"I want to do something better. San Remo, Flanders, and Roubaix" - Ambitious Biniam Girmay on his big goals for the future

Biniam Girmay has gone from strength to strength over the last few seasons. After a breakthrough campaign in 2022 saw the Eritrean claim Spring Classics glory at Gent Wevelgem and Grand Tour stages at the Giro d'Italia, in 2024 he kicked on again securing the Green Jersey at the Tour de France along with three stage victories.

“I didn’t expect early in the Tour to win stage because it is the first sprint stage, properly flat, and there’s a lot of guys faster than me, bigger than me. But to win that day, for me, my mind explodes. I couldn’t believe it,” Girmay recalls of his summer success in quotes collected by Velo. “The Tour de France, everybody dreams to win a stage or do something there. For me this year, it’s one of my biggest objectives, for the team also, because as a team they don’t won any stage victories the last years. So we had already a big pressure. When I win the first stage that was like, ‘yeah, now all the hard work is paying off.’ I’d been dreaming [of it] from a long time ago. It just made me proud that day."

One of the most well-supported riders in the entire peloton, Girmay not only has the backing of a region or a nation, but the entire continent of Africa, something his victories on the sport's biggest stage at the Tour de France, did nothing to harm. “Then you see the impact or the influence for different kind of people, especially in Africa. Most of them are super happy and proud and now they’re dreaming to win a stage. Not [just] to be part of that," he explains. “So that’s something nice for cycling now. It’s more global.”

While the Tour de France remains the biggest race on the planet, Girmay also wants to show his young African supporters that there is more to cycling than the French Grand Tour. “When I started racing in Europe, I don’t know much about European races. The only thing we know is Tour de France, Giro and Vuelta, also San Remo,” he says. “But after racing in Europe I know more about the classics and it makes me … I want to do one time like this, like the time of Sagan and Gilbert, you know, they are really shining on the classics."

"I want to do something better. San Remo, Flanders, and Roubaix," he insists determinedly. "It’s quite hard but the spring classics I really want to improve my result. So I’m really working on that, and I hope one day I will be able to achieve my goal.”