20/01/2023

Paris-Roubaix and Tour de France part of Biniam Girmay's 2023 goals

Biniam Girmay was one of last season revelations. The 22 years old Eritrean of Intermarché-Circus-Wanty squad, made history throw out the season winning the Gent-Wevelgem classic and stage 10 in Giro d'Italia wearing the point's jersey until he was forced to drop out the competition due to eye injury. The Eritrean established a landmark for African cycling putting an entire Continent on the map, now in 2023 it is possible we will see him racing on the most important competition of all the Tour de France.

“He is more likely to ride the Tour than another Giro. There is definitely a chance that we will be Bini in the Tour this summer. Rather than another Giro d'Italia, although I must say that the Giro profile is not bad. You can also see someone like Mads Pedersen daring to do the Giro after the classics before the Tour out. We haven't made a final decision on that yet. But as things stand, there is a good chance we will go for the Tour scenario.”, stated Aike Visbeek Intermarché-CIrcus-Wanty sports director.

"Biniam wants to compete with Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe" - Girmay aims high at cobbled classics, according to Intermarché manager

The Eritrean will also aim for wins in the spring classics, where he will face strong competition and sports director, knows that but at same time is confident in good results due to also strengthening their classics block during the transfers season. And also doesn't put much pressure in Girmay and his team since with Van Aert, Van der Poel, Alaphilippe and company presences will make them fewer favorites for the win, which is perfectly understandable.

Click here to create your own team for the Fantasy Vuelta a San Juan. At least 800 Euro in prizes!

“One of our priorities in our transfer strategy last season was to make the core around Bini stronger. With Dion Smith and especially Mike Teunissen, we made a good investment in that. I think we should be very capable of supporting Biniam. In the classics and semi-classics, we now have more options."

Biniam Girmay "has really noticed that we stick to our agreements and that we really want to make him better", Aike Visbeek says

I expect us to compete for prizes, that is also our objective. We can't go for less, either. In the classics, with Biniam, you're in a part of the business where there's exceptional talent running around. We ride against Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe. Biniam will have to join them if he wants to compete for prizes. That is a nice, but gigantic challenge,”, said Visbeek.

Furthermore, Paris-Roubaix is also on the schedule for the Eritrean in 2023 Visbeek revealed. He will be debuting himself in a different kind of cobbles, different then to those of Flandres.