The up-and-coming African continental team heads to northern France for the Tour de Picardie, a mostly flat 3-day stage race organized by ASO, the company behind the Tour de France.

“Tour de Picardie is a very important race for the team as it is the first ASO race we have been invited to participate in,” said team principal Doug Ryder. “We want to show the ASO that our African team is very competitive even though we don’t have a full team of riders suited for the type of race it is as we have mostly climbers going but the team will be present and attentive in all the stages. I am hoping our young Italian Kristian Sbaragli will do well in the sprints.”

Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung at the Tour de Picardie:

Kristian Sbaragli, Bradley Potgieter, Martin Wesemann, Louis Meintjes, Songezo Jim, Youcef Reguigui, Meron Russom, Sergio Pardilla