MTN-Qhubeka were hotly tipped to receive a wild card for the Tour de France, but when it came, it still surprised general manager Brian Smith and filled him with joy, as he told Cyclingnews.

“It’s been the goal for us to have an African team at the Tour de France with African riders, and black African riders at the race. It’s going to be huge. When you think positively about something and then you get the official confirmation… I thought I was over all this emotion but obviously not,” Smith told Cyclingnews minutes after finding out the news.

“It’s been a lot of hard work but I’ve only found out via Twitter just now. There’s still a lot of hard work to be done but I’m a little bit emotional and teary-eyed right now. The last six months have been a lot of hard work and we’ve reached our number one goal of racing the Tour de France. It means so much to everyone involved including the sponsors and the partners. On a purely personal level this ranks up there with wining the British road race for the first time when I was a rider. It’s that important and that emotional for me.”

Smith said he knew the strong rumours that the team would get to ride the world’s biggest race, but didn’t count his chickens until it was guaranteed and written on paper.

“I hoped, I willed and we worked hard but until I saw the news in black and white, I didn’t take anything for granted. Now I just have these strong emotions having been to the townships, having seeing the riders be there, and my thoughts now are to remind the riders not to give up when they’re racing and to fight right to the line because this news is so important for the Qhubeka Foundation. This means so much for South African cycling. They’ll be so over the moon, just to be part of it and I know I’ve only been on the team for half a year but everyone will be so happy on the team.”

Just like at the 2014 Vuelta a Espana, their debut grand Tour, Smith says the team’s goal at the Tour de France will be to hunt for a stage win.

“The aim is still to focus on stage wins, although I’d like to think that we’d have a chance of seeing one of the Africa riders step up into the top twenty or thirty and we will try for a competition jersey,” he told Cyclingnews, “but it’s about getting the breaks, looking for exposure and winning stages.”