"It's nice to see different colours from different countries and different continents" - Biniam Girmay proud to spearhead new era of global cycling
Cycling
At the Tour de France this summer, there were plenty of memorable and history making moments. Arguably none will have a wide reaching and long lasting impact on the sport as Biniam Girmay becoming the first black stage winner in the Grand Tour's storied history.
According to the man himself, the three stage victories and eventual Green Jersey win from the 2024 Tour de France are a sign of the ever increasing globality of the professional cycling peloton. "That's something nice for cycling now," the 24-year-old Eritrean explains in conversation with FloBikes YouTube channel. "It's nice to see different colours from different countries and different continents. It makes it a more colourful cycling."
Given his renown and the fact that Girmay represents so many people every time he competes, the African icon does have to deal with some pressures not many of his rivals do. "It's not really a responsibility, it's just pressure. For me, I love to ride my bike and I believe if I enjoy it, then for sure, I will be able to achieve my goals," assesses the Intermarché - Wanty leader. "If I miss something then yeah, the people will be disappointed, but firstly I just try to enjoy myself as much as I can and try to give 100%. Always."
"If your are doing something great, people will always just expect more, me also," Girmay concludes, setting out his goals for the coming season and a likely return to the Tour de France. "I know what my potential is and next year I can expect maybe four stages (laughs ed,). I'll just try to do better next year but that still is not easy. Because I heard from a lot of my teammates they already do a lot of Tours but they never won one stage. So I know how hard it can be."
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024