Biniam Girmay Has Made History in This Tour de France. Here’s Where He Could Add a Stage Win.
Thanks to dominance, the rare chance to make history, and now, tragedy, all eyes have been on Jasper Philipsen and Mark Cavendish during this year’s sprint stages. However, one sprinter quietly making some of the biggest waves is perhaps Biniam Girmay, the Eritrean cyclist who rides for Intermarché-Circus-Wanty.
The 23-year-old Girmay has been in the fight at each of this Tour’s sprint finishes, his team’s signature neon-shouldered jerseys easily visible through the melee of a bunch sprint.
He crossed the line eleventh on this year’s first bunch sprint, as Stage 3 took the peloton into France, finishing in Bayonne. The very next day, on a consecutive flat stage that saw a chaotic ending on the Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro, Girmay finished nineteenth, again right in the thick of the bunch.
After a pair of mountain stages, Girmay was back in the fray on Friday’s Stage 7, coming as close as he’s yet been to a Tour de France victory. It’s a win that would be historical, as no Black rider has ever won a Tour de France stage.
That sprint could have been different, however, if Girmay wasn’t forced into the barrier in his final sprint. Instead, eventual stage winner Philipsen moved across the road, shutting the door on Girmay, who was forced to brake lest he be run into the barrier.
Both Girmay and Cavendish’s teams lodged protests against Philipsen’s move to no avail. Philipsen was declared the winner, with the legendary Brit in second and the upstart Eritrean rounding out the day’s podium.
Still, Friday’s sprint proved that he’s got the legs and the wits to compete for that historical win.
As there are three flat stages left in this year’s Tour, Birmay has at least three more chances to do fight for that historic victory.
Additionally, there are a trio of hilly stages remaining, though Girmay has never shown much strength in those types of parcours. In the three hilly stages of this year’s Tour thus far, he’s finished seventy-seventh, one-hundred-and-twenty-eighth, and forty-fourth.
So, keep an eye on those three flat stages for Girmay to make history.
Stage 11
The first comes this Wednesday on Stage 11. The peloton will race 180km from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins. The stage features three category-four climbs that shouldn’t prove too much for Girmay to stay with the peloton. The final sixty-plus kilometers feature some rolling hills, but expect Girmay to be near the front as the peloton nears Moulins.
Stage 19
From there, its mountains and hills until Friday July 21, when the 173km Stage 19. It’s another flat run from Moirans-en-Montagne to Poligny. A category four climb comes early and a cat three hits about thirty kilometers from the finish. From there, it’s glass-flat all the way to the finish.
Champs-Élysées
And then, of course, is the Champs-Élysées. The biggest sprint stage on Earth. What more needs to be said?
With Mark Cavendish out of the Tour, it’s Girmay’s history-making victory that we should all eagerly anticipating. Given the wider impact it might have, maybe it should have been that way all along.
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