The cyclin

Fleeing a repressive regime and indefinite military service, a young Eritrean cyclist finds solace riding in East London

Eritrea has been making headlines in cycling since Daniel Teklehaimanot wore the polka dot jersey of the climbers’ competition in the 2015 Tour de France. His exploits have helped to elevate the international profile of Eritrean cycling, making him a hero in the cycling-obsessed African nation.

Eritrea is a relic of Italy’s colonial occupation of East Africa. The Italians first settled in the area in 1882, and officially declared it a colony in 1890. Mussolini made Eritrea the industrial centre of Italian East Africa, and the capital Asmara’s population ballooned in the 1930s, becoming practically an Italian city. The first Tour of Eritrea – Primo Giro dell’Eritrea – was promoted by Eritrea’s Italian community in 1946, though the second edition in 1947 was suspended because of a growing guerrilla war in the British-occupied country. The race was revived in 2001 after a 50-year hiatus as a celebration of the 10th anniversary of Eritrean independence from Ethiopia.

Sadly, Eritrea has also been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The long struggle for independence brought Isaias Afwerki to power in 1993, whose People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) party has since maintained a oneparty state without elections. The Eritrean government has one of the worst human rights records in the world, including compulsory, indefinite military service, and many young people flee the country to avoid conscription, risking long and dangerous journeys across the desert to escape.

Heavy start

Haben Gebrehiwet of Cycling Club Hackney (CCH) used to race his bike in Eritrea as a junior. “Oh my days, yes, I had a racing bike,” the young Eritrean tells us, his good but broken English inflected with teenage British vernacular. “First I got a very heavy bike, it wasn’t good. I did one race and I talked to my father: ‘You have to buy me a nice bike!’ I was doing stuff with a mountain bike. My Eritrean one was very heavy, it was like 200kg or something,” he jokes. Gebrehiwet is a friendly, engaging and bright-eyed teen. He smiles as he recounts his early races over a coffee that he insists on paying for, as I’m his guest in Tottenham.

“There are a lot of people watching at the side of the road,” Gebrehiwet says of his junior races back in Eritrea. The UK cycling boom of the last few years is difficult to ignore, but Gebrehiwet paints a picture of