Cobbled classics legend and one of the sport's leading figures Fabian Cancellara has praised the achievements of Biniam Girmay this past week, and has admitted that he was not completely surprised with the Eritrean's win on Gent-Wevelgem.
On a column that the Swiss ex-pro wrote for Cyclingnews, he has said that "when Biniam Girmay crossed the line first on Sunday after winning Gent-Wevelgem, I was surprised, but also not surprised. On the one hand, he stunned not only the cycling world, but the whole history of the sport. This is a huge moment for African cycling and a huge moment in our sport."
"Girmay is the first African rider who, as I see it, has put the hammer quite hard into our world of cycling in terms of enlarging our sport. With the World Championships coming up in Rwanda in 2025, it's a nice sign," Cancellara added.
With the globalization of cycling and the widening of talent scouting, more and more extremely talented riders are coming from countries that have few professional teams and riders. Slovenia is a prime example, although being a country with some history in the last few decades, it is the country that's won three of the last four monuments, and four out of the last five Grand Tours making for a current mega-power in road cycling.
The former World and Olympic time-trial champion went on to comment about the new upcoming generation: "Well, the sport is changing and this is just another example of how the young generation is ripping things up. We've seen it already from Pogacar and Bernal and riders born in the late 1990s, but now it's the children of the 2000s. These guys, they don't think; they just do."
Cancellara's opinion is one of major know-how, and the way he sees Girmay confirms further the enthusiasm that has been created around him has a strong base: "He was the closest one to Van Aert and Laporte on the Paterberg, and that says it all. E3 is the hardest Classic outside Flanders and Roubaix, so to go there and do that on your debut, you can't bluff it. It's pure talent. At Gent-Wevelgem he combined his talent with race craft. He spotted the right move in the final, which was the most important thing... He read that move, then he did all his turns, and then he opened the sprint, and then he won it. It was a classy demonstration."
"The way he's racing - not just this week but even the past two seasons - it's clear he's getting better and better with every race. As for his direction and his full potential, it's still too early to say. But if you can win Gent-Wevelgem at 21 on your debut, then it's not just that you can be a superstar - you are already a superstar," he concluded.
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