'She could win the Tour de France one day' - Tsige Kahsay Kiros animates junior women's road race in hunt for rainbow jersey at Rwanda Worlds

Seventh place for Tsige Kahsay Kiros in the junior women's road race at the historic 2025 UCI Road World Championships on Saturday saw her simultaneously both crack the top ten for Ethiopia - and claim a breakthrough result for herself.

Born in Adigudem, the 18-year-old animated the opening laps of the 74km event, and not even a mid-race crash could hold her back as she powered up the final climb, Côte de Kimihurura, closing the gap to five riders who had split off the front, right at the finish line.

"We are not surprised at all. We knew there was something there. We didn't want to put too much pressure on her. She already puts a lot of pressure on herself. We knew there was something," Kiros' coach Clint Trevino Hendricks told Cyclingnews, noting that she came into these Worlds as one of the favourites in the junior category.

Hendricks is the sporting coach for the World Cycling Centre (WCC), which supports athletes worldwide. He explained that Kiros' all-round talent was discovered last year by a mechanic through the Ethiopian Cycling Federation.

"We discovered her last year through a local mechanic, and they are in Mekelle [capital of the Tigray region in Ethiopia - Ed.]. We spoke with him and the Ethiopian national federation, asking if they had any talented riders that they thought would be good. They recommended her."

Kiros was then invited to join the development programme at the WCC Continental Satellite in Paarl, about 60 kilometres northeast of Cape Town in South Africa.

"We did some testing and training there and brought her onto the programme for this year," Hendricks said.

Once officially signed with the WCC programming, Kiros spent some time previewing the road race course in Kigali, and then travelled to Brittany, France, where she had been living and training full-time for the 2025 season.

"We brought them here [Kigali] in February for a small training camp, did some bike fits, and then we went across to Brittany in April, where we did more of our racing. She has been living and racing there for this whole year, " Hendricks said.

Earlier in the year, she won four of the five stages and the overall title at the Tour Tigrai Women Stage Race in Ethiopia in March. She also won the junior women's road race title in June. In France, Kiros was the youngest rider to compete in the 2025 edition of the Tour de l’Avenir, where she finished 22nd in the overall classification.

"We had a chat before we started [Worlds]. She did the Tour de l'Avenir and did very well, but I think there are some small things that she can improve on," Hendricks said.

In the junior women's road race, which was held across five laps of a challenging city circuit that included a climb over the Côte de Kigali Golf and the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura, it was clear that Kiros was in contention for the world title from the beginning. She often led the field on the cobbled ascent during the opening laps, whittling down the field to a small selection.

"From today, the plan was to wait for the last lap, but I think she got excited for the crowds and the environment here, shouting and cheering. In the car, we had to phone the soigneurs in the feedzone to tell her to calm down," Hendricks said.

Five riders split off the front: Spain's Paula Ostiz, Italy's Chantal Pegolo and Giada Silo, Switzerland's Anja Grossman and Canada's Sidney Swierenga. But Kiros did not give up powering over the top of the climb and onto the smoother tarmac, closing the gap to the five leaders right at the finish line to finish seventh.

"She came very close, and there is definitely a lot of power there. She learns at her first World Championships," Hendricks said.

"Any top 10 for us would have been a good result, but once you see the race, we knew she could do something special."

Asked if Kiros would remain with the WCC team in 2026 or if she might graduate to ProTeam or WorldTeam, of which many have development programmes, Hendricks said he could not reveal those details.

However, he is sure that she will progress to the highest level of professional cycling teams and races in the very near future.

"Really bright, really bright. I told her, just now, that it's OK, we will learn from this, and a top 10 is still a good result. It is impressive. She will win the Tour de France Femmes one day."

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