MTN Qhubeka, which evolves in the Pro Continental level, raced this season his first grand tour: the Tour of Spain. The staff of this team does not want to stay there because according to Velonews, they applied for an invitation on the next Tour de France.

“The big goal is the Tour for 2015. The Giro d’Italia was our goal for 2014, but everyone knows what happened there with the unfortunate and disappointing miss. After the Vuelta this year, our goal is the Tour de France”, team principal Doug Ryder told.

MTN Qhubeka will make history in the Tour like the first African team at the departure. There are some years Barloworld also took the start, but with a British license.

MTN Qhubeka recruited a lot of good riders this fall including the American Tyler Farrar (Garmin Sharp), the Norvegian Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), Theo Bos (Belkin Pro Cycling) or Steve Cummings (BMC Racing Team). They certainly will help young riders like Louis Meintjes.

“Given the riders we signed and the Tour’s massive focus on the northern and southern parts, we are perfectly suited. We have a big classics focus in our team that is suited to the northern part and an African climbing group suited to the southern part of the race in the Alps and Pyrenees”, he added.

He hopes to be selected at many ASO races like Paris-Nice or Critérium du Dauphiné. “It’s about starting off the season well, being visible, showing that we can compete. I feel that we did enough in the Vuelta, showing guts and finishing with all nine riders. The Vuelta loved that passion and having a team rising above its level. We can continue to do that in the 2015 Tour. I hope we are standing at the head of the queue for the big ASO events now. That’s our goal, and the hope.”