The “Next Biniam Girmay” joins BIKE AID and debuts at Tour of Mersin

We are most excited to share the news that 19 year old Milkias Maekele has signed for Team BIKE AID as his first professional contract! Everything we are hearing out of Eritrea is that his numbers and ability mirror that of a young Biniam Girmay, so the African cycling world is buzzing with this news!

Milkias was born on 4 September 2005 in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. He first came to our attention in the hotly contested Eritrea National Cycling Championships. He raced the Men’s Junior Road Race & ITT, and came seventh and 11th respectively. A top ten, or thereabouts, in Eritrean cycling is a serious accolade and a lot of eyes began to watch him.

…and in early April 2025, Team BIKE AID beat all other competitors and secured Milkias’ signature.

BIKE AID are a UCI Continental Road Race Team and have one of the best – and longest – records of hiring and developing exciting young talent from Eritrea, and across Eastern Africa! They currently have Dawit Yemane and Yoel Habteab from Eritrea on on their books for 2025.

Milkias’ announcement was combined with the launch of BIKE AID’s #rideforasfrica project, a hugely exciting project to help junior African riders prepare for the World Championships in September in Africa. Each of their new jerseys (see photo of Milkias above) sold will contribute directly to this campaign! We are partnering with BIKE AID on this project, and will select three African juniors who will each receive a grant to help with their preparation. You can read more on this project – and order your jersey – HERE

Exclusive Interview With Milkias

We spoke with Milkias this weekend about his hopes and dreams, to learn more about this young rider:

“When I got the call to say BIKE AID were offering me a contract, I felt really good because it is not easy to get a contract with a European team. I hope to repay their faith in me with a stage win at the Tour of Mersin this week.”

We asked Milkias about the comparisons being made with Biniam Girmay when Bini was a similar age, and, what he is most proud of so far in his career:

“Yeah, many people have told me I might become a second Biniam! I am very happy about this, and it gives me so much motivation. My best result so far was in Algeria, where I was the winner of the Grand Prix Sakiat Sidi Youcef one day race. I was very happy with this win, and it has opened a lot of doors.”

Milkias went on to describes himself as a sprinter. But, he goes on to add that he is happy to survive a climb of about 2.3km. His real dream, not surprisingly, is to race the Tour de France. This most iconic event still truly does hold the mantle as the world’s most aspirational and elite cycling race.

BIKE AID announced Milkias today on their Instagram HERE, team manager Matthias Schnapka saying:

“Milkias comes from Eritrea – a cycling-crazy country full of passion and raw talent. His road into international cycling hasn’t been easy, but we believe in him. With our #rideforafrica campaign, we don’t just want to support athletes – we want to raise awareness and create real change with our community.”

You can discover more about Milkias’ pedigree and recent results on the ProCyclingStats website HERE. The result that brought the most attention, was his recent #2 in the U23 category of the Tour of Algeria. The next few years will show his capabilities. We hope to see some of this ,here at the Tour of Mersin.

Tour of Mersin 2025

We are excited to share that, from tomorrow, we will be reporting live from the UCI 2.2 Tour of Mersin race in Southern Turkey. We decided to attend this race as it will have the highest number, maybe ever, of African riders in a UCI race outside of Africa.

Looking at the start-list online on ProCyclingStats, there will be 18 African riders present, namely Eritrea (7 riders); Algeria (5 riders); South Africa (4 riders); and Ethiopia (1 rider). This might be the highest number of African riders in a UCI race ever in Europe (excluding Worlds of course), so we thought it vital that we attend and report live from the race.

We will also get to see Africa’s leading Continental Team (Madar Pro Cycling Team) in action for the first time which is most exciting!

Teams with an African Rider Presence

Alongside Madar as the only wholly African team ( 5 x Algeria, 2 x South Africa), this race features some of the brilliant teams who have been long-term supporters of African riders such as BIKE AID and Terengganu Cycling; as well as teams like X-Speed United, China Glory – Mentech Continental Cycling Team, and Istanbul Büyükșehir Belediye Spor Türkiye who have taken on African riders in recent years and seen the real benefits this brings to both their team, and to the individual riders themselves.

In a really positive sign for African cycling, the top four favourites for the race, according to PCS rankings are Stefan de Bod (SA/Terrengganu), Metkel Eyob (ERI/Terengganu), Milkias Maekele (ERI/BIKE AID) and Emile van Niekerk (SA/Madar Pro Cycling Team). We should mention Dawit Yemane (ERI/BIKE AID) in#10 place as he is a great racer, placing 15th in the overall GC at the recent Tour of Rwanda, as well as #4 place in the Grand Prix Syedra Ancient City (Turkey) on 6 April, with the race won by Stefan de Bod.

We will be posting interviews and race updates across all our social media as always so stay tuned…