Following the tragic death of talented young rider Desiette Kidane earlier this month, former teammates of the Eritrean national team have established a fund to raise money for her family. Kidane was struck and killed by a driver while training in Asmara, Eritrea, on November 15. Now, Elias Afewerki has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise €50,000.

Afewerki was a past Tour of Eritrea stage winner and was second in the 2017 national road race championships. He told Cyclingnews that he first met Kidane when he attended a national team gathering in 2018 and has kept in touch with her since.

"She was great actually," he said. 'I can't describe her in words. She was very dedicated and had big dreams. She was the bright future [of Eritrean cycling]. We should have let her race for another 10 years, compete at a high level, and join a professional team."

Asked about her character, Afewerki spoke of her in the present tense. "As a person, she is empathetic and very, very kind. She is very disciplined. She respects all training and followed all the programs of her coaches before coming to the UCI center.In 2018, she was the youngest on the national team. She won the African Continental Championships road race and time trial. That is what I remember now."

Afewerki lives in Sweden and competes for the team there. She last saw Kidane two years ago, but said that she and the other athletes on the national team kept in touch. He said he was stunned to hear the news of her passing.

"I didn't expect it. It happens in cycling sometimes. It happened with (former pro) Chris Anker Sorensen. But I didn't expect it to happen to her, even though it was a month before someone was hit by a car in her home country. Until then, I had never heard of anyone being hit by a car while practicing in Eritrea."

He contacted Kidane's family after her death and said he wanted to help them financially by launching a GoFundMe appeal.

"They were surprised," he said. 'But this is a huge loss for them. She has three siblings, but was the only girl in her family. She's very close to her mother and her brothers. So they accepted [the offer] 100 percent and told me to go ahead."

Kidane was a participant in the UCI's World Cycling Center program and showed considerable promise. As a junior, she won both the road race and time trial at the 2018 African Continental Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, and later that year finished 22nd in the road race and 28th in the time trial at the World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria.

The following year, he finished 11th in the youth class in the stage race at the Festival Elsie Jacobs, 19th in the stage at the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas, as well as winning the Eritrean national time trial championship and taking silver in the road race. This season, she placed 18th in the La Perigord Ladies in France, 23rd in the La Choralise Flemies Feminines, and competed in the elite women's road race at the World Championships in Belgium.

According to information from Cycling News, she is being considered by a women's development team and may end up racing there in 2022.

Aside from Afewerki, other riders have paid tribute to her in interviews with Cycling News. Adam Szabo had worked with her at the World Cycling Center and said she made a strong impression on him.

"Desieto was my rider for the 2019 season when she was riding for the WCC team and I was the coach and DS there at the time. She was a really nice person but also a great rider with a lot more talent. I truly believed in her abilities. "

Kimberly Coates of the "Africa Rising" project, which aims to support the development of cycling in Africa and ultimately pave the way for a black African athlete to win the Tour de France, said Kidane has made a big impression over the years.

"I am just devastated by the sadness. Desiette Kidane first burst onto the world cycling scene at the 2018 African Continental Championships in Rwanda. She dominated the junior women's road and ITT races, and her megawatt smile and fierce competitive spirit showed the world who she is on and off the bike," Coates said.

"We followed her meteoric rise from the UCI World Cycling Center in Switzerland to a professional development team. Her death is a tragic loss for her family, her cycling country Eritrea, and all of us involved in African cycling."

Although Desiet was active in the Eritrean cycling system rather than interacting with Africa Rising, Coates was clearly impressed by her and said she was an important role model for other riders from Africa.

"She was the hope for all of us to foster women's cycling on the continent. When you see women like her succeed, the level of belief goes up exponentially. [When Daniel Teklehaimanot and Merhawi Kudus made it to the Tour de France, the belief of Rwandan athletes increased. When they saw Daniel wearing the KOM [jersey], they thought they could do it too. Desiette was the woman for many other Black African women cyclists."

She said her loss will leave a huge gap. 'It is tragic for all who loved her and love this sport.'

Click here for a GoFundMe account for Kidane's family (opens in new tab).