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First African team in Tour de France

January 14, 2015

MTN-Qhubeka of South Africa was only founded in 2007 and made its Grand Tour debut in the 2014 Vuelta. Backed by Samsung, it may have enough talent on board already to hold its own in the world's toughest cycle race.

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Tour de Suisse (1. Etappe)
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J.-C. Bott

The Tour de France will include an African team for the first time after organizers handed MTN-Qhubeka a wildcard entry for the 2015 edition of the world’s biggest bike race on Wednesday.

In all 22 teams, each with nine cyclists, will compete in the 102nd edition of the three-week long cycling spectacular, which starts this year in Utrecht in the Netherlands on July 4.

"Their participation in the Tour will help accelerate the progression of African cycling," race director Christian Prudhomme told the AFP news agency.

Although one of five teams selected by the Union Cycliste International (UCI) as wildcard picks, the South Africa-based outfit will hope to be competitive.

Two-time African champion Natnael Berhane, who is a climber from Eritrea, and Norwegian sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen are the marquee names on a rider list which also includes several talented young Africans.

Tour de France course 2015
The 21-stage event will cover 3,344 kilometers and contains more mountain stages and less time trials this year

Another Eritrean, 20-year-old Merhawi Kudus, is considered a promising prospect, along with South Africa's Louis Meintjes, 22.

"These young Eritrean riders are the grandchildren of Coppi and Bartali," said Prudhomme, referring to legendary Italian cyclists Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali, and to the more than 50 years of Italian occupation of the Horn of Africa country that ended during World War II.

The team - whose name means ‘progress’ in Zulu - helps to promote the work of the Qhubeka project, which since 2004 has been distributing bicycles to children in rural African communities.

As well as being invited to the Tour de France, MTN-Qhubeka will contest the Criterium du Dauphine in June, one of the two main pre-Tour warm-up events.

German team Bora-Argon 18 and French outfits Bretagne-Seche Environnement, Cofidis and Team Europcar have also received wildcards for the Tour. New German team Giant-Alpecin also made the cut.

pwh/al (AFP, Reuters)