It's been some time since the yellow jersey was up for grabs for sprinters in the opening stage of Tour de France. The last to have done that was Alexander Kristoff who won the opening stage in Nice in 2020. Wout Van Aert also wore yellow in 2022, but the Belgian only grabbed yellow on day two of the competition thanks to his good time trial performance.
In 2025, the opening stage on a circuit around Lille seems to be tailor-made for the fast men. In general, there seem to more than usual opportunities for sprinters and so we can expect plenty at the start of Grande Boucle. Among them the 2024 points classification champion and winner of three stages - Biniam Girmay.
The Eritrean of Intermarché - Wanty is already plotting plan to take on the French Grand Tour once again. The Belgian WorldTour team doesn't have many other trump cards and therefore they're ready to throw everything at Girmay's sprint train. After successful 2024 the stakes are high, but realistically speaking, even one stage win in 2025 would've been a successful race for the overlooked Intermarché.
"I had a great experience this year and in 2025 the Tour will be one of my big goals again," said Girmay in a press release issued by his team. The African eyes no less than to wear yellow after the first stages: "I want to be my best self again, with a chance for the sprinters on the first day. There is a nice balance between sprint stages and chances for others."
As Girmay's head coach, Aike Visbeek sees plenty of opportunities for the Eritrean. "There are a lot of stages that offer opportunities for our riders. The difficult stages in the first week are also interesting for Biniam." Girmay, as a former winner of Gent-Wevelgem, is certainly not to be underestimated on the hilly stages, of which there should be plenty, either.
Place comments
0 Comments
You are currently seeing only the comments you are notified about, if you want to see all comments from this post, click the button below.
Show all comments