For the first time in the team’s history, MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will start the Paris-Roubaix when the race gets underway tomorrow. The 253km World Tour race will see 200km on tarred roads, the rest will all be on the famous French cobblestones.
The ‘Hell of the North’ and the ‘Queen of the classics’ is one of the most iconic spectacles in world sport and it is fantastic that Africa will have a team in this years edition of the event. The mystical forest of Arenberg and the feared Carrefour de l’Arbre sound like they could be places in a children’s story book. Tomorrow MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung will hope to write their own fairy tale over these two cobble sections and the 25 others that lie ahead of them as well.
The 8 riders ready to go into battle for MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung are Gerald Ciolek, Tyler Farrar, Theo Bos, Matt Goss, Andy Stauff, Matt Brammeier, Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Jay Thomson. The season goal was to assist Edvald Boasson Hagen to victory here at Roubaix but with the Norwegian out of action due to injury, the riders will have free reign to be protagonists of the race.
The team will be on special Cervelo R3 Mud bikes tomorrow, you can get the low down on them here: R3 Mud Specs. African fans be sure to tune into SuperSport 5 at 12:50 to catch all the Paris-Roubaix action live.
Jay Thomson – Rider
JP Heynderick – Sport Director
Would have loved to see more saffas start.
i hope this team retains more of an african flavour than Barloworld did toward the end...
I hope they do well and make the required selections on the road tomorrow.