Daniel Teklehaimanot

Daniel Teklehaimanot
ዳንኤል ተክለሃይማኖት
	Teklehaimanot at the 2015 Tour de France
Personal information
Full name	Daniel Teklehaimanot Girmazion
Born	10 November 1988 (age 35); Geza Lamza, Eritrea
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	71 kg (157 lb)
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Breakaway specialist
Amateur team
2009–2011	World Cycling Centre
Professional teams
2008	Amore & Vita–McDonald's (stagiaire)
2010	Cervélo TestTeam (stagiaire)
2012–2013	GreenEDGE
2014–2017	MTN–Qhubeka
2018	Cofidis
Major wins
	One-day races and ClassicsNational Road Race Championships; (2008, 2012, 2016)National Time Trial Championships; (2011–2012, 2015–2016, 2018)
Medal record
Men's road cycling
Representing Eritrea
CAC Road African Championships

Daniel Teklehaimanot Girmazion (Tigrinya: ዳንኤል ተክለሃይማኖት ግርማጽዮን, Tigrinya pronunciation: [tɐklɐhaymanot]; born 10 November 1988)^[3] is a professional road racing cyclist from Eritrea,^[4] who last rode for UCI Professional Continental team Cofidis.^[5]

Career

Daniel was a member of the UCI's World Cycling Centre training program before signing for the new Australian cycling team GreenEDGE in 2012.^[6] Whilst at the World Cycling Centre he was diagnosed with tachycardia, which was corrected by surgery in early 2009. He returned to riding in May of that year and went on to finish sixth overall in that year's Tour de l'Avenir.^[7] In 2010 he rode as a trainee for Cervélo TestTeam. The same year, he won the African Championships in the road race, individual time trial and team time trial, at both senior and under-23 levels. On the 2010–11 UCI Africa Tour, he won the Tour du Rwanda and the Kwita Izina Cycling Tour.^[8]

He participated in the 2012 Summer Olympics being the first Eritrean competing in a sport other than athletics; he finished the road race in the 73rd position. In 2012, he became the first Eritrean to ride in the Vuelta a España, one of the 3 grand tours; he finished the race 146th overall.

MTN–Qhubeka (2014–17)

Daniel joined MTN–Qhubeka for the 2014 season, on a two-year contract.^[1] In 2015, at the Critérium du Dauphiné, he won the first World Tour jersey in MTN–Qhubeka's history by taking the mountains competition.^[9] He was named in the start list for the 2015 Tour de France.^[10] In July of the year, Daniel also became the first rider from an African team to wear the polka dot jersey at the Tour de France.^[11] In 2016, he again won the mountains classification at the Critérium du Dauphiné.^[12]

He was named in the start list for the 2017 Giro d'Italia where he briefly held the Mountains Classification jersey.^[13] His final race with Dimension Data was the 2017 Tour of Guangxi.^[14]