Alaliaa Benbella

Alaliaa Benbella is 20 and rides for the Egyptian national team. Cycling became her life, with results at the Arab, African and Egyptian national championships — and a hunger for more. But in Egypt there are only a few races a year, and as the episode puts it, if you haven't shown what you can do in Belgium, the Netherlands, France or Italy, you are invisible.

After three years with the UCI, a shoulder injury kept her out of racing for a year, and she thought about stopping. The Flandrien Scholarship gave her the chance to race in Europe again. Her first race back in Belgium was hard — she finished four of six laps on experience alone — but soon she finished a full race and felt herself coming back stronger.

She arrived shy, afraid she would never find a cycling family again. Instead, she says, the Flandrien Hotel changed her mind: "It's really a big, big family — here you feel like home." Her goal now: keep learning, find a good team and gain as much experience as she can.