Portrait
Hagos Welay Berhe
Published on June 12th 2022
Less than 3 years ago, Hagos Welay Berhe left Ethiopia for the first time to go to the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland, he did not speak a word of English. Today, he speaks English well and, while a terrible war is taking place in his home region, he has stayed in Europe for almost 2 years. His journey has not been easy and some issues are still unresolved, but he was finally able to participate in his first races in Europe this year. He rides for EF Education-NIPPO Development team, he is a very promising climber and we should see what he can do in the high mountains for the first time early July.
We talked with Hagos Welay Berhe as well as Marcello Albasini, the manager of the EF Education-NIPPO Development team, and had already interviewed Richard Wooles, former coach at the World Cycling Centre, in 2020. Through those testimonies, we are presenting you in this article the journey of Hagos.
Photos : Corbier Tourisme (top), Istrian Spring Trophy - Mario Stiehl (middle), EF Education NIPPO Development (left and right)
The beginnings
Hagos Welay Berhe was born on 22 August 2001 in Ethiopia. He is from Dogu'a Tembien (Upper Tembien) district, which is in the region of Tigray. Tigray is a 5 million inhabitants mountainous and high-altitude region located in northern Ethiopia (see the maps below). Unlike in the rest of the country, cycling is well developed in Tigray, because of the geographical and cultural proximity with Eritrea - where cycling has been one of the main sports for long. We had published a long article about cycling in Ethiopia in October 2020. Unfortunately, a war is going on in Tigray since November 2020. That war was unleashed by the former political party Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) against the Ethiopian government, following a political conflict. Tigrean people suffered a lot since the beginning of the war, as electricity and all communication got shut down, there have been airstrikes and Ethiopian government and its allies have also willfully destroyed buildings and factories in order to weaken Tigray's economy. A huge proportion of people have suffered from famine and a deep humanitarian crisis has developed. Since the beginning of 2022, the conflict decreased in intensity and there is currently a ceasefire. Nevertheless, the war isn't over yet; and even if it was, it would take years for the region to recover and decades to come back to the pre-war level of development.
Hagos Welay Berhe is from a rural area in Dogu'a Tembien district. His family was "not so poor", relatively to the standard of a rural area in Ethiopia, a country that has faced starvation problems multiple times in the past. In 2014, when he was 13, his parents divorced and he moved to Mekelle, the capital city of Tigray region. In Mekelle, he continued to go to school (he did secondary school, until 17 years old), and had also two jobs: he was cleaning shoes during the day and baking bread in the evening. He got his first bike in 2017, he rented it before buying one later when he had collected enough money. Watching the Tour de France on TV was a motivation, especially seeing Chris Froome winning multiple times. In Mekelle, he was training early in the morning, as the rest of his day was already very busy.
Hagos first important race in Mekelle was in 2018, he had no team at the start of that race but he finished in the Top5. This result in his first race allowed him to join one of the best clubs of Tigray, and in the following months he won a lot of races around Mekelle. He is a pure climber: today, he is 1m69 and weights between 57 and 59kg. In 2019, the African Continental Championships were held in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Considering his great results against the best local riders, he was one of the favorites for the Junior ITT (Individual Time Trial), "my coach had told me he was 100% sure I would win it". Hagos Welay did become African Junior ITT champion, beating Metkel Okbu (Eritrea) of 34 seconds on the 30km course. A few days later, Hagos got 4th in the Junior Road Race that was won by Rwandan sprinter Rnus Byiza Uhiriwe.
Hagos in Mekelle, where he does his first races
Getting to the World Cycling Centre
When Hagos Welay Berhe won the Junior Individual Time Trial at the 2019 African Continental Championships, he was invited by the World Cycling Centre to come to Aigle, Switzerland for a 3-months training course. The UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) is a structure that supports the globalization of cycling; one of its missions is to form young cyclists from small cycling countries. The main center is based in Aigle, Switzerland and welcomes many men and women from all around the world and all cycling disciplines. Many WorldTour riders have passed through the World Cycling Centre in the past, for example Chris Froome (born in Kenya), Arlenis Sierra or Tsgabu Grmay. In addition to the main center in Switzerland, the WCC has five satellites throughout the world (in South Africa, Korea, Japan, India, and Argentina) where they can detect and form even more riders.
Hagos arrived in Aigle in July 2019, it was his first trip outside of Ethiopia and he did not speak English. The only language he knew was Tigrinya, that uses a completely different alphabet from English. It was very hard for him to communicate with his coach, "there was some very difficult moments, I was trying to understand things with gestures and to learn some key words". Everything was new for him, dealing with a temperature way colder than what he had ever experienced in Ethiopia was also difficult the first days. Together with the other riders, he was learning the basics of cycling, training and doing some small local races. However, he had to go back home earlier than expected: "I had a 3-months visa, but I had to leave after only one month. One of the Eritrean girls had fled (to seek asylum in Europe in order not to have to come back in Eritrea, which is one of the worst dictatorships in the world) and if it had happened a second time, they would have had problems. I was also still underage so they were legally responsible of myself, which made it even more difficult." At least all the Juniors from Eritrea and Ethiopia had to left the center. "I had to left immediately, I did not understand and was very disappoint. We had a race plan for the next day and suddenly we had to leave straight away. They told me that if I continue to work hard I could come back. It was very hard but I never give up." He couldn't ride the GP Rüebliland Juniors late August, but the World Cycling Centre staff had noticed his potential and didn't want this incident to compromise his early career. Later in the year, Hagos went to the satellite of the World Cycling Centre in Paarl, South Africa to train and race, and he was back to Aigle, Switzerland in 2020.
His return to Aigle was postponed because of COVID pandemic, but he was very happy to be back in July 2020. He was in his first U23 year and had been selected to be in the U23 team of the World Cycling Centre that should have spent the whole year in Europe and done many good races (U23 races, but also UCI .2 and amateur races). His coach was Canadian Richard Wooles who had told us about Hagos late 2020 in our article about Ethiopian cycling: "He is very light and really, really fast, we did tests here where World Tour riders had raced and he was faster than them." Indeed, on Strava Hagos had taken the KOM of the climb from Vionnaz to Revereulaz for almost one minute ahead the fastest riders of 2019 Tour de Romandie (Revereulaz was 5km to the finish in stage 4 of Tour de Romandie 2019). "He is very fast uphill and he can do it many times on training: 3 or 4 times the same climb. He is learning very good, he seems to be ambitious, for his training and recovery he’s very serious; but also he is always smiling, every day always smiling, always happy. When we were training while it was snowing, he was 'no problem, I just keep training' so he seems also very strong mentally. Before he couldn't understand when you asked him questions, but now he is learning English very fast. At the moment, he is studying English 2 hours a day, but he really only started to learn English 2 months ago when he came back for the second time. Before he hadn't learned" Unfortunately, Hagos didn't race in 2020, as all the races planned for the WCC Team were cancelled because of COVID pandemic. "He has huge potential but we don't know if he can race yet, Richard Wooles had told us, in a bunch, with the stress... he's very young, he's 18." His main goals were supposed to be Tour de l'Avenir, Peace Race and U23 World Championships, they were all cancelled. Considering what Hagos Welay Berehe had shown on training, Richard Wooles believed he would have done a Top10 on the mountain time trial of Tour de l'Avenir; Richard also thought he would have done very well at the Worlds in Aigle - Martigny as he knew the roads, they were suiting his qualities and he "had gone many week-ends to train on the course".
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Switzerland in 2020, with his coach Richard Wooles on the right.
Tigray war
Late 2020, Hagos Berhe was supposed to go back home for the off-season, but that's when the war started in Tigray. "When I was supposed to come back home, we were feeling the war was about to start and then flights were blocked." The war officially started on 3rd November. "I couldn't return home, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to come back here, my career would have been finished; and even my life would have almost been finished if I had returned in Tigray." So, Hagos did stay a bit longer in Switzerland and, because the war didn't stop, he has stayed since then.
The World Cycling Centre had chosen to temporarily stop their U23 men team, because all its races were cancelled in 2020 due to COVID (the men team isn't back in 2022 yet, we really hope it will next year). As a consequence, Hagos had to find another team. Robbie Hunter - South African former pro cyclist, now rider agent and co-owner of ProTouchGlobal agency - was one of the people behind the creation of NIPPO-Provence-PTS Conti, a new Continental team based in Switzerland and linked with WorldTeam EF, via the Japanese sponsor NIPPO. Having talked with the WCC's staff, Robbie knew Hagos potential, so he got him a spot at NIPPO-Provence-PTS Conti. Another very promising Tigrean had been signed, Bizaye Tesfu Redae, one year younger than Hagos, but he couldn't come to Europe and the team completely lost contact with him since the start of the Tigray war. NIPPO-Provence-PTS Conti manager is Marcello Albasini, former coach of Swiss Cycling and WorldTour sport director, father of Michael. Marcello told us about Hagos: "He is a rider with very good physical values. He is also someone who has the will to work well, he has his goal and does everything to reach it. Unfortunately, his situation is so bad that it will be difficult for him to reach it. He is a very good person, so I will do everything I can to help him turn pro, that's my goal with him. He hasn't raced since the Juniors so he has a lot to learn, but he understands very fast. What is sure is that I will help him as much as possible." Hagos was lucky to be in Europe when the war started, but it was - and still is - very hard for him, as he didn't know what was happening for his family and friend, because internet and all communications were completely turned off in Tigray - and have remained off most of the time since then. "He has almost no contact with his family, Marcello Albasini confirms. One day he explained to my daughter: ‘but that’s okay, I found another family’, referring to my family. He spends a lot of time in my home, he calls my wife 'mama'." Four others cyclists from Tigray stayed in Europe since the beginning of the war: Tsgabu Grmay (Team BikeExchange-Jayco), Mulu Kinfe Hailemichael (former Delko, now with Filial Caja Rural-Alea), Negasi Haylu Abreha (Team Qhubeka) and Selam Amha Gerefiel (WCC Team). Tsgabu Grmay's wife and children managed to move to Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia which is outside of war zone, after some time, so Tsgabu have been able to renew contact and to visit them a few times. But others haven't seen their family since the start of the war, and rarely, if ever, managed to communicate with them. It's been - and it's still - very challenging for all of them, but as Hagos Welay Berhe did with Marcello Albasini's family, they all found what they now consider as their new family in Europe: for Negasi Haylu Abreha it's his team Qhubeka, for Mulu Kinfe Hailemichael his agent Egoi Martinez with whom he lives and for Selam Amha Gerefield the WCC team (the women team of the World Cycling Centre, which is registered as a Continental team). The Tigrean cyclists know each other, "we stayed in touch, Hagos explaines,but it was only basic discussion like 'hi, how are you? etc.' because it would have been useless to ask each other if we had news from home, we knew no one had, we were all in the same situation."
He was living in Switzerland, he had a team with a good racing program, but Hagos Welay Berhe didn't start any race in 2021 because of administrative issues. "My visa was finished, we thought it wouldn't be too hard but the procedures were way longer than what we expected. I was looking forward to race but I had to wait until this year." For the first part of the year, he was mainly living in the team house together with some of his teammates, the house was close to Albasini's one. Considering the war in his region was still raging on and his own situation wasn't improving, Hagos chose to ask for the refugee status in Switzerland in July 2021. "At that moment, he got out of our system and I couldn't do anything anymore, Marcello Albasini explains. Then, he got very lucky: he is in a refugee center next to my home, at 10km, so we reconnected." The procedure in Switzerland is that he now has to live in the refugee center most of the time. "Everything is paid for him there, but he is with others refugees who have no interest in sport, they have a different life. It's a difficult situation for Hagos, they are four living in the same room, it's complicate if some are smoking in the room... that's the refugee's situation. He often comes to my house for dinner, sometimes he sleeps at home, because the refugee center is not a good place to practice high-level sport in good condition, it's hard for him." Hagos hasn't received an answer about his refugee claim yet, the answer should come in the next weeks. "I know that considering what's happening in Tigray, he will be able to stay here for sure, Marcello explains. But what isn't yet defined yet is what status will he get. He can't get the Swiss nationality, but there are different types of permits (A, B, C...) which would allow him to stay longer."
This year, the team was renamed EF Education-NIPPO Development and officially became the development team of the WorldTeam EF Education-EasyPost. The growth of the Continental team was something very important for NIPPO, the Japanese sponsors of EF Education-EasyPost. However, from the outside, it doesn't really look like the WorldTeam considers its development team is so important: while it had been officially announced they would use the possibility to give opportunities to riders from the Continental team to do some .1 races with the WorldTeam - as every other team that has a development team does - it hasn't happened a single time since the start of the season. When asked about that possibility to have some riders from the development team racing with the main team, Marcello Albasini told us that "no decision was taken yet about it, maybe in the second part of the season but not for a while." Regarding Hagos, he was finally allowed to do races in Switzerland and even in the rest of Europe for some time. "First he could do races in Switzerland, Marcello Albasini says, and this year we tried to get a 30-days permit for him to be able to ride internationally. In the end, the Swiss administration made a mistake and gave him the permit to race in countries near to Switzerland from February to mid-July. Initially, Turkey was included because we should race there, but as he got COVID at that time I tried to extend the permit, and instead of the 30 days they gave until mid-July, so for us it was great. For now, it's great but for later we don't have a solution yet."
Winner of KOM jersey at Istrian Spring Trophy 2022, together with Marcello Albasini
Training camp in Barcelonette, French Alps - Photo : Felix Stehli
Finally the first races
After almost two years of wait, Hagos Welay Berhe was finally able to start his first real races in Europe in March 2022.
His first race was the Istrian Spring Trophy, a UCI 2.2 race in Croatia with a prologue and 3 hilly stages (2 flat finishes and one steep finish). The start list included 2 ProTeams (Bardiani CSF and Drone Hopper - Androni) as well as some very good Continental teams (Hagens Berman Axeon, Swiss Racing Academy, Jumbo Visma Development, Astana Qazaqstan Development, Tirol KTM, Colombia Tierra de Atletas, Hrinkow Advarics, Adria Mobil, Voster ATS...) "I was very happy and my team was as well. Before the race, I had a big crash while I was training in Croatia, but I could be back on the bike fast to be at the start of the race in good condition" Hagos told us. For a rider coming from Tigray, the first races in Europe can be very hard, there are many things they had never experienced in Ethiopia they face and have to adapt to, as Tsgabu Grmay had explained in our article about Ethiopian cycling. While Hagos Welay Berhe had had the time to adapt to the European weather conditions and technical descent already, racing in a big bunch with more than 170 other rider was something he had never experienced before. "Yes, it was very difficult, the peloton was big and it was my first ever experience racing that way. There was lot of big crashes in the peloton, but thankfully I could avoid them all. There was also a lot of technical descents with narrow roads and a lot of turns, that was very hard for me. I learnt a lot on how to race in the peloton and how to stay at the front." The hardest stage was the second one, with a steep finish in the village of Motovun (around 3.5km at 7%), the last hundreds meters were on a paved and very narrow road. Alex Baudin (Swiss Racing Academy) won the stage ahead of Martin López (Astana Qazaqstan Dev) and of Hagos's teammate Fabio Christen, as Matthew Riccitello (Hagens Berman Axeon) - who was part of the winning breakaway on stage one - took the yellow jersey. Hagos Welay Berhe crossed the line 55 seconds after Baudin, in 30th position, he couldn't help his teammate Fabio Christen or try to get a better result for himself because of an incident at the bottom of the climb: "at 3km to go, a Jumbo rider was leading out his teammate and he suddenly stopped just in front of me, touching my front wheel and crashing. I managed to stay on my bike, but my chain had gone down, so I lost some time." The last day, Hagos went in a breakaway and got the points of the last climb; as he had already taken some points during stage two, he won the King Of Mountain jersey.
Marcello Albasini encourages Hagos Welay Berhe at the prologue - Photo : Istrian Spring Trophy
Then, Hagos did the Grand Prix Crevoisier, a non-UCI one-day race in Switzerland, and he took the win. He explains how the race went: "Attacks didn't stop during the whole race, no break managed to go clear. At 30 kilometers to go I attacked with 3 others riders and we managed to get a few seconds. We pulled all together to increase the gap. In the final, I attacked many times and finally managed to drop them to win." By winning that race, Hagos Welay was also taking the leader jersey of the Swiss national elite racing series. One week later, he got 6th at the Grand Prix L'Echappée, keeping that leader jersey.
Victoiry at Grand Prix Crevoisier - Photo : Jonathan Vallat
In April, Hagos did his first UCI 2.1 race, the Giro di Sicilia. 18 teams raced those 4 days in Sicilia, including Trek-Segafredo, Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, Astana Qazaqstan Team, Italy national team (lead by Damiano Caruso), Drone Hopper-Androni, Bardiani CSF Faizanè, EOLO-Kometa and Human Powered Health. Hagos Welay Berhe was very pleased to be able to race against some very strong riders like Nibali, Caruso or Pozzovivo, he was looking forward to the last stage with a finish at the top of Etna. The plan for him was to try to follow the best riders as long as possible every day. After a first flat stage, the second day was a hilly stage; Hagos was in the reduced bunch when he got caught in a crash with 6 kilometers to go. "There was a crash in front of me in the peloton and I couldn't do anything. I had to change my bike and I lost a lot of time." Stage 3 wasn't as hard as stage 2, but the wind was strong, causing echelons in the final. With 10km to go, Italy national team attacked and the crosswind made the peloton blow up. Hagos Welay was in a second peloton; he took a lot of long turns in the slightly uphill final and was one of the few riders that managed to do the jump to the first peloton 3 kilometers before the finish. He crossed the line in the 36-riders peloton behind the solo winner - from the early break - Fran Miholjevic. "It was very hard in the crosswinds, he relates, when the WorldTeams are pulling in the front you can't follow. The WorldTeams and ProTeams are in front and the Continental Teams are behind." Colombian rider Edgar Andres Pinzon (from Colombia Tierra de Atletas, who finished 8th overall) had already explained in an interview for Cyclisme Actualités that he sometimes got told that he shouldn't be in front of the peloton during that Giro di Sicilia; Hagos confirmed us the same thing about that crosswinds stage: "Yes, it was the WorldTeams and ProTeams in front and the Continental Teams behind. When I was trying to be at the front and to follow riders, for example from Trek Bardiani or Eolo, I got told 'don't go to the front, go back at the back with the Continental teams'." The final stage would have been a good opportunity to see what Hagos could do in a hard mountain finish, but bad luck prevented him from showing his abilities: as he was in the reduced bunch in the last small descent before the start of Etna climb, he had a front wheel puncture that made him crash: "I punctured my front wheel in that descent, I couldn't do anything, I lost the control and crashed in a corner." He managed to come back to the back of the peloton after a few kilometers, but got dropped pretty fast, as he was suffering from his crash. He finished the stage 46th, 16 minutes after Damiano Caruso. We asked Hagos what feeling he was left with after that big race, between happiness to have had a first experience at that level and disappointment to have missed the opportunity to express his climbing skills because of bad luck: "It was a good experience, I was clearly not disappointed. It's cycling, sometimes you crash, sometimes you win; I never give up. I told myself 'Okay, maybe it's not my day, but I will continue to work and understand my mistakes to not repeat them'."
Early May, Hagos raced the GP Vorarlberg, a one-day hilly race in Austria. It's not an UCI race, but the start list was as good as it could have been if it was a 1.2 UCI race. It was won solo by Johannes Staune-Mittet (Jumbo-Visma Development) ahead of Matevz Govekar (Tirol KTM, who joined Bahrain Victorious a few weeks later) and Daniel Turek (Felbermayr Simplon Wels). Hagos Welay Berhe was in the small group that sprinted for second place, he got 6th on the line.
The following week, Hagos was 94th of the Flèche Ardennaise that was won by Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ Conti), it was his first race in Belgium. "Around the middle of the race, there was a crash in front of me, I braked and my back wheel was hit. Luckily I did not fall, but I had a mechanical problem. Then, I was very tired, I got dropped and finished solo. But it was a very nice race."
Then, he got 4th at two others races in Switzerland (GP de la Pédale Romande and GP Cham-Hagendorn), taking back the leader jersey of the national elite racing series that he had lost after missing 2 races.
Late May, he did the Tour de la Mirabelle, a UCI 2.2 race in the northeast of France that was won by Rob Scott (WiV SunGod). Hagos tried to attack in different hills, the last day he managed to escape together with Clément Braz Afonso, but they were caught in the final. The route wasn't hard enough to make differences, so that's the times of the prologue that set the GC for the riders that had finished in the front group every day; Hagos Berhe was 24th.
At the start of Tour de la Mirabelle with Yugi Tsuda (left) and Ethan Villaneda (right) - Photo : Hervé Dancerelle / DirectVelo
A few days ago, on June 6th, Hagos did Paris - Troyes, a mostly flat 1.2 French race with 13 Continental teams - including Groupama-FDJ Conti, U Nantes Atlantique and WiV Sun God - as well as some of the best French amateur teams. After a very fast start, 29 strong riders including Hagos were in front, but Hagos got dropped in the second part of the race and finished in the peloton, as Rob Scott (WiV Sun God) won the race. "I was sick but I did my best" he told us.
Four days later, EF Education NIPPO Development was racing the GP Kanton Aargau, a 1.1 hilly race in Switzerland two days before the start of Tour de Suisse, with 10 WorldTeams at the start. Hagos hadn't recover from his sickness yet, he finished 57th, 10 minutes behind the winner Marc Hirschi. "I'm still feeling unwell due to sickness, but I hope I will recover soon." He did not participate in the Swiss national elite race the following day.
In the wheel of Enzo Paleni during Paris Troyes - Photo : Alexis Dancerelle / DirectVelo
What's next?
Hagos isn't at the start of the Baby Giro (Giro d'Italia Giovani Under 23) because EF Education-NIPPO Development hasn't been invited. He will have two big goals early July: the Sibiu Tour in Romania and the Giro Valle d'Aosta U23 in Italy. Sibiu Tour has some nice stages for climbers with the famous finish at Bâlea Lac climb and a mountain ITT. This year, the start list will be the best ever with 6 WorldTeams (Jumbo-Visma, BORA - Hansgrohe, Astana Qazaqstan, Cofidis, Lotto Soudal and Israel - Premier Tech). The Giro Valle d'Aosta U23 is one of the hardest U23 stage races and almost all the best U23 teams will be there. "Those are two races that should suit Hagos well" Marcello Albasini tells. As he had crashed in Sicilia just before Etna, those races should be the first time Hagos can show what he is capable of in high mountain. He will be a protected rider in his team and could get some good results.
Then, he has to wait to know what permit he will get from his refugee claim to be able to plan the rest of the season. The Tour de l'Avenir would probably have been one of his main goals if he can go to France, as the World Cycling Centre usually sends a team with riders from small nations that can't participate with their national team. However, it looks like there might not be a WCC team at the Tour de l'Avenir this year, as Marcello Albasini told us: "Unfortunately, the World Cycling Centre shouldn't do the Tour de l'Avenir this year. I have good contact with the WCC and I asked in advance to know if there is a possibility and they told me that at the moment it looks like they won't be able to participate. For Hagos it's a pity because the race would have suit him well."
As we already mentioned earlier, Hagos Welay Berhe is a climber; when asked which type of climb he prefers, he answers without hesitation that it's the hardest ones, "I prefer the long and steep climbs". About the others aspects of cycling, he told us he likes "the sprints in small groups and the mountainous TTs, but not the flat TTs, they are hard for me."
"My short-term goal is to get a World Tour contract, Hagos says, and later I would like to win a stage in the Tour de France." The early career of Hagos hasn't been easy, to say the least, but his potential is still there and if he doesn't have too many problems with his permit after the month of July and if he is able to show on the mountain races the same things he has been doing on training in the last years, seeing him at the highest level of the sport in the future really seems possible. Marcello Albasini and Robbie Hunter will do all they can to help him to make it to the World Tour.
Photo : EF Education NIPPO Development
We are looking forward to see what Hagos can do in July at Sibiu and Giro Valle d'Aosta, we do believe his results could be a good surprise for those who don't know his background. Then, we really hope that he will get a good permit to be able to focus 100% on the rest of his career. We hope Hagos Welay Berhe will be a WorldTour riders in the future, if he can achieve it, it would be well deserved after all what he had to go through. In addition to having great physical abilities, he really is a good person.
We also wish the best to EF Education - NIPPO Development Team, they built a really nice team with a mix between Japanese riders, Swiss riders, and some others young riders from different countries that are given a good chance. Hopefully, strongest links with EF Education-EasyPost can (really) be built to give more opportunities to the riders.
Of course, we can't forget to wish the best for the others Tigrean riders that are in Europe, Tsgabu Grmay, Mulu Kinfe Hailemichael, Negasi Haylu Abreha, Selam Amha Gerefield, as well as Eyeru Tesfoam Gebru who took another way. We also think about the people stuck in Tigray, cyclists and all others people, who are living some really hard times and we really hope the war can end as fast as possible. While cycling in Tigray was on the rise with many young riders that could have come in the next years, it now seems very unlikely that new riders could arrive in Europe in a near future. However, we must mention that Hailemelekot Hailu continues to do a great job in forming young boys and girls in Mekelle, giving them skills and hope despite war and famine. Hailemelekot work is incredible and we would love to see one day some of those young people having a career in Europe; but even if it never happens, what he teaches them will help them to build their lives once the war will be finished. To learn more about Ethiopian cyclists, we had made a big article before the Tigray war, and we gave a more detailed update in our article "80 cyclists to follow in 2022" (only available in French).
Thanks to Hagos Welay Berhe and Marcello Albasini for their participation!
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Update July 1st 2022: As his sickness was longer than expected, Hagos and his team chose it was better for him to miss Sibiu Tour in order to be ready for his main goal: Giro Valle d'Aosta.
Update July 15th 2022: Hagos got 7th overall at Giro Valle d'Aosta, after racing the last two stages without any teammate (they were all DNF or OTL); during the queen stage - the penultimate day - he was the only rider able to follow the Groupama-FDJ duo Thompson/Martinez for a while, before blowing up in the last climb.
Hagos has also got a Swiss permit that now allows him to live in a better environment. However, he couldn't get a new European visa on time to race the Tour d'Alsace, a French race that could have suit him well. But we recently got good news: the World Cycling Centre will finally have a team at the start of Tour de l'Avenir and Hagos will race it as the leader of that WCC Team.
Update September 5th 2022: Hagos had a difficult first week at the Tour de l'Avenir, with a first crash that got him out of GC, and a spectacular second on at the finish of the 6th stage in Oyonnax: while he was in the group of 19 riders sprinting for the win at the end of that first hilly stage, a rider crashed just in front of him a few meters before the finish line, making Hagos brutally crash as well while his bike was thrown away on the other side of the road taking down other riders. Following those crashes, the first mountain stage was of course hard for him, but on the second one he still managed to get a Top10 among the GC guys. A few days later, Hagos Welay Berhe did the Giro della Regione Friuli (2.2) with his team, an italian race including one mountain stage with a finish at the top of the famous Monte Zoncolan. Unfortunately, Hagos had once again some bad luck: he had a mecanial problem at the bottow of Zoncolan, while the race had already blown up and the pace was really high. He still got 12th on that stage, 1'20" behind Riccardo Lucca (and 13th overall); without the mecanial issue he would definitely have fight for the win.
Update September 23th 2022: Severall World Tour teams showed interest in Hagos thanks to his good results and impressive datas, team BikeExchange - Jayco has just annouced Hagos Welay Berhe has signed a 3 years contract with them.
Update June 10th 2023 : Hagos got injured during his first race of the year. He only came back to racing in GP Kanton Aargau, taking a 21st place. He is about to start his first ever WorldTour race: Tour de Suisse.
Tigray war came to an end in November 2022, allowing a return to normal life for the population, although the consequences of a two years war are huge. Hagos hasn't come back home yet, but a first Tigrayan cyclist did recently: Mulu Kinfe Hailemichael (Caja Rural).
Update August 22th 2023: It was planned for some time, but it is now official: Hagos Welay Berhe will be at the start of the upcoming La Vuelta, becoming the second Ethiopian rider ever to race a Grand Tour, after Tsgabu Grmay. As part of a Jayco team led by Eddie Dunbar for GC and having multiple good climbers and all-rounders, Hagos should be able to play his card if he manages to make it to a breakaway in a mountain stage. Indeed, while his recovery faculties on 3 weeks are still to be proven, he has shown a very good level since his debut in June. At the Tour de Suisse, he finished in the Top20 of the two hardest mountain stages. He was then ranked 18th overall, and finished 16th due to two withdrawals following the tragic death of Gino Mäder. Two days after the accident, in the stage won by Remco Evenepoel, Hagos stood out when he tried to follow Remco's attack, before blowing up. At the start of July, Hagos Welay Berhe did the Tour of Austria, and came close to a first pro win twice, taking two second place in medium mountain stages, beaten by the fast INEOS Ecuadorian Jhonatan Narváez. Having lost time during the first stage, Hagos only finished 6th overall. A few weeks later, he was 9th in the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, a mid-mountain race with flat finishes, where he was a very important teammate for sprinter-climber Felix Engelhardt, winner of the first stage and second overall. Berhe then raced San Sebastian (41st), before a training bloc in Swiss high mountains ahead of La Vuelta.
At Tour de Suisse - Photos : SprintCycling
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