told, until 2.15pm. It was 1.45pm. They would wait, they said, and ordered a bottle of wine.
At the same time, on the other side of the bar, another, younger fellow, asked for the Tour de France to be put on the other telly. It only started at 2pm he was told. He would wait, he said, and ordered a pint.
The bar filled up, strangely so for a Monday. It was not quite packed, but a decent crowd had rolled in. Two TVs showed the Open, the other the Tour. A compromise that worked well enough as Louis Oosthuizen leaned closer to a possible win and MTN-Qhubeka had their riders pushing hard yet again. From Scotland to France, South Africa was at the front in two of the biggest annual sporting events in the world. It was quite the sight, and at the watering hole, the drinks flowed and the babble of talk got louder.
MTN-Qhubeka have the addendum “powered by Samsung” included in their name title. It is because of a UCI ruling that you cannot have more than two title sponsors in a name, the reasoning behind this is, I assume, so that names are not long and winding. Samsung also sponsor Trek Factory Racing, the World Tour team, who have a budget that is twice that of MTN-Qhubeka’s. One suspects Samsung have got better mileage out of the Tour de France from MTN-Qhubeka than they do from Trek.
MTN-Qhubeka have been a dream wildcard pick for ASO, the owners of the Tour de France. While those seeking to prove doping in the Tour fiddle with estimates and figures, MTN-Qhubeka have dug deep and given the Tour their fairy tale story. Their performances have not been by accident.
Daniel Teklehaimanot wearing the King of the Mountains jersey was a tremendous achievement, but it was planned he would get into the break to look for points to get the jersey. Steve Cummings targeted the Mandela Day stage as one he could win. He knew if he could get to the top of the final climb, then he could make up ground on the descent. He did so in the most magnificent way, swooping and time trialling to a win that had a screaming Doug Ryder shout: “I don’t f**king believe it.”
Except that Ryder did. He always believed this team could do it. Otherwise he wouldn’t have spent the last decade and more building up a team into one that was considered worthy of competing and winning at the Tour. Now the rest of Africa believes in MTN-Qhubeka. Even those watching golf at that Joburg watering hole.