The 21-year-old Eritrean rider was part of the UCI’s World Cycling Centre programme and both the governing body and the WCC paid tribute to her on Tuesday morning.
"With her constant smile, kindness, respect and deep passion for cycling, Desiet Kidane Tekeste was a rising young talent who will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with her family, friends and teammates and coaches during this tragic time," the UCI said via its social media channels.
Kidane showed her talent in 2018 with a number of strong results as a junior rider. She won both the road race and time trial at the African Continental Championship in Kigali in Rwanda, and then later that year placed 22nd in the road race and 28th in the time trial at the world championships in Innsbruck, Austria. She went on to ride the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina and finished 11th.