HISTORY will be made when MTN- Qhubeka becomes the first African team to race in the Tour de France next weekend.
Some sports fans may do a double take at their eye-catching black and white kit, an ensemble that bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain Paisley football team. Yet, there is a far more tangible Scottish connection. At the helm of the South Africa-based team is former pro cyclist Brian Smith, who took on the role of general manager last year.
MTN-Qhubeka are among five teams awarded wildcard places in this year's Tour along with the German squad Bora-Argon 18, who raced in 2014 under the Netapp- Endura banner, and the French outfits Cofidis, Europcar and Bretagne-Seche Environnement.
Former British champion Smith - who represented Scotland at three Commonwealth Games and competed at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta - has faced an unenviable task in recent weeks as a team of nine riders was selected from the 23-strong squad.
"You are making history as the first African team to ride the Tour de France and every rider wants to be selected, so it was always going to be a difficult call," he says. "The team were picked on merit. I believe we have got the balance correct for the goals of the team."
Making the cut is Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway), Steve Cummings (Great Britain), Tyler Farrar (USA), Serge Pauwels (Belgium), Louis Meintjes, Jacques Janse van Rensburg, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (South Africa), Merhawi Kudus and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eritrea).
While Smith acknowledges there is a plucky underdog air about MTN-Qhubeka, he provides insight into the well-thought-out strategy and plan of attack up his sleeve. "You can't go in there like the Jamaican bobsleigh team," he says.
Farrar, who has won stages in all three Grand Tours, will be the road captain, with Cummings, renowned for his time-trial prowess, targeting a good result in the opening day prologue in Utrecht. It is Smith's belief that a climbing group comprising Meintjes, Kudus, Jacques Janse van Rensburg, Teklehaimanot and Pauwels could be an exciting prospect as the Tour hits the high mountains.
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Boasson Hagen, meanwhile, will look to seize chances on the flatter stages. "Edvald [Boasson Hagen] will go in like he did a few years ago when he won two stages, trying to get in a breakaway and win a stage from there," says Smith. "We have no big sprint lead outs or GC guys. It's about thinking smart. We are an opportunist team. It will be about getting into breakaways, trying to get a compet- ition jersey and taking opportunities for a stage win."
Smith talks animatedly about Teklehaimanot and Kudus, who will claim their own slice of history as the first Eritrean riders to compete in the Tour de France. He recounts the remarkable journey of Teklehaimanot - who won the mountains jersey at the Criterium du Dauphine last month - as one of the first African riders of colour to trailblaze his way into Europe when he joined Cervelo TestTeam as a stagiaire in 2010.
Kudus - likely to be the youngest rider in this year's Tour at 21- is described by Smith as "one of most talented bike riders I have seen" and a "super climber" with a "huge future ahead of him".
Given the team's South African roots, Smith is optimistic that Mandela Day - coinciding with stage 14 from Rodez to Mende - could prove fortuitous. "I'm hoping one of the African riders could win a stage, preferably on July 18," he says.
Equally, he is keen to emphasise the wider social agenda behind MTN-Qhubeka: getting young people in Africa on bikes as a means to access education, work towards eradicating disease and ending poverty.
"During the Tour we are focused on helping fund 5,000 bicycles for school children in South Africa," says Smith. "We hope to raise awareness and garner support for our #BicyclesChangeLives campaign by targeting performance goals that include a stage win and wearing a competition jersey. We are the only team where half the name is taken up not by a sponsor, but a charity."
Smith says he would love for youngsters to see the success of African riders and feel motivated to emulate that. He recalls his own teenage Saturday afternoons spent piling into the local TV shop in Bridge of Weir with friends to catch the Tour de France on Grandstand.
"Robert Millar is someone who inspired me," he says. "I spent my 16th birthday in Italy and watched on a cafe television as Robert won a stage of the Tour [in 1983]. I can still remember it vividly."
It may seem more than a simple coincidence that a man who hails from Paisley should be general manager of a cycling team whose kit looks uncannily like that of his boyhood heroes St Mirren, but Smith deftly bats away the suggestion.
"I would love to take credit for that but it's not down to me," he laughs. "The kit was designed to stand out in the peloton. There are those who have said it has connotations of a zebra, but it is also about the idea of earning your stripes."
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