MTN-Qhubeka has taken on the task of reviving the careers of three of cycling’s big stars who have lost their way over the last few years: Matt Goss, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Tyler Farrar.

Intermin General Manager Brian Smith knows the talent of all three, who have picked up Grand Tour stage wins, big Classics and a Monument between them, but he also knows if they fail to perform, they will have wasted a large part of the team’s budget.

“The hardest thing for a bike rider to be is a Mark Cavendish, a Marcel Kittel, a Chris Froome, a Vincenzo Nibali, a Contador, because every race they go into, they are expected to win,” said Smith in a recent interview with CyclingTips, a former professional and British national road race champion who later went on to work with the Cervélo Test Team, Endura Racing and NetApp Endura.

Goss was never a ride like Cavendish, but on his day he could beat him, taking stages of the Giro and Tirreno-Adriatico ahead of the Manx Missile, as well as narrowly losing the 2011 Worlds to him. Goss also used the pressure that was on then teammate Cavendish in Milan-Sanremo 2011 to go unnoticed and make the final split and win the race from a sprint.

“Gossy is the sort of person who maybe doesn’t like to absorb that pressure on a regular basis,” Smith explained. “Every race the pressure is on some guys. If you look at Froome, every race that he turns up in he is expected to win. Contador, expected to win. Nibali, expected to win. If you don’t win, there is more and more pressure.”

“When Gossy went to Orica GreenEdge, he was the sprinter, he was the main guy. He was super motivated as it was an Aussie team, but over time the pressure got too much for him. He was getting beaten and it wore him down.”

“I think Matt is the sort of rider who likes to be in a team with different options. You have to remember that not everybody wants to be THE sprinter.”

The man who will be “THE sprinter” for 2015 is Theo Bos. He hasn’t suffered the slump of Goss and the others, winning a stage in the Tour of Poland this year, but he hasn’t achieved his goal of a Grand Tour win yet either.

“I think the only bunch sprinter we have in terms of competing with the top guys in the world is Theo Bos. If it comes down to a sprint in a stage race against Cavendish or Kittel, or in a race such as Scheldeprijs, we will go and lead out Theo and try to get him to the win.”

Smith sees Goss, Farrar and Boasson Hagen as part of a growing Classics team in 2015, where he thinks they can take a big one if they are brought to the line in a small group.

“I believe that Goss, Farrar, these types of riders are more suited towards the Classics,” he said. “If any one of these riders comes to the finish of Gent Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix in a small group with all three or four, we are in with a chance of winning.”

“When you get to the end of the race, you hear from a lot of amateur riders, ‘I have nothing left in my legs.’ These sprinters get to the finish of a race and they still have got big power. Goss has already proven it. Ciolek has already proven it.”

“Farrar is excited about us taking him out of that mould of bunch sprinter at Garmin and into more of a Classics rider.”

Farrar has wins in the Scheldeprijs and Vatenfall Cyclassics but has been off the boil for a few years, but his 2014 was encouraging, particularly with his stage win in Beijing. Boasson Hagen has two Tour stage wins and the 2009 Gent-Wevelgem, 2012 GP Plouay, 2011 Vatenfall and 2 Eneco Tour GCs to his name. In fact, Smith thinks the Tour of Beijing showed promise for lots of the team’s new signings.

“There are a lot of people coming to MTN Qhubeka to help the team, but obviously also to re-find themselves. You only have to look at Beijing, the last race of the season. Most people would say they are not motivated at that point in the calendar, but if you look at the guys who were performing. Farrar won a stage, Boasson Hagen was up there, Janse van Rensberg was up there in the finish.”

“All of these guys are super motivated coming at the end of the season. They are fired up to do something, and will be raring to go next year.”

Smith is confident that all of his new signings can refind themselves at the African Pro Continental team as they wont be racing with any pressure in 2015.

“The pressure is totally off them. There is no pressure from me to deliver big results. I just want the guys to go out there, have fun and race. All these bike riders have the ability to race, because that is what they did as kids. I am seeing that in my six year old now. All the want to do is go out and race their bikes.”

“For us and the riders we have, I think it’s a case of telling them, ‘go out there guys, race your bikes and enjoy yourselves.’ That is where you will see the guys thrive,” he asserts. “Allowing them to race the way they want to race and not always coordinating things from the regimental side of things. Cycling has become so regimental and not that much fun any more,” he said in reference to Team Sky’s marginal gains method of riding.

“We are going to be a team that is going to be full of motivation, because we are going to go there and race. If it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t. There won’t be analysis of this and analysis of that.”

“Okay, there will be a certain element of sports science and various different areas, there has to be. We will be there as a professional team and a professional business, but at the same time that principle of allowing the guy to race is probably the biggest gift you can give everybody. Telling them, ‘just go out and race.’”

MTN-Qhubeka are targeting the WorldTour in 2016 but Smith’s immediate aim is to build on the team’s Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana this year by gaining two wild card entries to Grand Tours in 2015, one of them being the Tour de France.

“We would like to go to 25 riders, I think, to realistically look at fielding a strong team in the Tour and a strong team in the Vuelta,” he said. “Last year, looking at IAM, it rode the Tour de France but the team they had in the Vuelta didn’t go so well.”

“A lot of Grand Tour organisers think, ‘well, a lot of these Pro Continental teams can’t do two Grand Tours.’ But I believe with 25 riders we can and that we will have the strength in depth to be able to do that. We can field a completely different team for the Tour and the Vuelta, and do well in both of those.”

Smith isn’t done signing there, despite riders like Goss, Farrar, Boasson Hagen, Bos, Serge Pauwels and Stephen Cummings joining already strong riders like Gerald Ciolek, Merhawi Kudus, Songezo Jim and Louis Meintjes.

“We have got the first training camp from November 23 to 30 in South Africa,” Smith stated. “I would love to be able to announce that we have got another one, possibly two partners by then, and to have three additional riders on board.”