Welcome to our live blog to chart the progress of the #TeamTrhas project in the United Kingdom, on which we are working with Trhas, the West London Welcome community center and many of our friends and contacts across the cycling industry:

15 December: Great training day today for Trhas, she was invited to join the Rough Rider Velo* group (*RRV is one of London’s oldest affinity groups) for a 100km ride to the West of London. This ride brought TT’s 2024 riding and racing total distance to 10,014 kms, super impressive considering we only got her a road bike in March! You can follow Trhas on Strava HERE.

Many thanks to Chude ‘The O.G.’ Ekbuniwe (RRV founder, far left in image below) for inviting Trhas to join his group’s ride, where she was joined by (from left): Harry Macfarland (the UK’s current hill climbing champion; Randolph (long time RRV member); and Duke (a fixed gear Red Hook crit champion).

12 December: We are excited to announce that Trhas has been successful in her application for a grant to help with her living and cycling costs in 2025. The Cyclists’ Alliance partnered with Strava to create a unique funding stream The TCAMP Pre-Career x Strava Grant. This grant aim to provide financial support to promising female cyclists who are at the beginning of their cycling career and struggle to maximize their potential due to financial barriers. Thanks so much to the team of judges, it was announced on The Cyclist Alliance’s instagram page HERE.

6 December: Trhas continues to train hard, with the strain of no asylum decision weighing heavy on her mind. Still no word from the UK Home Office, it is taking its toll on her mental health. A quick 43km today around London’s Richmond Park, and another 45 achievements on her Strava account! Trhas now holds several of the ‘Local Legend’ awards in this popular cycling location.

30 November: Trhas got some good news today that her good friend Selam Amha Gerefiel (Ethiopia) has renewed her contract with the CANYON//SRAM Generation Team for 2025, which will enter its fourth season as a pioneering development team for the World Tour squad CANYON//SRAM Racing. Selam is an inspiration for Trhas and she could not be happier for the continued success of her friend!

Selam said: “Being part of CANYON//SRAM Generation has been very important for me to have the support to keep working on my professional career. I owe a lot to the team and am determined to work hard in 2025. I dream of winning a race myself and seeing our team win a race next season.”

25 November: As we continue to wait for Trhas’ asylum request response from the UK Home Office (how long now?!) – which is truly affecting her mental health – she is still incredibly hitting the training hard.

Our very good friends at Zwift have sent Trhas a present to help her winter training: A complete home set-up of their awesome Zwift Ride With Kickr Core product. This is truly the world’s leading home training equipment, and Trhas is very keen to start using this to support her dream to go professional and race Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift one day!

To test this new equipment, and with a huge storm hitting London, Trhas nailed 70km in 2hrs10mins, including 714m of climbing. You can check out her Strava for all her training data HERE. She is already a fan of the Zwift Ride set-up and will be using it throughout the harsh UK winter!

15 November: Exciting day for Trhas as she was invited to attend two key cycling events in London: The ‘Uplift!‘ gathering run by Shift Active Media – a mentoring programme set up to match experienced female leaders in the cycling industry with the next generation of talent, and Rouleur Live – the “world’s greatest cycling show”.

At Rouleur Live she got to meet Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, Africa’s #1 female pro cyclist (and a real inspiration to Trhas as she dreams of racing the Tour de France avec Zwift) Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek, 5x times world champion), Kate Veronneau (Director of Women’s Strategy, Zwift) and Hannah Walker (one of world cycling’s top commentators). All were pleased to meet her, and wished her luck in her quest to go professional in 2025! More on this topic soon…. #TeamTrhas

14 November: Alongside her training on the road, Trhas’ coach/mentor Alice Lethbridge has set her a training programme on Zwift to follow to get her in good shape for 2025! She smashed out a 52km (200m elevation) ride last night in 90 minutes. She is getting used to using e-training with the British winter weather being somewhat unpredictable for the next few months!

Our friends at Zwift are also sending her a present! More on this soon…. #NewBikeDay

12 November: The off-season break is over and Trhas has been out on the bike almost every day, and has racked up 350km on the road in the last eight days, with a huge number of new segment records and personal bests recorded! Her dedication to training is super impressive!

29 October: Trhas has been enjoying an ‘off season’ break to rest after six months of intense training and racing schedule over 2024. She has enjoyed two weeks off the bike. She will resume some light endurance training in early November – set by her mentor Alice Lethbridge – plus some gym work, and running!

She logged her first run on Strava today (6km), and set her first PR for a 5k (32:22). We are sure she will now aim to beat this every time as she is so competitive!

16 October: Trhas’ brilliant mentor Alice Lethbridge has set her a new winter training schedule, with a big focus on the Zwift Academy programme which is taking part over October. Trhas is performing well already, and setting several new records in terms of her power output over 30minutes and 60minutes. Great to see TT really getting to grips with the extensive training capabilities of Zwift.

14 October: Trhas had her second Home Office interview today and it was over two hours of questions and fact checking. She was exhausted at the end and we hope this is the last stage of this process and she will get a result soon. Her support team from the West London Welcome refugee centre and her lawyer are positive but you can tell its taking its toll on Trhas’ mental health. We are doing all we can to keep her happy and motivated. Come on UK Government, make the right decision so she can plan her life for 2025!

5 October: Trhas received a huge renewal delivery of carbohydrate-rich fuel from our good friends at Maurten who are happy to support Trhas with their Hydrogel sports fuel gels and powders. They have also included their recently launched Bicarb System. Bicarb System is an advanced fuel for high-intensity training and racing. It is designed to be consumed 1.5-2 hours before exercise – priming the body to cope better with rising muscle acidity during anaerobic efforts. This new nutrition technology hit the headlines at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Zurich last month when elite Canadian rider Michael Woods was seen eating Maurten’s Bicarb System during the Elite Men’s Race, covered by Men’s Health Magazine.

1 October: Brilliant news from back home in Ethiopia: Back in April this year (see 24 April post below), Trhas was a special guest at a members’ lunch of the UK’s illustrious The Pedal Club. Steve Wright, one of The Pedal Club’s long-term members was so taken with her story, that he donated a large bag of Geoffrey Butler Racing Team kit (XS/S sizes) for Trhas to get home to her old team: the Trans Ethiopia Cycling Club.

Through a friend who works on Ethiopian Airlines and was coming through London, Trhas arranged a collection of all these kits, and they have now made their way to Ethiopia – see below:

The Trans Ethiopia Cycling Club sent us this statement: “We would like to thank The Pedal Club in the UK for your support with these Geoffrey Butler Cycling jerseys! These will be given to the women of the Trans Ethiopia Cycling Club. We would like to thank Trhas Teklehaymanot for the coordination and support to make this happen. We would also like to thank Team Africa Rising for supporting our sister Trhas.”

28 September: Trhas joined several friends to watch the Women’s Elite (& U23) Road Race on TV at our friend Personal Bike Fit‘s workshop in central London to see the race. We had several folk on the ground in Zurich and they were in touch with this group live. The weather at the race was truly horrific and only one African lady finished the race of almost a dozen entrants. TT will be 100% gutted to miss it, but maybe the truly hardcore 2025 Worlds Course in Rwanda will suit her size and riding style much better…

25 September: Today is a very sad day. It is the day we have had to make the call to the UCI to ask them to withdraw Trhas from the Women’s Elite Road Race at the 2024 Road World Championships. So many folks have worked so hard to try and make this happen, petitions, social media, MP questions, direct appeals but sadly the UK Home Office has not responded so TT will not be going to Zurich. She posted a heart-breaking picture on her Instagram, expressing her deep sadness at this, and missing her third World Championships in a row, all due to administrative issues. We rally around her to try and cheer her up…

19 September: Some positive news to share: Trhas attended the Hammersmith & Fulham annual Sports Awards last night and walked away with the big one: “Sports and Physical Activity Person of the Year“!

She was presented with the award by the guest of honour: England netballer Sonia Mkoloma, who helped celebrate the winners and shared some of her own sporting highlights. On receiving the award, Trhas said:

“Living in Hammersmith is really lovely – I feel very welcome and supported here. The people are so warm and I am very proud to have won this award. I am still training hard and hoping to make it to the World Championships. Training in London is very different to cycling at home, but the traffic’s not too bad. Especially if you go early Saturday or Sunday.”

18 September: With time running out fast on Trhas’ asylum application to get a result in time for her to make the World Championships, Joanne MacInnes (Founder, West London Welcome community centre) spoke on the Eddie Nestor Show on BBC Radio London to please to the UK Home Office to fast-track this application to make Trhas’ dream of racing there come true…. You can hear the full interview online on BBC Radio London – go to 1:35:55.

16 September: Last week Trhas attended a video call to explain the application process for the 2025 application process for the TCamp Pre Career x Strava Grant. This fantastic grant – arranged by The Cyclists’ Alliance (of which TT is a member) and Strava – is aimed at young riders with little or no means or income, to help them fund their development, training and career. We are most excited to submit her application today and will wait to hear the outcome. Trhas will need funds to help her across 2025 so this would be most welcome.

12 September: Today was the day. Trhas attended the British Home Office’s premises in Croydon (South London) for her interview at 08:30. She was in the meeting for nearly two hours, but emerged smiling and hopeful. Members of #TeamTrhas were outside to greet her, as well as a documentary producer and film crew who are now following her story. Now we wait….

10 September: We did a deep dive on Trhas’ Strava account and she really has been dedicated to her training and racing since we got her the Scott racing bike from our friends at the World Cycling Centre at the UCI HQ in Aigle (Switzerland) in April. She has logged nearly 300 hours on the bike, riding around 7,700km, with over 56,000m of ascent! The image below shows how active she has been:

We are just so impressed with her dedication and determination, and hoping so much she gets her asylum decision in time to be able to race the World Championships at the end of September in Zurich. Trhas how holds 15 QOMs/Segment crowns in the UK, with some BIG ones in there: The three main segments of RideLondon 2024, and the 9x 10x and 11x laps of Richmond Park, clockwise and anti-clockwise! Follow her on Strava HERE.

6 September: Trhas was profiled as “Afro Cycling Chick of the Week” today by the social media group ‘Afro Cycling Chicks’! She was asked to talk about her life, her story and her message for aspiring young female riders. Check out her interview on their Instagram account!

2 September: Today we received confirmation that Trhas has been accepted to race in the UK’s ‘Eastern, Central and South East Region Women’s Road Race Championships’ which are being held on Sunday 8 September in Huntingdon – around 70 miles due north of London. Her mentor Alice Lethbridge is also racing, alongside many riders with whom Trhas has been racing recently, so it should be an exciting event! UPDATE: This race has now been cancelled due to staffing issues so TT will be training hard all weekend.

1 September: Well it was a big weekend for Trhas and her support team: Back to back races at, firstly, on Saturday at the London Academy GP at the Olympic Velo Park in London, and then the Will Houghton Circuit Race at the Hillingdon circuit on Sunday, the latter being part of the British Women’s Team Cup series. Trhas raced hard at both, was attacking regularly, made the breakaway at the latter, and finished strongly with the pack at both races! Everyone was most pleased with her efforts!

Shout-out to Markovitch James Photography who was there to cover the race, and took this epic shot…

Her Strava account recorded her sprinting at 746 Watts in the Will Houghton race, and she recorded her ‘second best power output over one hour’ to date so her training and performance is really paying dividends! Her dedication to her training and craft is seriously impressive, as evidenced by her ‘end of week’ report from Strava – see graphic below! To follow her on Strava, click HERE, and you can now also follow TT on Intervals.icu which her coaching team will now be using with her to get her to peak fitness.

27 August: BIG media coverage day for Trhas! Her BBC interview being broadcast (see full clip below) and then follow-up stories by Cycling Weekly and road.cc also. We truly hope the UK Home Office is seeing the huge support for this athlete there is here, and across the cycling community, and she gets the chance to get to the World Championships…

Click on the play button below to watch the full clip (Credit: BBC London):

24 August: Our good friend Spencer – who runs the Personal Bike Fit company in London – has ordered and fitted some Favero Assioma Duo road power meter pedals to more accurately record her training and racing performance, as well as give her coaching/mentoring team good data with which to work. Spencer also hooked up her Strava account at the same time, check her out and follow her progress HERE.

21 August: Due to an article on Trhas’ asylum claim situation which appeared in The Chiswick Calendar newspaper this week, the editorial team at the BBC got in touch with us again, and wanted to meet and film with Trhas for an update. Our team met the reporters in London’s Regent’s Park, a popular cycling destination, along with Chude ‘The O.G.’ Egbuniwe (Founder of Rough Rider Velo, London’s first affinity cycling group) who has been out training with Trhas, his friend Maydine from Dominica, and Joanne MacInnes – the founder of the West London Welcome refugee center – who are supporting Trhas.

18 August: Trhas travelled* 240 miles north to Yorkshire yesterday ahead of the famous Ryedale Grand Prix, her third foray at the top level of British cycling. The race featured six laps of a long route and three of a shorter circuit, centered around the stunning 200+ year old Ampleforth College and Abbey. This was truly racing at the top level. The pace was serious from the start and hard to watch the breaks and moves. As a solo rider, Trhas had to start near the back and couldn’t see or jump onto the breaks at the front, but we are happy to share that she battled round with the top 50 riders and came home 46th, with a start-list of over 100 and over half the riders not being able to finish. Full results on the ProCyclingStats website HERE as always. Trhas is really starting to learn the demands of top level racing in Europe.

* Many thanks indeed to Ian and the team at the DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK women’s team for taking her all the way there and back, arranging accommodation and generally being ace.

15 August: Trhas travelled to the beautiful Via Atelier cycling shop in central London as her Black Inc. carbon race wheels had arrived from the USA, thanks to the team at Vires Velo. These were the 1st place prize in the recent Via Crit Festival, at which Trhas won her first race in the UK.

11 August: As the World Championships draw closer (just seven weeks away…) pressure is ramping up on getting Trhas’ asylum process interview organised, but no luck yet for the team at the West London Welcome refugee center and Trhas’ lawyer in getting this achieved sadly. WLW have set up a petition on the 38 Degrees website to try and raise awareness and put pressure on the UK Home Office. It has now achieved over 1,000 signatures. Please do sign it also HERE. Thank you!

6 August: Tonight is the final round of the Miche West Thames League, with Trhas sitting in 3rd place in the league overall. She can’t catch 1st and 2nd but 4th is not too far away. Trhas gets it done and takes #4 spot and secures third in the league overall! She wins a pair of Miche Reflex wheels for her efforts! Many thanks to Christopher Denman and all the volunteers at this brilliant race league for their work, and support of Trhas in her debut season. We hope the Kingston Wheelers team are happy with her representation of their club and her many podiums (so far!)

30 July: After the weekend’s great performance, Trhas is back to the Miche West Thames League crit racing, for Round 16, and the racing was tough! She pulls off a #10 finish in a bunch sprint among a field of Elite/Cat 1/Cat 2 riders with next week’s final round to come…

28 July: Well, just wow!! Not only did Trhas turn up and race well for her second ever UK National Series race, she came 24th of a field of over 80 Elite/Cat 1/Cat 2 riders!! Trhas only recently moved to Cat 2, and a top 25 result is a huge moment for her! Trhas was very happy with her ride, made even more impressive as she is not on a team so is racing as a solo rider!

Trhas also took the Strava QOM on one of the main climbs in the race, showing her pedigree! You can check this out on Strava HERE, and please do follow her on the platform also. She is making an impact for sure, and as the image below shows, she is bringing some much needed diversity to the UK’s women’s peloton.

26 July: Preparations for this weekend’s Lancaster GP are well under way. This is Trhas’ second foray into the British Cycling National Series, after her great debut in Lincoln. Our friends at the DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK women’s team are being awesome again, and will help with Trhas’ transport, accommodation and refuelling at the race. We are so grateful for the wider family of folk helping Trhas’ career.

20 July: Trhas raced again tonight at the ‘Trash Mile – Summer Slam’, billed in the UK as “The Biggest Cycling Event of the Summer”, offering a day of fast and furious crit racing at Lea Valley Velopark, the home of the 2012 London Olympic cycling events. Racing at her new Cat 2 level will be a challenge for Trhas, and she excelled, taking #10 spot in a field of over 30 top UK female athletes.

Her next big race will be the British Cycling Women’s National Road Series National Series Lancaster GP on 28 July, another race at the highest level of UK racing. The race will start at 14:15 from Williamson Park and be 6 laps of a 14.5Km circuit, making a total distance of 94Km including neutralised roll out.  There will be a total of 1700m of climbing during the race. Our good friends at the DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK team will be kindly looking after her for the weekend – #TeamTrhas in full effect. More on this one soon…

16 July: Following the UK’s recent election result and change of government, Trhas’ story features (again) in The Guardian, on a piece entitled: “The asylum seekers who dream of sporting glory.”

“Girls are not encouraged to ride bicycles in Ethiopia, but I have a rebellious spirit and that made me determined to continue. My family are supporting me with my cycling here and so are the people from my area. I am determined to succeed and reach my ultimate dream of competing in the Tour de France.” 

You can read the full story HERE.

10 July: Exciting news from the amazing people at West London Welcome, one of their amazing supporters has offered to house Trhas for the foreseeable future, allowing her to leave the shared room in the refugee hostel she is in, access to a proper kitchen and a true home. She is over the moon about this, and will move in later in July. With the recent election result being seen as much more favourable to asylum seekers’ claims, its been an exciting couple of weeks for Trhas and the team around her!

4 July: On hearing the news that Trhas has moved up to British Cycling’s Category 2 level, ex-World Tour rider Tsgabu Grmay – who is an active member of her support team, and a pro coach now with the UCI’s World Cycling Centre team – sent her a video message to congratulate her – see it on our Instagram.

2 July: Trhas races round 12 of 15 of the Miche West Thames League and scores another podium, taking third in a sprint finish! Amazingly, she is now running second overall in this league: see table below:

1 July: Huge day for African cycling with Biniam Girmay wins Stage 3 of the Tour de France, the first black African to win a stage at the Tour, and the only African to win a stage at both the TdF and the Giro d’Italia. Trhas knows Biniam well so is hugely pleased about this, and even more determined to succeed herself!

25 June: Trhas returns to the Hillingdon-based Miche West Thames League racing tonight, and fresh from her win at the VIA-Criterium festival and her huge training ride and she is clearly in good shape, taking another podium at this event series, coming in second place, again in stunning summer evening weather.

23 June: After the racing excitement of yesterday, when many folk would take a day to relax, Trhas is back in the saddle and goes on a 200km training ride with the Rough Rider Velo (RRV) affinity group, hitting 10 categorised climbs, and leaving the mainly male group in her wake on them! The founder of RRV, Chude Egbuniwe, reported that his Garmin recommended a 38 hour rest after his efforts to keep up with her!

22 June: Big day today, its the massive London Cycle Festival, run by the very cool VIA-Atelier bike store in Kings Cross (Central London). This is a 3-day crit racing festival, with many other events and activities taking place. Lots of information HERE. Trhas was entered in the Women’s Category 3/4 race, at 17:45 on the Saturday evening. Race start time approaches, its hot! 22 women are lined up on the start-line, and all look focused and dialled. The race starts… Its a short 1’28” lap and a group of five leaders came round together after the end of lap one. At end of lap two, they have a gap. This continued with the five riders switching around every lap, until a one rider break around mid-race. She pushed hard but maybe too hard and was reeled back in by the chasing group. At this point somewhere on the tight course, there was a coming together which Trhas skillfully avoids, and comes through for the penultimate lap with a 10m lead on a chaser. She looks confident and her crowd of supporters hold their breath for 90seconds and then see her exit the ramp onto the start-finish sprint and cruise to her FIRST EVER RACE WIN ON BRITISH SOIL! Cue cheering crowds and a very happy Trhas! A prize-giving takes places later in the evening and she wins a par of beautiful Black Inc. carbon wheels, some special edition Tour de France Oakley sunglasses and some goodies from bike insurer Laka. Everyone is so proud of Trhas and she is beaming!

18 June: Trhas returned tonight to the Miche West Thames League crit series at Hillingdon in West London and took another great result in these competitive races, coming in 5th and looking strong! Great imagery of Trhas pushing the pace in the evening sunshine from pro photographer Nate Rawsthorne:

16 June: Trhas travelled east of London to the Lea Valley Cycling Club’s annual Women’s Road Race today. A tough field of around 20 Category 2 and 3 women were present and Trhas was in the mix from the start. The race was 9 laps of a 10km route and racing was very competitive. Happy to share that Trhas came in #8 overall, and 2nd of the Category 3 women present. 8 more points on her British Cycling record!

13 June: Away from bike racing for a minute, Trhas and the Africa Rising Cycling team attend the UK Premiere of the stunning new film – This is My Moment – about the rise of Eritrean sprinter Biniam Girmay, from street racing to the Tour de France debut in 2023. The film is beautifully made by director Lieven Corthouts and much of the dialogue is in Tigrinya, with english subtitles. Trhas watches the film on the edge of her seat, loving seeing many of her male and female friends from Eritrea and Ethiopia on screen! She shares at the end that she has a pair of Biniam’s bib shorts from his time on the Delko team which she was given by Biniam a few years ago. Despite challenges in that region, we are always so happy to see the cyclists maintain their friendships and helpand support each other at all times.

10 June: We have had a lull in activities in the last week or so as Trhas has been unwell. She is on the mend though, and has been training with her mentor Alice. The weather in the UK is also not great (unusual for this time of year) so Trhas will be concentrating on some Zwift sessions this week. She has a pretty busy race calendar coming up for the rest of June/early July, we will share this in due course once 100% finalised.

26 May: Ford Ride London day: Trhas set off in the lead wave of riders and was flying along, completing the first 40km in under an hour, a strong pace. Disaster struck in the wet forest of Epping, with a puncture taking her out for a good while. Reports of many riders getting punctures there, and rumours of thumb-tacks again being put on the road by locals upset at road closures. She got going again, and completed the 160km in a solid five hours and 22 minutes. A sub-5hr would have been achieved without the puncture so a great result, and testament to her growing fitness and endurance.

After she received her finisher’s medal, she was interviewed for ITV News London’s lead story on the event (you can see the TV piece HERE, the Trhas segment starts at 03’10”), and then met Dr. Will Norman, the Mayor of London’s Walking & Cycling Commissioner, who described Trhas as “inspiring”.

23 May: Another solid but mid-pace outdoor training ride in the build-up to Sunday’s Ford RideLondon, just getting 72km in the legs. The big one is three days away…

20 May: As the race was missed, Trhas decides to go for a long training ride: 150km later, she returns home. Her long distance training and riding ability really is starting to return strongly, she completed the ride in just 5hrs06minutes, at an average speed of 30km/h! Checking Strava, she also just got second on the all-time women’s leaderboard for the best time for 10 laps of Richmond Park! The only lady ahead of her is listed as an Elite ex-pro cyclist.

19 May: Our first ‘learning’ moment with Trhas: She was due to catch a train to Banbury (Oxfordshire) for a road race there this morning, and we took a chance that she could manage this on her own, and then meet a friend at the station to get to the race. Not thinking through the complexities of British rail ticket machines, this did not go well, and Trhas missed the race. Very important lesson learnt for all on #TeamTrhas – don’t make assumptions… We move on!

17 May: Cycling Weekly have published their big piece on Trhas on their website today (written by Adam Becket) and you can re-read the story HERE if you’d like to see it again!

14 May: After the highly positive experience of the Rapha Lincoln GP at the weekend, Trhas returned to racing at the Miche West Thames Racing league, in Hillingdon (West London). We are very happy to share that her fitness is clearly improving and after another hard race, she took her first ever podium – taking second in the race: Her smile really sums up her happiness! The large box of cherry & almond CNP Protein Flapjacks she won will be put to good use for sure…

12 May: Well wow. Just wow. At 0900 the women’s race started. For whatever reason, Trhas started the race from the very back of a c.120 rider start. This did not bode well, with many of our contacts saying positioning ahead of the gruelling iconic ‘Michaelgate’ climb. However, our source on the course called us to say that by the end of lap one, Trhas had moved up 60-70 places and was travelling very well. What followed was beyond our wildest hopes and dreams. Trhas joined the lead group and stayed with them comfortably for 6 or so laps, at a gruelling pace. At this point her lack of racing fitness started to kick in and she dropped back, with several others, to a chase group with which she stayed for several laps. As the DNF count hit over 40 of the original field, we were overjoyed when Trhas came over the finish line with a group of some top female riders, coming in #57 overall. Talking to Trhas after the event, she said:

“I like longer races like the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, but it was very hard because I didn’t recently do any long intervals, and I have been out of big races for a long time, but hopefully I will be back to my real performance step by step!”

This achievement cannot be under-stated with the lack of preparation she has truly had. This shows her potential and many involved in the #TeamTrhas project have received calls and messages praising her performance and asking about her. Well done TT! A full race report is available on The British Continental website HERE and thanks to Dave Dodge Photography for the great images of Trhas racing.

11 May: Trhas travelled today from London to Lincoln by the team mechanic of the DAS-Hutchinson-Brother race team, to get prepared for Sunday’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix. This race is probably one of the most high profile races in the UK, and the majority of female riders will be on professional teams, and Elite/1/2 category riders. Trhas is looking forward to the race, and understands it will probably be the toughest race of her career to date. She went on a course recon with Charlotte Hodgkins Byrne to get to know this iconic street circuit. Good luck tomorrow Trhas!

9 May: Very exciting day today on the PR side of the #TeamTrhas project! We have been working closely with the brilliant editorial team at Cycling Weekly, the world’s oldest cycling publication, to share Trhas’ story and latest updates, and we are incredibly proud to see her have her own double-page spread in the magazine today! The piece features quotes from Trhas, her mentor/coach Alice Lethbridge, our CEO Kimberly Coats and a picture of Trhas recently meeting the President of The Pedal Club (see 24 April below). She is so happy that our friends at Zwift, Vittoria, the UCI World Cycling Centre, the DAS-Hutchinson-Brother race team, Personal Bike Fit, Kingston Wheelers CC and many more are helping her! Great to see Kingston Wheelers CC (KWCC) also get some extra kudos today from none other than British Cycling, in their Member Newsletter, for their support of Trhas as well (and a shout out to our blog!)

7 May: Trhas was out racing again at the Hillingon Circuit tonight. At 50kg, this is not really her sweet-spot when it comes to bike racing, but the skills, fitness, experience and being part of the UK women’s racing scene are all hugely adding to her abilities and motivation. Photographer Nate Rawsthorne took some great images in the evening sunshine as the ladies set a relentless pace, here are some good ones:

4 May: Today was a special day emotionally for Trhas, when she went to collect her UCI WCC Scott bike from the secure location where it lives, there was a package waiting for her from British Cycling. She opened it with happiness, to find inside all the details of her membership and her official race licence! These moments of being part of something, being accepted, for a young woman still seeking asylum and without the ability to plan any kind of future, are golden. We hope you can see the true joy in her smile!

30 April: Well what a difference proper training, riding, and nutrition can make. Trhas took part in her second outing in the Miche West Thames League Series at the Hillingdon Circuit in West London, and raced hard, attacking several times, tried to enthuse the peloton to chase a lone breakaway, and ended up sprinting with three others off the front and took 4th place! From last to fourth in a week. Her motivation and energy levels are truly much much higher than before, and she is enjoying the challenges that the shorter circuit races bring: “I have long power so this race is hard for me, I need short power! Next week, maybe podium.” We truly love her resolve and focus. We move onto her first appearance in the Hub Velo and 6AM Cycling Spring Crit Series, this Saturday at Redbridge Cycling Centre, East London.

29 April: Trhas has been down to Zwift HQ in London today for an absolutely monster training session, bashing out 107km in just shy of 4 hours on the machine, with over 1600m of climbing – the ‘Mega Pretzel’ as it is called. We are so impressed with her dedication to getting back to form…

27 April: So here we are, the big unveil! We are happy to share that the UCI have agreed Trhas can train in their World Cycling Centre Team colours across 2024 again, after her time with the team back in 2020. They have gone one step further and kindly supplied Trhas with a beautiful Scott Addict race bike, fully loaded with Shimano-Road#Di2, LOOK Cycle pedals, Vittoria tyres (and our long-term friends at Vittoria also upgraded them to the new Corsa Pro Graphene tyres!) as well as full WCC Team kit, helmet, glasses, shoes and spare wheels!

We are so happy for her! She then headed to our friend Spencer at Personal Bikefit for a fitting to get her position and shoes dialled-in, ahead of training and racing over the coming weeks. Many thanks indeed to everyone involved in this project so far, the cycling world has been simply fantastic. Lots more to come as she gets her legs and lungs back up to race pace!

24 April: Today was another ground-breaking moment in Trhas’ story. She was invited as a special guest to attend the members’ lunch of The Pedal Club. The Pedal Club was founded in 1941 in the UK by a group of cycling journalists and officials, wishing to meet and exchange diverse views. This wish resulted in the creation of a lively member monthly lunch. The objective, which still remains, is to meet informally to discuss cycling topics and for prominent public people and others to address The Club. The members were truly welcoming and moved by Trhas’ story. The other special guest for the lunch was none other than Jon Dutton, CEO of British Cycling, who was celebrating his one year anniversary in his role. Trhas was in esteemed company indeed. The members kindly held a collection to go towards Trhas’ fund and over £800 was raised! Trhas also received a Pedal Club race jersey, a rare and to be treasured gift, and a bag of high quality racing clothing was also donated to be given to a suitable Africa Rising project by one of the members. We truly thank all members of this group for their kindness, support and interest in her story. Trhas’ mentor Alice Lethbridge has also been a honourable guest at their members’ lunch, cycling truly is a small but hugely inclusive community.

23 April: Today was a big day: Tonight Trhas will take part in her first race here on British soil, a round of the Miche West Thames League circuit racing, organised by West Drayton MBC. She will be attending with her mentor Alice and we wish her safe passage and success as she gets back into competitive cycling. Our good friend Keith McRae (see below) will be attending the event also, and is kindly supplying her with some gels, bars and energy mix. Thank you Keith! Trhas was comfortable in the race and stayed with the group well until the last lap, when a big attack went and she didn’t have the energy to go again but finished the race. After seven months with no races, poor nutrition and not much competitive training, she has a way to go but was extremely happy and motivated to be back at a race!

22 April: We are most excited to hear from the leadership team at the Kingston Wheelers CC (KWCC) club (London, England), who have kindly agreed to grant Trhas membership of their illustrious club! KWCC are celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2024, one of the UK’s most well-known club groups, with many members. Trhas will race some of her forthcoming races on the KWCC club team.

21 April: Trhas attended the ‘Dave Peck Women’s Road Race’ in Virginia Water today, to watch and understand the type of racing available here in the UK, ahead of her debut racing there this week. This race is run by Twickenham CC, in memory of their former club chairman. At the race, Trhas met Simon Howes, the Team Principal of the DAS-hutchinson-Brother UK women’s continental cycling team, who recently kindly helped secure Trhas’ current road bike and equipment earlier in the year.

Trhas also met Alice Lethbridge who has now agreed to mentor her and they will begin racing together from this week. We are most excited to have Alice as part of Trhas’ support team in the UK. Alice is a hardcore cyclist with many records and achievements, including breaking – and subsequently extending – the 12-hour time trial record, formerly held by the legendary Beryl Burton and a record that had stood for 50 years! We hope she will help Trhas become the top cyclist of which she dreams of becoming.

20 April: After a great discussion with our long-term friend Keith McRae, the Head Sports Director of Team Global 6 United, last night, he introduces us to a very experienced UK female rider who is based near to Trhas’s hostel, and agrees to train with her, and take her to several races over the coming months. Trhas truly is now looking like having the support structure around her to train and develop properly! We cannot overstate how amazing the cycling community is being! More soon…

18 April: Our European representative heads to Switzerland for the day to meet with senior UCI officials at the World Cycling Centre to discuss Trhas’ situation, possible opportunities and help with equipment. All goes very well and significant plans are discussed and agreed. All to be revealed soon….

18 April: British Cycling contact us to confirm that Trhas’ race license has been approved. Due to her race history and results, she has been upgraded to a Category 3 license, allowing her to race any level in the UK. Plans are immediately put in place to identify and enter her in forthcoming races.

The BBC London piece also appears and is played all day across the BBC’s platforms. Full clip below:

16 April: The BBC London team head to Hammersmith to interview Trhas, as well as interviewing Team Africa Rising’s CEO (Kimberly Coats) for a major piece to be broadcast on 18 April, across their channels.

15 April: Andy Slaughter MP (Hammersmith, Labour) raises a question in the UK’s House of Commons about Trhas’ situation, and the poor food and conditions she is experiencing in the refugee hostel in which she is staying. The UK’s Home Secretary agrees to look into her case. You can watch the full question and answer HERE (go to 14:38:20)

12 April: We have been discussing Trhas’ situation with our long-term contacts at the UCI, in the World Cycling Centre team, with whom Trhas trained and raced successfully in 2020 in South Africa. They are open to discussing ways they can help, and happily supply her UCI race license details and additional information they have on file. We review her ProCyclingStats profile also, and verify this has all her historical race information. We hope to add some more results to this record in 2024…

10 April: Our UK representative opens discussions with British Cycling to discuss organising a race license for Trhas, to enable her to take part in competitions in the UK. Initial feedback is positive. We hope this will work out, as it will be a major step forward for her.

9 April: Zwift invite Trhas to visit their studio and get organised. We arrange her license and account, work with her to get her avatar how she would like it, and she tries a 40 minute FTP test for the first time. After 6 months of poor nutrition, inconsistent training, Trhas still bashes out a 3.8W/Kg session which all there feel is an excellent base level to work from. Getting her to pro level of 4.5-5.5W/Kg feels like it is eminently achievable with good training and, hopefully, racing soon. Kimberly (our CEO) is in touch with Kate Veronneau (Director of Women’s Strategy) on the project, and they are most pleased to be involved! (Update 18 April: Trhas has now completed three Zwift rides, is quickly getting to grips with the platform, and is really enjoying riding virtually.)

7 April: Journalists from various divisions of the BBC, and other media outlets globally, have been getting in touch with us due to the Guardian article. We set up an interview with BBC London, to meet Trhas, film her and talk about what she hopes will happen in the UK.

6 April: We get in touch with our brilliant friends at Zwift and they are keen to help Trhas get training and racing online. We agree that she can visit Zwift’s UK HQ during the week and use their cycling studio. This is hugely generous, and also gives Trhas access to fellow female riders to ride with at Zwift, and outside.

5 April: The public’s reaction to The Guardian piece has been overwhelming, and the crowdfunding account set up by WLW hits £3,500! This funding will be used to ensure Trhas has food, clothing, nutrition and for cycling related expenses. We have received many inbounds from enthusiastic folk offering help, funds and training buddies. Trhas also secures a Legal Aid lawyer from the law firm Wilson’s from the piece, a vital part of her UK asylum process. Things are looking up!

4 April: Trhas has been interviewed in the last couple of days by Diane Taylor of The Guardian about her situation, her hopes and dreams. The interview is then published today. Full article HERE

2 April: After discussions with Trhas about what she needs, we ordered a track pump, a mini-pump, tube repair kits, chain lube and tools, and a pile of inner tubes for her training bike, from our friends Park Tool and Vittoria respectively (via Madison, their UK distributor) to keep her training and riding going well. We start to reach out to our connections in cycling to see how we can help her. The team at the Ford RideLondon event have already kindly offered a free place in the Ford RideLondon-Essex 100, taking place on 26 May. This is one of the UK’s/London’s biggest cycling events, seeing many thousands of riders take on a car-free 100-mile route.

27 March 2024: Our Team Africa Rising (TAR) representative in Europe is contacted by a connection in the cycling industry, with whom the brilliant team at the West London Welcome (WLW) – a refugee centre in the west of London – had been in touch to try and secure some cycling equipment. Trhas had been coming to their centre for a few months and by chance someone who spoke Tigrinya had worked out that she was a cyclist, and on further discussion, found out she was the reigning national women’s road race, and ITT champion of Ethiopia! She has been working and training almost every day.

Previous to this, WLW had recently launched an (ongoing) fundraising campaign on localgiving with multiple donors, allowing them to purchase the Tifosi bicycle (and further equipment) which appears in the pictures above. The brilliant Spencer Wilson (Founder of the Personal Bike Fit store in Kensington) kindly fitted Trhas to this bike for free to enable her to train properly.