Africa's first Professional Continental team, MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung makes its debut in cycling's Monuments with this weekend's Milan-San Remo in support of its German leader, Gerald Ciolek, who secured the team's first European victory in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen and followed up that result with a string of top finishes in Tirreno-Adriatico.

In Milan-San Remo, Songezo Jim will tackle one of cycling’s classics for the first time.

Jim, 22, relishes the opportunity. "I am very excited about it,” he said. “I am looking forward to learning from the older guys like Ciolek and Jay Thomson and getting some coverage for the team. It’s a big step for me. It’s a dream come true to start a WorldTour race; to line up alongside the field on Sunday. It's not easy to get to this level and I have a long way to go, but I just want to be a sponge and absorb and learn as much as I can."

Assumingly, the team will be concentrated on bringing Ciolek to base of the Cipressa at kilometre 275 and then, if possible, help him to cross both the Cipressa and the subsequent Poggio.

The team has a substantial amount of horsepower to achieve this task: in addition to Ciolek and Jim, the team will field newly-crowned South African champion, Jay Thomson, and former German champion Martin Reimer.

MTN-Qhubeka for Milan-San Remo: Gerald Ciolek, Martin Reimer, Andreas Stauff, Jay Thomson, Kristian Sbaragli, Jaco Venter, Songezo Jim, Sergio Pardilla.