It’s lekker that this year we will have our first team riding in the Tour De France. Go South Africa, right? Then we read about how much it’s all costing. Eish.

According to Douglas Ryder, the team principal, the cost of the seven-year quest to qualify is around the R100 million mark.

Those bikes don’t come cheap, with Times Live reporting:

Just the bikes – between them the 23 riders have 180, valued at R150,000 each – cost nearly R30-million.

Ryder also said that whilst he doesn’t expect any of the MTN-Qhubeka team to challenge for the title he believes they can target a stage win and a victory over the four other wild card entries.

Qualifying for the Tour is no mean feat, so we can’t fault these guys on their dedication. But R100 million? That is a whole chunk of smelly cheese, baguettes and escargot.

For the full story click HERE.