The Vuelta a Espana was a race of high and lows for Merhawi Kudus. The 23-year-old finished second on stage five to Alcossebre, coming close to realising his dream of a Grand Tour win, only to crash out of the race two day's later.
The result of the crash was a fractured ankle that ended his fourth season with Dimension Data. Rather than dwell on the disappointment, Kudus has been buoyed by the result and with the support of his Eritrean compatriots, remains focused on his goal of winning a Grand Tour stage.
"My dream for the future is to win a stage in a Grand Tour and to win the overall classification of a race like Tour of Switzerland," Kudus said according to De Velo. "After finishing second in the Vuelta, I didn't turn my phone on until after dinner. When I turned it on, there were hundreds of messages on Whatsapp and Facebook. I tried to reply to all but after one hour I had to turn my phone off again. There were too many.
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"The support from Eritrean fans was amazing. Cycling is our number one sport and everyone uses cycling as transport too. There are a lot of local races on the weekends. Cycling is a big sport in the country. I feel some pressure to achieve something significant in cycling but most of that pressure comes from myself. I feel like my dream is for me and for African cycling. I would like to make an impact on the sport. This is my dream."
Kudus made his debut in the European peloton back in 2013 as a stagiaire with Bretagne-Séché Environnement, before inking a deal with MTN-Qhubeka from 2014. Growing up in Asmara, Kudus explained that while cycling is a popular sport in Eritrea, he was initially shocked by the size and support of the sport upon his arrival in Europe.
"I didn't realise how big the sport was. When I first got to Europe, it was a totally different world for me," he reflected. "The first time I went to Europe I visited Switzerland. It was February and it was snowing. I had never seen snow before. We went training in the mountains in the snow and it was a shock to my system.
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