The story of cycling in Eritrea is intertwined with that of the Italians. Cycling has about 85 years of history in Eritrea. History records show that starting from 1936, road races were held. Eritrean natives were not allowed to participate in those races alongside the Italian cyclists.This racial prejudice created a longing that one day the Eritreans would be able to mount a bicycle and compete in the races.
This longing created a ground where the natives were able to be organized among themselves and establish a cycling club in the early 1940s. They named this first of its kind cycling club, Africa.The members included legends like TsegaiSibhatu, GebretnsaieMehari, FisehatsionGebreyesus, Beyene Simon and YemaneNegasi. It makes one wonder why those cycling pioneers named their club, Africa.
As mentioned above in the 1930s cycling races as competition or for entertainment was reserved only for the Italian colonizers. The indigenous Eritreans, in their own country were not allowed to participate in a cycling race despite having capabilities and aspirations.And that is why, they named their first club Africa just as the continent that is having its natural resources taken by force and exploited by European colonizers.
Seeing how nowadays Eritrean cyclists are dominating Afrcian cycling, the measure of faiththe early cyclists is astounding.
The fact is that the first native Eritrean club was called Africa, and how Eritrean cyclists are the pride of African cycling, making a name in different stages.
As explained above, the pioneer Eritrean players who established the first Eritrean cycling team succeeded to pass on the cycling tradition to the younger generation and starting from 1960 till independence, many Eritreans participated and secured many wins in different cycling events and championships including the Olympics making many memorable victories.
After independence, making use of the new found favourable atmosphere and ground and the ardent support of fans, it did not take long to start making a name for Eritrea. As a manifestation of this growth, Zur Eritrea (Tour of Eritrea) was started in 2001and was able to attain international scale in 2009, opening a wide door that ushered more development and contributed greatly to the growth ofEritrean cycling.
Eritrean cycling athletes since 1991 have participated with good outcomes in international races in the Sudan, the Emirates, and Italy paving away for Eritrea to be a member of (International)cycling federation, in 1995.The hidden talents and capabilities of our cyclists was made manifest in 2006 race held in Kenya. In this regional and international competition, our Eritrean athletes secured outstanding victories both individually and as a team in both time trial and road race. The Eritrean cycling team was represented by cyclists like Daniel Teklehaimanot, BereketYemane, FrekalsiDebesay, Dawit Haile and many others.
Hereupon, Eritrea has dominated both regional and international cycling stages for the past 10 years, including those races where professional cycling teams take part, in both Men's and later in Women's events in various age groups, ranking among the top African countries. The Eritrean National Cycling team made unique feat when it won for seven consecutive times the African Cycling Championships i.e. from 2010 to 2019.
Daniel Teklehaimanot represented Eritrea in London Olympics 2012 and Rio de JanieroOlympics 2016, increasing the number of types of sports it took part in. Now around ten Eritrean cycling athletes are members of European professional teams that compete in cycling grand tours.