Sharjah, the third city of the United Arab Emirates, hosted the new beginning of Girmay. We are not referring to Biniam, who is about to make his seasonal debut with the new NSN Cycling Team jersey, but to his little brother Mewael, 20 years old, in his third year in the Continental category.

A sprinter like "Bini", the young Eritrean with the illustrious surname left the climatic rigor of Belgium (having recently suffered a hypothermia episode) to explore new horizons in Istanbul, certainly encouraged to transfer by the presence of compatriots among the ranks of the ambitious Turkish team.

The two years spent in the youth system were marked by the serious injury that in 2024 forced the then 18-year-old Wanty Re-uz rider to go under the knife, following a crash during the Gp Vermarc in March of that year. Among the skyscrapers of the third Emirati city, on the eve of the first of five stages of the Sharjah Tour, Mewael (31st at the Wheat Farm finish line and 81st at Kalba Souq Al Jubail in the first two stages) posted on Instagram a video of the reconnaissance carried out with his teammates, four out of six being Eritrean.

Indeed, alongside Czech Tomasz Barta and Turk Yunus Emre Yilmaz, the roster includes Girmay, another young sprinter like the 22-year-old Aman Awet, and experienced riders Natnael Behrane (ex Cofidis), 35, and Metkel Eyob, 29. The latter two are tasked with mentoring the fast men from Asmara.

In the land that launched Daniel Teklehaimanot (first and only African in the polka dot jersey at the Tour de France), there's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to muscle fibers and cyclist types, though when an authentic beacon for the entire continent is involved - the GIRMAY in capital letters - the spotlight inevitably falls on sprint specialists.

There's Awet, whose enviable hair abundance recalls that of Tesfatsion, who was second in a stage of the 2025 Tour du Rwanda while defending the colors of the World Cycling Center. And then there's the promising Milkias Maekele, who joined Ineos Devo with the daunting comparison to those who wore the green jersey at the Grande Boucle, on the podium in Nice.

Mewael Girmay, 1.86m tall and weighing 71kg, finished last season on the podium of the African U23 time trial championships, having placed third overall in the national time trial behind winner Ghebreigzabhier and Henok Mulubrhan.

The overview of emerging riders from the African leading nation would be incomplete without mentioning Nahom Zeray, a climber who remained with the Japanese Ukyo team (with an Italian soul), who won a stage of the Tour du Rwanda wearing the Eritrean national jersey, not to mention his victory by a significant margin in the Land of the Rising Sun, on Mount Fuji.

However, being Italians, we understand nepotism (in cycling, brotherhood has a positive hereditary trait), so let's clarify: "Mewael had the fast track opened by his brother" the Wanty managers acknowledged in the not-so-distant past. Yet the boy knows how to do it, he started late, and is primarily driven by the example of Biniam and his 33-year-old cousin Meron Teshome Hagos, who as recently as June 2025 came second in the Eritrean championship behind Zeray. We dare not imagine what they discuss at family dinners. Cycling, perhaps?