Considered one of the greatest talents of his generation, merely 20-year old Merhawi Kudus has shown his exceptional potential and fighting spirit on the Tour of Turkey queen stage. Even though the MTN-Qhubeka rider eventually didn’t manage to follow Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, Solution Credits) and Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) when the Estonian made a winning move, while a crash during the fourth stage prevented him from improving his position in general classification yesterday, he still lived up to expectations as one of the prominent animators of the Turkish event.

“I have pain now but I’ll try to finish the race,” the quietly spoken rider told CyclingTips.

The 20-year old Eritrean already established himself as a rising star in previous seasons with very promising results at the Tour of Eritrea (2nd), Vuelta a Leon (2nd) or Tour de l’Avenir (11th), but surprisingly quickly lived up to early promises making the spotlight this season in the Tour de Langkawi. Thus, it came as no surprise that Kudus was one of hotly discussed manes ahead of the Tour of Turkey 50th edition.

The MTN-Qhubeka rider is currently 14th in the general classification, 1:35 behind the race leader, and there is only a purely hypothetical chance of improving on this position, but no one should be disappointed by a performance of the 20-year old in the Turkish event.

Aware that time is still on his side, Kudus aims to test himself against the best rider in several European events this summer, including Tour de Suisse, Tour of Austria and World Championships in Ponferrada.

“I am working hard for my future,” he said. “I will do the Tour de Suisse so I try to fight with them at a high level in Europe.”

However, the young Eritrean thoughtfully admitted that he finds himself too young to contest three-week races at this point and thus, after consulting it with the African team, he most likely wouldn’t feature in the MTN-Qhubeka roster for the 2014 edition of the Vuelta a Espana.

“My team is already part of the Vuelta a España but for me it is too early. I will speak with my team first but my idea is that it is too early to do the Vuelta a España [in 2014].”

Still, Eritrean climber confessed to be proud that his squad will become the first African team to feature in the grand tour race and certainly he hopes to join his team mates in the future.

Looking at him around his team-mates, he appears to be happy where he is at MTN Qhubeka. “We are the first African riders [first African team – ed.] in a Grand Tour. I am really proud, really happy. It is good chance for African riders to show their talent in Europe. It is a good opportunity.”