Originally Posted by Bob Dopolina

In the modern sport it takes more than raw talent to even become a member of a Pro Tour team. There needs to be significant infrastructure in place and riders need to be able to work within the cycling culture, at the elite level, just to dip their toe in the top echelon of the sport.

With the exception so South Africa that just doesn't exist on the African continent. Even if you look at the considerable number of riders who have done well coming from North American, Australia, New Zealand and, as I mentioned, South Africa, the vast majority of those riders came up through European teams. They cut their teeth on European squads even if they spent some of their time racing outside of Europe.

You need only to look at Asia to see what I mean. There are several Asian riders who are attached to European squads at the Continental or even the Continental Pro levels. They may do some racing in Europe and some racing on the Asia Tour circuit, but, as far as I know, there is only one Japanese rider on the Pro Tour. Although I have seen the level of racing here improve dramatically over the last 15 years, and although there are a few billion Asians on the planet, Asians are woefully underrepresented in the top level of the sport.

Accepting that and also accepting that Africa is decades behind Asian in this regard I don't see how it would be even remotely possible for African riders to make any impact on pro cycling regardless of raw ability.