Biniam Girmay is one of Africa’s greatest male cyclists of all time, who else would make the top five?

When the 2026 Tour de France started on Saturday 4 July, with a Team Time Trial in the heart of Barcelona, there was only one African on the start-list: NSN Cycling Team’s 26-year-old Biniam Girmay from Eritrea.

Although on the face of it, only one rider from the whole of Africa feels low, there is also only one rider from the whole of Asia, Kazakhstan’s Nicolas Vinokurov. With only 184 men in this most prestigious of bike races, there are simply not that many spaces.

As we hit the first rest day here at the Tour de France, a fourth stage win has eluded him, however, Girmay is having a very good race, sitting second in the points classification after nine stages, with some strong and competitive finishes so far. 

Alongside Biniam, Africa is represented at the top level with ten other African men and women racing on WorldTour and Pro Continental teams in 2026. There are a further hundred and twenty more young African riders working hard to make their name on Continental teams worldwide.

Biniam Girmay’s three Tour de France stage wins, and overall green jersey win in 2024 puts him firmly in the Tour de France hall of fame, as well as being one of Africa’s top five most decorated professional cyclists. However, if he is in the top five, who else sits alongside him with that honour?

On the evening of 3 July 2013, Australia’s Orica Green EDGE team were feeling happy. It was the end of Stage Five of the Tour de France, a 229km race into Marseille, and they had the top three slots in the GC, with South Africa’s Daryl Impey sitting in second to Simon Gerrans. 

On Stage 6, a 176km race into Montpellier won by André Griepel, Impey came in 13th and took the yellow jersey spot by three seconds. History was made that moment, with Impey being the first African ever to secure the maillot jaune. 

He started the seventh and eighth stages in the yellow jersey, setting a two-day record for African men that has yet to be beaten. Mauritius’ Kim Le Court broke this record for Africa overall in 2025 with her three days in yellow. Impey handed it over to Chis Froome on stage eight, and the Team Sky rider wore it all the way to Paris.

With Impey claiming the yellow jersey for Africa, Eritrea’s Daniel Teklehaimanot sits in the pantheon of African riders due to claiming another of the leaders’ jerseys – this time the polka dot King of the Mountains (KOM) jersey. 

On the evening of 9 July 2015, Teklehaimanot – riding for the MTN Qhubeka team – came into Le Havre around three minutes after stage winner Zdeněk Štybar with three of his team-mates. Earlier in the stage he had taken three KOM points, and this was enough to give him the KOM jersey. It was another historic moment as no African had ever worn the polka dot jersey before (or since). He made history as the first Black man to ever wear one of the leaders’ jerseys in the Tour de France. He wore it for four more stages, before, like Impey, handing it to Chris Froome.

The ramifications of this moment truly cannot be understated. Africans across the continent were celebrating wildly, including a 15-year-old Biniam Girmay who was watching the race with his father in a cinema. He shared with Jeremy Ford what it meant:

“I remember it very well. I was in a cinema that day with my father. Every Eritrean felt so happy that day. It was just super nice to see to see an Eritrean rider shining in the Tour de France. Daniel was a complete legend to us all, and it was amazing to see him represent us back then.”

Matching the history-making heroics of Girmay, Impey and Teklehaimanot is a hard task, however, South Africa’s Louis Meintjes is one of Africa’s top riders in history for another reason: he has started twenty Grand Tours – an incredible statistic. 

He has raced ten editions of the Vuelta, started the Tour de France seven times, and raced the Giro d’Italia three times, over his 13-year professional career, unprecedented for an African rider. Meintjes retired at the end of the 2025 season.

He can be proud of several top 20 finishes at Grand Tours and has the honour of being a stage winner at the Vuelta in 2022. His second place to Tom Pidcock - with Chris Froome taking third - on stage 13, was arguably another big career highlight.

You can hear an in-depth interview with Meintjes about his career on a recent episode of the Africa Rising Cycling Podcast.

Boasting over a dozen top twenty stage finishes, Kebaïli got himself on the podium in Perpignan, coming in third on the 255km Stage 15 from Avignon in the 1952 edition of Le Grand Boucle.

He won several editions of the Algerian National Championships, and reports at the time describe his style as light, aggressive, and extremely fast on rolling terrain. This earned him the nickname of “La Flèche” (“The Arrow”) with the French and Algerian sports fans and media.

Kebaïli passed away on 8 September 2013 at the great age of 88. He will have seen Daryl Impey pull on the maillot jaune a few months before, and we hope with some pride, knowing that many generations would follow his wheel into the top level of world cycling.

With several sprint stages in the 2026 Tour de France, many expect Biniam Girmay to add to his stage win total this year. Will his achievements inspire the next generation of African cyclists to work hard and get themselves onto Tour de France rosters in the coming years? Let's hope!