MTN-Qhubeka’s team principle Douglas Ryder has spoken to Cyclingnews about the stars he has assembled to ensure the team achieve success and an invitation to the Tour de France, cycling’s Holy Grail, in 2015.

“We’ve thrown the kitchen sink at this year. We’ve built so incredibly over the last two years and I can’t believe that we have continued to build at this rate and the staff and riders that now want to come to our team. We must be doing something right. We’re really in a sweet spot at the moment and if our stars align then I really believe that this team is destined for great things this year.”

Amongst the eight new signings are riders who have won big in the WorldTour in the past, like Tyler Farrar, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Matt Goss. While these riders will focus on the sprints and Classics, MTN-Qhubeka is staying true to their goal of creating an African Tour de France winner and all of their promising riders, like Louis Meintjes and Merhawi Kudus, will ride for GC. The new signings have been brought in to win raises and help raise awareness for the Qhubeka charity.

“We want to build and develop the general classification riders from the African continent and to bring in a GC rider, a good one, costs so much money and we don’t have that budget. We also didn’t want to be a team that focusses on one big objective and if that fails then there goes the whole season. We need to win races to grow the brand of the team and to grow the Qhubeka charity so that we can do more for others.”

“The international riders are there to help us win races but also to help the younger guys. I don’t want to be a team Colombia where they can’t attract the best Colombians to their team because they don’t have the depth. Rigoberto Urán and Nairo Quintana won’t ride for Claudio Corti’s team because he doesn’t have the depth and they won’t reach their big dreams. I don’t want that to happen for our best African riders.”

Ryder hopes the new riders will mentor the young Africans and help them improve, but he also thinks the Africans can inspire the seasoned pros on to greater things with their stories of hardship and rising up against adversity to become professional bike riders.

“With them mentoring the African riders they know that the African riders will give absolutely everything that they have, and inspire them with hardships that they’ve had in the past. Take Daniel Teklehaimanot. Daniel is one of 17 children and all of his brothers and sisters have defected and he’s the only one that can go back to Eritrea so he keeps the whole family together. I think that the Europeans are completely humbled by this and that will drive them onto bigger success.”

The team wants to do well in 2015 and know they have a good chance of making the Tour de France, but they aren’t confirming anything just yet and will only relax once the wild cards have been announced. Meanwhile, they will focus on the Classics, as Boasson Hagen is targeting Paris-Roubaix.

“Nothing is concrete and ASO keep their cards close to their chest and they have to. They have to be fair and transparent with every team. Do we have a good feeling? Yes we have a good feeling, especially with the performance in the Vuelta but we are not counting our chickens. We have to wait and see because everything can happen.”

“One of the goals for the riders is the spring classics but even before that we would love to go to the Tour of Qatar and win a stage. We would love to start the season with a win. I know that Edvald Boasson Hagen is super keen on Paris-Roubaix, imagine getting top 10 in Paris-Roubaix that would be out of this world. The Tour of Flanders is also a big goal for the team with Tyler.”

“A really strong spring classics campaign is what we’re looking for and that will really help us to get out ticket into the Tour. Then, a stage win in the Tour de France would just be exceptional. I really hope that we will be able to get into the Tour of Spain as well. The perception is that the Pro Continental teams are not strong enough and don’t have the depth and talent to do two Grand Tours. We believe that with the depth that we have and with the talent and the race structure of the races we have the perfect balance to be able to do those races. If we went to the Vuelta then we would love to win a jersey.”

But objectives don’t just end with the Tour de France and 2015 season. As mentioned earlier, MTN-Qhubeka has long-term goals too, and if 2015 is as successful as they hope it will be, the goal is then to become a WorldTour team in 2016.

“That’s our goal. If we can become a WorldTour team then we can give more African riders more opportunity and take them to the biggest races in the world. To have an African-registered WorldTour team where people know for sure that you’re going to be in the biggest races in the world, the fan support around the team and the confidence of our riders from that surety of knowing it isn’t a lottery will drive them to another level. That’s what we’re driving towards and let’s just hope that the first six months of 2015 are an indication that we’re ready to step up.”