2024-07-17 22:06:37
A young man is writing the history of African cycling, and there is also a Bulgarian hand in his successes.
In May 2022, Binyam Girmai became the first black representative of the Black Continent to win a stage in a grand tour. He did it in Italy, and during the award ceremony he didn’t show much skill in opening a bottle of champagne. The cork flew out and hit him in the eye, and because of the incident, he was bandaged up the next day and stopped participating.
Recently, Girmai is also the first dark-skinned African to win a stage in the Tour de France. He did it three times and logically took the lead in the points standings among the sprinters. On Tuesday, the competitor of the French team “Intermarche” fell shortly before the final of the stage, but despite bruises on his right leg and hip and several stitches on his elbow, he started again with the explanation “As long as nothing is broken, everything is fine.”
Binyam’s Bulgarian connection dates back to his time driving for Nippo–Delko–One Provence. Hristo Zaikov, a three-time winner of the Tour of Bulgaria, has been at the head of this team from the South of France for a long time.
“I can only say good things about Binyam Girmai. An extremely intelligent and executive cyclist. He is a very good sprinter, and in practice he is not only that, because he knows how to drive very well on medium heights as well. I especially want to emphasize that he is very intelligent and easy to work with,” explained Zaikov.
Girmai still leads the sprinters, and the Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogacar remains at the top of the general classification.