MTN Qhubeka grows from year to year. The African team hopes to be promoted to the World Tour. for the 2015 season. In fact, with the Garmin and Cannondale teams merging next season, there may be only 17 teams remaining at WorldTour level.

“If they were to come to us then we would certainly consider it. To have an African team guaranteed in all of the biggest races would be great.

That is our long-term goal and it would be a big opportunity for us. The bank guarantees are different at WorldTour level and we only have 22 riders, so we would be very light for riding three Grand Tours in a year, but we would talk to our sponsors MTN and Samsung and we could work something out.” MTN-Qhubeka boss Doug Ryder told Cyclingnews.

“We had contact from Ernst and Young (the UCI’s auditors) a few days ago to tell us that our documentation was in order and that things were moving on. I’ve been checking almost every day to see the list of registered teams, which was supposed to be out on the 6th, but nothing has been published yet. Which is interesting.“

The 2015 roster will include the Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen, the Dutchman Theo Bos, the American Tyler Farrar, the Australian Goss Matthews.