Date: Monday, 22 September 2025
It has taken just over a decade for Eritrea to become Africa's leading nation in road cycling.
From Daniel Teklehaimanot making his Olympic debut at London 2012, becoming Eritrea's first Olympian in a sport other than athletics, to Biniam Girmay winning a stage at the 2022 Giro d'Italia, the East African nation punches well above its weight on two wheels.
There are now four Eritrean riders on the UCI World Tour: Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty), Tokyo 2020 Olympian Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (LIDL-Trek), Henok Mulubrhan (XDS Astana) and Natnael Tesfatsion (Movistar).
The Road World Championships are being held for the first time in Africa later this month with Rwanda staging the event from 21-28 September 2025.
As a two-time Tour du Rwanda winner, Natnael - Eritreans are referred to by their given names rather than family names - perhaps carries his country's best chance of a medal in the road race with Girmay not competing due to the number of climbs. Former EF Education-Easypost rider Merhawi Kudus, Tour du Rwanda victor in 2019, completes the Eritrean quartet in Kigali, with Henok winning the race in 2023.
"The Tour du Rwanda is a really good race with lots of climbs," Natnael told Olympics.com. "It's at high altitude and there's normally hot weather. It's also a good opportunity for the African riders to see the race and learn how to race."
Having won in 2020 - "a big victory, my first general classification" - and 2022, the 26-year-old made his UCI World Tour debut with LIDL-Trek in 2023 before joining Movistar after two years.
Daniel Teklehaimanot was the trailblazer for cycling in Eritrea, and inspired Natnael - who hails from the capital Asmara - right from the start.
"The road near my house, the K’ushut-Tzada Kiristean, is famous for the Eritrean Time Trial Championships," he said. "They normally close the road and it's used for training. I saw Daniel Teklehaimanot there, and my father pushed me towards cycling.
"Normally you start with mountain bikes in Eritrea, and then you switch to road bikes. In my first race, I finished in sixth place. And after the second race, I finished third or fourth, I don't remember. After that, I continued to have good results in Eritrea until 2018."
The former Italian colony - "the Italians are famous for being cyclists" - has a significant cycling following, with fans at home and abroad following their riders passionately.
"In France, people come to watch and support us because there aren't many black riders in Europe," says Natnael. "They always support us. Not only in Eritrea. Everywhere. In Europe, in Australia, UK. Everywhere they support us. Also, they are like a family.
"At home they watch in the airport, in all the cafes on big TV screens."
Eritrean cycling continues to grow, but Natnael believes there should be more riders getting their chance on the big stage. "There is little opportunity to showcase African riders because there is only Tour du Rwanda and sometimes Gabon," he claims. "If there is some continental team, then maybe they have the chance to go outside of Africa."
