Daniel was a member of the
UCI's
World Cycling Centre training program before signing for the new Australian cycling team in 2012. Whilst at the World Cycling Centre he was diagnosed with
tachycardia, which was corrected by surgery in early 2009. He returned to riding in May of that year and went on to finish sixth overall in that year's
Tour de l'Avenir. In 2010 he rode as a trainee for . The same year, he won the African Championships in the road race, individual time trial and team time trial, at both senior and under-23 levels. On the
2010–11 UCI Africa Tour, he won the
Tour du Rwanda and the
Kwita Izina Cycling Tour. He participated in the
2012 Summer Olympics being the first Eritrean competing in a sport other than athletics; he finished the road race in the 73rd position. In 2012, he became the first Eritrean to ride in the
Vuelta a España, one of the 3
grand tours; he finished the race 146th overall.
MTN–Qhubeka (2014–17) Daniel joined for the 2014 season, on a two-year contract. He was named in the start list for the
2015 Tour de France. In July of the year, Daniel also became the first rider from an African team to wear the
polka dot jersey at the Tour de France. In 2016, he again won the mountains classification at the
Critérium du Dauphiné. He was named in the start list for the
2017 Giro d'Italia where he briefly held the Mountains Classification jersey. His final race with Dimension Data was the 2017
Tour of Guangxi. ==Major results==