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To receive a wild card for the Tour de France is a dream come true for the entire MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung team, while it is also a historic moment for African and world cycling. In all the 101 previous editions of the Tour de France, this will be the first time an African registered team will take part in this, the biggest cycling race in the world. OFFICIAL!!! @TeamMTNQhubeka have received a Wild Card for the 2015 @letour! Amazing news… pic.twitter.com/rvTwBmuVpx — Team MTN-Qhubeka (@TeamMTNQhubeka) January 14, 2015 “We can light up stages of the Tour and we bring this incredible story to the Tour. We’re putting African kids on bikes and being at the Tour de France would help that immeasurably” said general manager, Brian Smith. “I’d like to think that the green jersey is an option to target but we’ll certainly be riding for stage wins. We could bring the first African team to the Tour de France and from that the minimum would be to win a stage.” The 2015 Grand Depart will take place on the 4th July, starting with a 14km time trial in Utrecht. The riders will tackle 21 stages, covering 3344km in total before ...

Dan Martin sealed his second place overall in the Tour of Beijing today, ending the five day race just three seconds behind the winner Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and showing again that he has hit a form peak towards the end of the season. Martin’s run of form makes up for what was an at-times frustrating season. He crashed on the final bend of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, losing his chance of taking a second straight victory, and also fell on the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia, sustaining a fractured collarbone. He missed the Tour de France but bounced back to take second on a stage and seventh overall in the Vuelta a Espana. Bad luck struck him again in the world road race championships when he was caught up in a crash and delayed, losing his chance. However since then things have gone better for him; he put in a superbly-timed attack to win the Il Lombardia Classic earlier this month, then took that stage win plus second overall in the Tour of Beijing. As a former winner of the Japan Cup, Dan will be one of the top favourites for that season-ending event. Photo credits: Graham Watson

The second week of the Tour of France has gone. Unfortunately before the 12th stage Andrew Talansky had to leave the Tour, after a long fight against the pain, due to a crash on stage 10. He tried to remain in the race until he could, he didn’t want to give up, but he was losing too minutes and he was out of the competition. Andrew says to be disappointed, and proud of his team that supported him all the season. Today the Tour is in pause, and all the riders can relax to restart tomorrow with a 237 km stage (Carcassonne – Bagneres de Luchon). Probably this stage will be not the crucial but some attacks would happen: riders will have to pedal cleverly because this stage has a very dangerous roads. Today we you enjoy this pictures of the second week of The Tour of France by Jered Gruber.

While the Tour riders are getting ready for the third stage from Cambridge to London, lets get behind the scenes with Jered and Ashley Gruber from Fridays team presentations to the million of fans along the roads in Yorkshire. Thank you England for a great show!                  

Five years ago, while Alberto Contador was riding to victory in the Tour de France, Andrew Talansky was scratching out a living in races across the United States. Last month, Talansky secured the overall victory at the Critérium du Dauphiné on the final stage putting more than a minute into overnight leader Contador. Today, the 25-year-old Talansky is ready to lead Team Garmin-Sharp in pursuit of the Tour de France yellow jersey. Andrew will be supported by a strong argyle squad, including fellow young Americans Ben King and Alex Howes, both making their Tour de France debuts this year. Howes has been a part of the Slipstream organization since he was a junior in 2004. Tom-Jelte Slagter comes off a strong season to-date with stage wins at Paris-Nice and top-ten finishes in La Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Sebastian Langeveld, the newly crowned Dutch National Road Champion, has netted top-ten finishes in this year’s Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. The team is rounded out by 2011 Paris-Roubaix winner, Johan Vansummeren; Janier Acevedo, 9th overall in the recent Tour de Suisse and the Tour of California,  Ramunas Navardauskas, 2014 Lithuanian National Time Trial Champion, and Jack Bauer, who won the Prologue of the 2014 ...