Eritrea's Cycling Tradition, a Colonial Import That Became National

Cycling occupies a place in Eritrean sporting culture that has no real parallel elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, and its origins are colonial.

Italians brought competitive cycling to Eritrea during the colonial period, and races were held in and around Asmara from the 1930s. What distinguishes the Eritrean case is what happened afterwards: the sport was taken up by Eritreans rather than abandoned with the colonial administration, and became genuinely popular.

The conditions favour it. Asmara sits at roughly 2,300 metres, and the roads descending from the highlands to the coast at Massawa provide climbs and descents of a scale that professional teams travel to find. Riders raised there train at altitude on demanding terrain as a matter of course.

Eritrean riders have competed at the highest level of the sport. Daniel Teklehaimanot became the first African rider to wear the polka-dot climber's jersey at the Tour de France, in 2015. Merhawi Kudus and Natnael Berhane rode for World Tour teams, and Biniam Girmay won a stage at the Giro d'Italia in 2022 and stages at the Tour de France in 2024, the first Black African rider to do so.

The Tour of Eritrea remains the domestic centrepiece, and the national championship in Asmara draws large crowds. Bicycles are also everyday transport in a way that sustains a base of riders.

The constraint on the pipeline is equipment and racing access. Competitive cycling requires expensive machinery and exposure to European racing calendars, and the route from a strong domestic scene to a professional contract runs through development teams and scouting relationships that are limited in number.