While the Tour de France gets underway on Saturday, so does the prestigious UCI 2.HC Tour of Austria. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will again take part in Austria's premier 9 day stage race.

Although most cycling fans will be glued to the Tour de France coverage over the coming week, some hotly contested racing will also be expected at the Tour of Austria. Many of the riders who make the Le Tour long list but don't make the final selection, generally then head to the Austrian tour in the peak shape initially intended for the French grand tour. Such is the case for the African team as Natnael Berhane and Youcef Reguigui will take the start in Wien.

The 9 day tour is a well-rounded event that includes an opening team prologue, 3 flat stages, 3 undulating stages and 2 mountain top finishes including the famous Kitzbuhler Horn on stage 6. Strong stage performances will be the goal for Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung at this year’s edition of the race with the recently crowned Eritrean champion Berhane eyeing the mountain stages.

Joining Berhane and Reguigui will be Johann van Zyl, Jay Thomson, Jaco Venter, Songezo Jim, Gerald Ciolek and Kristian Sbaragli.

"It will be a very tough race with a number of World Tour teams at the start. For the GC we will have a go with Natnael, he could do well on the two uphill finishes. In the other stages we will take it day by day with our 3 fast men we have here, whoever is feeling good we will ride for," sports director Jean-Pierre Heynderickx said.