The next Biniam Girmay? Scouts already know who will be the next Eritrean star sprinter

Africa is one of the regions with immense untapped cycling potential, however despite the rise of Biniam Girmay, the new wave of talent either from Eritrea or any other country has not taken over the cycling world.

In fact, the Q36.5 Continental team with ties to African cycling has even folded at the end of last season with it's former manager Kevin Campbell expressing great disconcern in an open letter posted via the blog of Dan Challis, he was quoted: "African cycling has not arrived, it is leaving". But that doesn't mean great talents cannot be found.

You could say that Biniam Girmay was a bit lucky. After a dominant performance at the junior African championships, he was brought to Europe as a part of the UCI WCC (World Cycling Center) project and at the age of 19, his talent was already recognized by French ProTeam Delko with whom he turned professional in 2020. And the rest is history.

The lucky part is that he escaped the whole COVID shenanigans which gave a fatal blow to the cycling outside Europe. And while the cycling fans across the world were glued to screens as Girmay was writing history by winning Gent-Wevelgem and a Giro d'Italia stage in 2022, the attention slowly shifted again to Africa - whether there aren't more riders as talented as the charismatic Eritrean.

And around the same period when Girmay was cruising towards winning the Maillot Vert at Tour de France 2024 along with three stage wins, one such talent has indeed emerged in his homeland.

With little to no information available about Eritrean local scene, then 18-year-old Milkias Maekele appeared almost out of blue in 2024 to win two UCI races along with several results of honor. The scouts immediately took notice of the strong sprinter, but it was his start of 2025 that truly grasped everyone's attention.

Matched up against the best sprinter at the African scene - Yacine Hamza, the 2nd most winning UCI rider of 2023 behind Tadej Pogacar - Maekele walked away with eight podium finishes, but more importantly two victories. Yet the most important step he had to make in order to pursue his professional dream was to prove his quality in Europe.

And thanks to the German project BIKE AID, that was made possible. While Maekele is techincally yet to start in Europe, we can consider the Tour of Turkey a worthy test of his ability and two top-20 finishes in chaotic sprints against WorldTour teams are a good start.

Furthermore, Maekele recently did a strong Tour of Iran, winning the first stage and coming second three more times which landed the young Eritrean on the final 2nd place. With two hilly stages on the programme, the 19-year-old has proven that there's more to his talent than just sprinting.

According to sources of CyclingUpToDate, there has been already an interest from several professional formations who had a look into Maekele's data and are with talks with the Eritrean about a possible 2026 contract. Among those interested, we understand that Unibet Tietema Rockets have shown particular interest. But if Maekele continues to rack up podiums at current pace (14x at the podium in 2025), maybe even bigger teams will come chasing the successor of Biniam Girmay's throne.

Photo Credits: Instagram of Milkias Maekele