Led by South African champion Louis Meintjes, MTN-Qhubeka will make their debut in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege today. Arriving straight from an overall 5th place at the Giro del Trentino, Meintjes will be supported by climbers like Jacques van Rensburg and Sergio Pardilla.

This Sunday will mark a day in history as Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung, Africa’s only Professional Continental Team, start the oldest of all the one day classics, Liege-Bastogne-Liege. La Doyenne as it known in Europe, is another of cycling’s monument races and will celebrate it’s 100th edition this year making the participation of Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung that much more special. This race is marked as one of the hardest athletic challenges a rider could possibly face in his career. It is for this reason that only the greats of world cycling will be seen on top of the final results sheets.

The participation of an African team at this race is unprecedented and our riders will go down in the history books of world cycling for being the first African Pro-Continental team to lineup at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Louis Meintjes, the South African champion who is coming fresh off a sterling performance at the Giro del Trentino, will headline the team for Sundays race. Meintjes will be supported by Jacques Janse van Rensburg who has also been on a great run of form this year. The rest of the team will be made up by Jaco Venter, Jay Thomson, Songezo Jim, Daniel Teklehaimanot, Ignatas Konovalovas and Sergio Pardilla.

"It is an honour to be part of this race especially because it is the 100th anniversary race," Directeur Sportif Jens Zemke said. "It is something special for our team and all sponsors to join the 100th edition of such a historic race which is opening its doors to new continent by inviting us.

"Our team is coming here from some nice results at the Trentino stage race but we have no time to celebrate.  We should not forget, that we are riding against the best riders in the world here and some of our riders will be competing next to their idols on Sunday. Ignatas has rode this race before butall our other riders are rookies, they will show the African fighting spirit though.

"La Doyenne is one of the hardest,oldest and nicest bike races on the calendar. The difficult part is the racing only really starts at the point where other races are already finished. In respect to the ASO, who gave us the wildcard invitation, we want to deliver a good performance but i know that it will be not easy and we will need good legs and also a bit luck."