Eritrean rider Biniam Girmay won the tenth stage of the Giro d’Italia, this Tuesday, in Jesi (central-east), being the first victory of a rider from his country in a Grand Tour.
Girmay, 22, participates for the first time in the Italian round, so this victory on the day of the Giro is historic for him and for his nation.
It may interest you: (Giro d’Italia 2022: this was Biniam Girmay’s accident on the podium)
He has been a professional since 2020, the Eritrean has eight wins to his name, three of them in this 2022, year in which it has confirmed all its cycling potential.
Nothing new
At the end of March, he became the first African to win a classic (Ghent-Wevelgem), victory that opened the doors to be taken into account as one of the great riders of the year.
The first big bell was given in the 2021 Ruda World Cup, when it was silver in the long-distance competition of the Under-23 category, behind the Italian, Filippo Baroncini. The medal earned him being the main protagonist of a great parade in his homeland.
He was born on April 2, 2000 in Asmara, which is not only the capital of Eritrea, but the most populous city in that country, but he lives in San Marino.
His life, like most families in that region, was not the best. Their parents had to go out of their way to bring food to their children.
Girmay is a cyclist who weighs 70 kilos and is 1.84 meters tall. physical characteristics that serve him to be one of the strongest and most effective men in the packs.
He left the country to play sports. In Eritrea, athletes are rarely given permission to leave because they fear they will not return, in a kind of political blockade. Girmay was fortunate to be at the World Cycling Center, a high-performance center of the International Cycling Union in Aigle (Switzerland).
When he was 17 years old he traveled to that experience and in one of his first races in Europe he beat none other than the Belgian, Remco Evenepoel.
It may interest you: (Fernando Gaviria: what do you have left to win this week at the Giro?)
the great triumph
In Ghent-Wevelgen he broke all predictions. He came to define the victory in the last 200 meters and beat men of the stature of Christohe Laporte and Dries van Gestel in the sentencing linewho remained ‘seeing a spark’ in front of the strong rhythm of the Eritrean.
“This historic victory is so important for me, for my team, for African cycling! Since the E3 Classic, my first Flemish classic, I fell in love with cobblestones. I did not hesitate for a moment when the team offered me the opportunity to conclude my spring with Ghent-Wevelgem, but I never imagined ending this day with a victory, because it is very difficult to ride the Flemish classics without experience”, he said at the time.
And I add: “I launched my sprint with 250 meters to go, closed my eyes and gave it all I had left. I still don’t realize what happened, I just became the first African rider to win a classic!”
And if that victory for him was sensational, what to say that the one he achieved this Tuesday at the Giro, the first of many he will have on the World Tour, defeating a great, Mathuieu van der Poel, and adjusting his country’s first victory in this competition.
Biniam Girmay joins Daniel Teklehaimanot, who was the first rider from Eritrea to lead the mountains in the Tour de France (2015). It was partially, but he wore the red pepas shirt.
It may interest you: (Byron Castillo, from Ecuador, on whether he is Colombian: “I knew it was going to come out”)
The two of them, but more Girmay, are part of the new blood of cycling in the world, of its globalization, and what they have done has served so that in 2025 the Cycling World Championships will be held in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
Girmay is married, has a daughter, a family he rarely sees, because he has to concentrate, train and race outside his country with the Intermarché team.
After his victory in Bélica, he returned home for a few days to recharge, and it seems that it served him well for this Giro d’Italia.
“He’s a family guy, friendly,” they point out in the squad, the one that ‘won the lottery’ with this man who is beginning to earn a path in world cycling.
It may interest you: (Giro d’Italia 2022: Biniam Girmay wins the tenth stage, great triumph)
Sports
#Giro #Biniam #Girmay #beat #poverty #political #blockade #country