Ahead of the Tour de France this year, their maiden participation in the race, the MTN-Qhubeka team are setting modest goals of looking for a stage win. But team manager Doug Ryder has echoed recent claims made by Bernard Hinault that an African rider will podium the Tour de France in five years.

“We don’t have a rider that can go for the overall classification, but we are hoping that in two to three years we can have a rider that can potentially stand on the podium,” Ryder said to VeloNews.

“It has been a European sport for 100 years but why can’t we get African riders to break through and to make a big impact in world cycling?”

Eritrean trio Merhawi Kudus, Daniel Teklehaimanot and Natnael Berhane are three men that Ryder thinks will shine this year at he world’s biggest race, should all three make the start line.

“We’ve taken the best talent we could find in Africa into our team and I think the Eritrean riders could make a big impact on the Tour in 2015,” Ryder predicted.

They will split the Tour in half, working for the experienced Classics riders from Europe in week one, and turn their attention to the climbers like Kudus and Louis Meintjes in the second half.

“The first part we will focus on our European riders in a classic style racing on the cobblestones in France and in northern Europe too,” explained Ryder.

“Our African riders are very good at climbing, they are very light, very strong, so we’ll focus the African riders on the second part and the mountains.”

Despite having a mainly African team, Ryder says he will never let the squad become 100% African. He says the European riders add valuable experience.

“Will we ever be 100 percent African? The answer is no,” Ryder said. “Because if you look at them, Boasson has been on two Tour de France winning teams, that’s experience you can’t buy.

“You can only learn from people like that if we want to move forward quickly. The European riders have a lot of value to add.”