Natnael Berhane claims Branislau Samoilau racially abused him during Tour of Austria  

• MTN-Qhubeka rider Natnael Berhane, of Eritrea, claimed he was racially abused by Branislau Samoilau
• On Wednesday, MTN made an official complaint to the UCI race jury at the Tour of Austria
• Samoilau is a rider from Belarus with the CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice team 
• MTN chiefs claimed Samoilau objected to Berhane passing him on the road
• Samoilau then allegedly shouted a racist slur at Berhane
• MTN bosses asked for the Belarusian to be removed from the race
• The MTN team celebrated the first black African rider to wear a Grand Tour jersey on Thursday 
• Daniel Teklehaimanot claimed the polka dot ‘King of the Mountains’ jersey  
  

By Matt Lawton for the Daily Mail

Published: 15:58 EST, 9 July 2015 | Updated: 19:03 EST, 9 July 2015

The first African team to compete in the Tour de France claim their black riders have been subjected to racism and bullying in the professional peloton.

On a day when MTN-Qhubeka celebrated the first black African rider to wear a Grand Tour jersey — Daniel Teklehaimanot was in the polka dot ‘King of the Mountains’ jersey here in Le Havre — it emerged that one of their other riders was branded a ‘n*****’ in a corresponding professional race on Wednesday.

MTN made an official complaint to the UCI race jury at the Tour of Austria after their rider Natnael Berhane, of Eritrea, claimed he was racially abused by Branislau Samoilau, a rider from Belarus with the CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice team.

MTN-Qhubeka rider Natnael Berhane (pictured) claimed he was racially abused by Branislau Samoilau

Berhane receives the 2012 African Cyclist of the year award from Tour de France legend Bernard Hinault

MTN-Qhubeka's Daniel Teklehaimanot wears the polka dot ‘King of the Mountains’ jersey in Le Havre

The jersey is awarded to the race's leading climber with Teklehaimanot emerging victorious on Thursday 

Teklehaimanot leads Team Europcar rider Perrig Quemeneur (left) during stage six of the Tour de France 

MTN bosses claimed Samoilau objected to Berhane — fourth overall in the race — passing him on the road and yelled: ‘F*** you, n*****’.

New to the Tour this year, MTN are a ground-breaking pro-continental team with five African riders here in France – two of whom are black – and hoping to promote cycling as a sport in a continent already boasting some of the finest endurance athletes in the world. 

Indeed the mission of the Qhubeka charity is to get Africans on bikes in an effort not just to increase the size of a potential talent pool but to aid children and adults in their journeys to school and work. 

They asked for the Belarusian to be removed from the race, but Sportsmail understands Samoilau has donated a month’s salary to the Qhubeka charity by way of an apology, although officials in France are hoping the UCI – the world governing body – do not leave it there. 

But MTN officials hope the UCI — cycling’s world governing body — will act because they claim their athletes were told by other riders to ‘f*** off to the back of the bunch’ at last year’s Tour of Spain, and that ‘baboon chants’ were heard at another race in Europe this year.

MTN principal Douglas Ryder told Sportsmail: ‘Yesterday one of the riders from another team said to Natnael Berhane, “Get out of the way you effing n*****”. Just outrageous.’

'And one of the biggest teams in the world last year in the Tour of Spain, when we trying to bring one of our riders to the front going into the mountains, “you guys don’t belong here, f*** off to the back of the bunch”.

CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice rider Branislau Samoilau (left) allegedly shouted racist slurs at Berhane 

‘We have riders like Tyler (Farrar) and Edvald (Boasson Hagen) riders who are well respected in the peloton, and they are their team-mates, and they say “hey guys, come on, these guys deserve to be here”.

‘We have had massive support from the major team owners and bosses. Guys like Shayne Bannan, Dave Brailsford, Viacheslav Ekimov. Those guys love this team. They believe they should be here. But some of the riders are struggling to grasp what we are doing here. They are in the minority I’m glad to say.’

A CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice statement read: ‘In the heat of the battle some words have been said by our rider, which were very unfortunate and unacceptable. The rider will suffer consequences.’

‘Before the next stage the situation has been clarified between two teams and the riders, but we don’t want to get into details.’ 

The UCI had not yet returned with a comment on Thursday night.  

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