African cycling has been on the rise for over two decades, and the evidence that the continent can contribute to professional cycling at the top level is clear and irrefutable.
At the Tour de France for example, we have seen African athletes like Robbie Hunter, Daniel Teklehaimanot, Daryl Impey, Biniam Girmay, and Kim Le Court all set records and show the world that African cyclists have a place in professional cycling.
In 2026 there are now eleven African male and female riders across the World Tour and Pro Continental levels: five from Eritrea, four from South Africa and two from Mauritius. A further 110 African athletes, representing nine further countries, are racing across the world at the UCI Continental level, and on junior development squads for top global teams.
The successes of Girmay and Kim Le Court are well documented. We wanted to highlight the "Next Ten – New Gen" – ten young men and women from across Africa, 23 years-old or under – who could make it to the top level of the sport. Each rider in the list below was carefully chosen due to a blend of raw potential, feedback from coaches and peers, national championship wins and other results, as well as trying to represent a breadth of the leading African cycling nations.
1. Tsige Kahsay Kiros (Ethiopia)
This list must start with 19-year-old Tsige Kahsay Kiros. She is one of the most exciting prospects in African cycling since Biniam Girmay. Relatively unknown before the 2025 World Championships in Rwanda, her performance there in the Women's Junior Road Race was exceptional, blowing the peloton apart on the first lap. A top ten finish in that race, coupled with her dominance back home at races like the Tour of Tigray, got her a call from Alex Carera, the 'super-agent' of Pogačar and Girmay. By early 2026, Kahsay Kiros had signed a three-year deal with the development squad of the World Tour's Canyon//SRAM team.
(Image credit: Pohlmann Photo)
2. Milkias Maekele (Eritrea)
2026 is proving to be a big year for Maekele. In early 2025 he signed to Team BIKE AID – a German continental team with a long history of supporting African riders – after some impressive results for the Eritrean National Team. A tall, powerful sprinter, he registered two top ten finishes on his debut tour for BIKE AID and went on to several other notable successes. Maekele is confident but not arrogant, speaks exceptionally good English, and combined, these qualities got him noticed by others. In December 2025 it was announced he was joining the new INEOS Grenadiers Racing Academy. A broken wrist in training has side-lined him recently, however I hope to see him have a strong second half of the season.
3. Awet Aman (Eritrea)
This 23-year-old Eritrean has worked hard for his chance at the top. A soft-spoken and shy man, he has been working diligently for several years to get his shot, with regular stints with the UCI's World Cycling Centre. Winning the Eritrean National Championships in 2023 should have meant a pro deal as it has done for several of his contemporaries; sadly, this did not transpire for Aman. A strong finish in the African Continental Championships Road Race in late 2025, finishing alongside countryman Merhawi Kudus, did the trick, and he finally got his first pro deal with the Istanbul Cycling Team, a UCI Continental Team registered in Turkey. He has had a good start to the year, and this slight climber could rise to bigger things in the coming years.
(Image credit: Istanbul Cycling Team)
4. Nahom Efriem (Eritrea)
A name that has to make this list is Nahom Efriem, another young Eritrean man. This confident 19-year-old, like Kahsay Kiros, first truly put a marker down at the 2025 World Championships. His eleventh place in the Junior Road Race was the best performance by any African male. A product of the Eri-Tel Cycling Club in Asmara, one of the most productive feeder teams in Eritrea and across wider Africa, he, unlike many of East Africa's slight climbers, has a wide range of skills. His training with Henok Mulubrhan back home is turning him into a true prospect. He joined Team BIKE AID for the 2026 season, and Matthias Schnapka, the team's owner, states he could not be happier with Efriem's performances so far.
(Image credit: Team BIKE AID)
5. Monalisa Araya (Eritrea)
22-year-old Monalisa Araya has shown her pedigree since 2021, winning both the Eritrean National Women's Junior Road Race and ITT events that year against a strong domestic field. Racing purely in Africa since then, she hit 2025 hard, repeating her National Women's Road Race win, and adding the ITT crown as well. To be a double-national champion in Eritrea is a remarkable feat, and a subsequent top twenty finish at the 2025 African Continental Championships helped her secure a three-year contract, alongside Kahsay Kiros, with Canyon//SRAM's development team. She has proudly worn her Eritrean national champion jersey in Europe since March 2026 and already has two podium finishes to her name. Keep an eye on this strong Eritrean as she gets to grips with European racing and culture.
(Image credit: Canyon//SRAM)
6. Roger Surén (Namibia)
Roger is just 18 years old, so he is arguably a little young for this group, but the future is shining bright for this young man from Namibia. The legendary Dan Craven also hails from this south-western African nation, one of the world's most sparsely populated countries. Roger has been racing and riding both mountain bikes and road bikes in recent years. In 2025, apart from the World Championships Junior Road Race – where he finished a credible 44th – his ProCyclingStats record shows him finishing in the top ten in every race he has entered. Surén started 2026 by winning the Namibia Men's Elite Road Race National Championships and secured a ride with the World Tour's Alpecin-Premier Tech Team's development squad. The future is bright.
7. Tekle Alemayo (Ethiopia)
Picking an Ethiopian male rider for this report was tough. With young men like Bizay Tesfu Redae (Madar Pro Cycling), Amaniel Desta (Team Amani) and Amanuel Tesfay (WCC) all out there racing well, the competition was fierce. In the end, I chose Tekle Alemayo, who signed for the China Chermin UCI Continental Team this year. In the summer of 2025, thirty-five men signed on for the Ethiopian Elite National Road Race, one of the most hotly contested national championships in Africa. At just 18 years old, and one of the youngest riders present, Alemayo beat them all. He then became the best African finisher in the World Championships U23 race in Kigali and followed this up with a top ten finish in the African Continental Championships in Kenya last November. We hope to see him get a strong race calendar with China Chermin so he can show his true potential. The other Ethiopians mentioned are right on his wheel.
(Image credit: Tekle Alemayo)
8. Jazilla Mwamikazi (Rwanda)
Rwanda's cycling brand had a big boost in 2025 as the hosts of the UCI Cycling World Championships – the first time the event had taken place on African soil – and they did a fantastic job; it was truly a ground-breaking event. Sadly, on the road, Rwanda has yet to develop an elite rider since the retirement of World Tour rider Adrien Niyonshuti in 2017. However, Niyonshuti is now a coach at the UCI's World Cycling Centre (WCC), and it is there where we see some light: step forward 21-year-old Jazilla Mwamikazi. Mwamikazi is the current Rwandan Elite Road and U23 ITT National Champion and was in the top 50 GC of the most recent Tour de l'Avenir Femmes, riding for the WCC's 'Africa 2025' project. She is an alumna of the Ndabaga Initiative, a privately run women's cycling development foundation in Rwanda, which has produced several other young talented riders. In good news, Mwamikazi signed to the WCC Women's UCI Continental Team for 2026, and she is now cutting her teeth at races across Europe. Observers hope to see her show her true potential this year.
(Image credit: World Cycling Centre)
9. Joshua Johnson (South Africa)
Following in the footsteps of a dozen or so South African World Tour riders since Robbie Hunter, South African cycling experts are talking about Joshua Johnson as a major talent for the future. Like Alan Hatherly, he has been riding both MTB and road but is now focusing on road for 2026. He first came to attention last year when he won the South Africa Men's Junior ITT National Championships and then joined Germany's well respected grenke-Auto Eder team – a feeder team for the Red Bull BORA-Hansgrohe World Tour team – racing across Europe. A top ten at the prestigious Gran Premio del Perdono in Italy was followed by a stage win at the 2.1 Aubel-Thimister-Stavelot in Belgium. He finished 2025 strongly as the second African (behind Nahom Efriem) in the Men's Junior Road Race at the World Championships in Kigali. He began his year well, winning the South African National Junior Men's Road Race and ITT Championships in January 2026 and continues to race across Europe. One to watch!
(Image credit: Red Bull BORA hansgrohe)
10. Tristan Hardy (Mauritius)
With Mauritius' recent rise into the top tier of African cycling, and the heroics of Kim Le Court, it felt appropriate to have Mauritius represented. Despite being a little younger than many on our list, Tristan Hardy (18) is flying at the moment, racing for Team 31 Specialized, one of the strongest junior development teams in France. His results show real pedigree for a young rider, including a big moment when he placed in the top five in the GP Plouay Juniors – a major junior race on the European calendar. He is currently the #1 ranked African rider in the ProCyclingStats Junior rankings and has just broken into the top one hundred junior riders worldwide. Still a young person, but, like Kahsay Kiros, Surén and Johnson, he has the time ahead of him to make it.
(Image credit: lexpress.mu)
Jeremy Ford has been involved in helping develop and promote African cycling for twelve years. He has several 'hats' in this regard: supporting the Africa Rising Cycling non-profit – run by Kimberly Coats – which has been helping and developing athletes across Africa since 2006; working as a DS for Team BIKE AID (UCI Continental level), who have supported African athletes with a pathway into professional cycling for over a decade; being a trustee of the Qhubeka social mobility charity in South Africa – the charity of the men's and women's editions of the Tour de France, as well as the Absa Cape Epic, the 'offroad Tour de France'; and regularly writing for the BBC and various cycling magazines.
