How Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto Generation is guiding Africa's biggest talent

Lucas Abad

Editor's note: As Iain Treloar has reported, Canyon-SRAM sponsor Zondacrypto has effectively collapsed__. However, the Canyon-SRAM organization says it has an "ongoing contractual relationship" with Zondacrypto and still uses the sponsor name and logo. This interview pre-dated the most recent news of the sponsor's collapse, and because the team is still using the full three-sponsor name, we use it in copy here. We'll use updated names going forward as more concrete information emerges.__

Few development teams have a heritage as rich as Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto Generation in creating opportunities for women from around the world to compete at the highest levels of professional cycling in Europe. However, for 2026, the German Continental team, which is a feeder squad for the WorldTour team of the same name, has changed its international approach to focus on specific riders over sheer quantity.

In previous years, the squad of 10 or 11 riders often contained four or five hopefuls from Africa, Asia or Central and South America. In 2026, the number of riders from outside of Europe or Australia has shrunk to just two, with the entirety of last year’s international riders let go and replaced by fresh talents in Ethiopian Tsige Kahsay Kiros and Eritrean national champion Monaliza Araya Chneslasie.

Kiros caught the eye of keen viewers of the World Championships in Kigali last year, where she claimed 7th place in the junior women’s road race following an attacking performance. Kiros was also the only junior rider to participate in the now-discontinued Tour de l’Avenir Femmes in 2025, finishing in 22nd place. The 19-year-old is viewed as Africa’s brightest talent and has signed a three-year deal with the Generation team, which comes to an end in 2028.

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22-year-old Chneslasie is a lesser-known quantity, but is said to be an ambitious and versatile prospect. As a product of Asmara’s blazing criterium scene, the two-time Eritrean champion is seeking to become the first Eritrean woman to infiltrate the upper echelons of the professional peloton.

It’s a fresh start for the Generation squad’s international roster, which last year featured a quintet of riders from Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Rwanda and Nigeria who had shown flashes of talent in Europe, but were not able to push further than that. One of the team’s missions has been to create opportunities for riders who have little access to European racing, but in building the squad for this year, team manager Gosia Jasinska wanted to select riders with the ambition and talent to progress.

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