The Mark de triomphe

Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay makes Tour de France history, becoming the first black rider to win stage

I was going to blog about the marvellous Eritrean Biniam Girmay's sprint finish in the tour de France, a complex sprint after a long stage, very exciting !

And it made the history books as the first black cyclist to win a stage of the tour.

And boy, he did it in style.

Binium  then got the green jersey for best sprinter, and his team resprayed his bike green to match.  He thinks it helps.  The stage was 230 k and went from Piacenza to Turin. He was very happy that his stage win was in Italy because of 'The Italian Connection.'

 BINIAM GIRMAY HAILU

Veni Vidi Bini

He said his victory was for all Africans. He's only 24 and is referred to as The Kid by a certain Mark Cavandish. Binium  says that he and Mark always have a laugh and a joke. then Mark tells him where he's wrong re his positioning on the lead out. When the Manx Missile says something like that, it's advice you should take. And Cav wouldn't say it unless he sees the talent and dedication to make use of that information.

Riders from South Africa have won stages before. I had to look it up. Robert Hunter and Daryl Impey. I also thought Chris Froome as he was at school with the bloke who works in treatment room one, and he's from South Africa but Froome was born in Kenya but represented  Britain. 

And the Italian influence? Well Italy has had a huge impact on Eritrean cycling.

 "A lot of Italians were living in Eritrea and they began racing. People started to love the sport," says Grand Tour cyclist Natnael Berhane. Eritrea now has 35 race days a year and, from what I've read, talent spotted there can be brought over and developed by the European teams. 

So far Eritrea has won the men's elite road race at the African Road Race championships six times.

 A young Girmay started off with a mountain bike but found his real talent when he tried a road bike. He attended the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland, but got homesick and as often happens in cycling, a compromise was made and it was  three months here and three months there but 'keep the training up'.

Now, the young Eritrean says 'He's living the dream.'

And with Girmay cycling for the Belgian team Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert,  he is one of four Eritrean riders competing at Grand Tour level.

Then Wednesday happened.

                                         

                                                                pic from Sky Sports

The history of Mark Cavandish's Tour since he matched Eddy Merckx’s record three years ago has been drama. On the 2021 tour he matched the record with 34 stage wins.

Then there was the bad crash where he broke his collar bone (again). He had planned to get the record on that tour, then retire, when he crashed he said, 'that’s it I'm retiring then changed his mind as Astana built an entire team round him, and Project 35 was born.

In this tour 2024, day one, he was so ill with heatstroke he was vomiting off the side of the bike while his team surrounded him, trying to get up a very steep hill- that went on for miles and miles. The next day, he was doing well on a flat stage, but a crash right in front of him as they approached the finish impeded his lead out train and he was once again thwarted,

But yesterday, the day they had targeted – he held on to win the 177km stage. 

Then there were tears, his wife, the four kids (one of whom was far more interested in getting Tadej Pojacar's sunglasses as a souvenir). There was a line up of friends, foes, comrades to congratulate him, lots of tears, hugs, snotters and sweat. His Greek trainer couldn't speak for sobbing with joy.

The commentator pointed out that not only have most of the rivals he had at the start of his career retired, but in one case, the child of that rival has also retired. Cav's still going strong at 39.

One headline summed him up - "Stubborn, brave, brilliant: Cavendish defies age again to rewrite history"

Merckx  achieved his record of 34  stage wins in 1975 and nobody has ever come close.

                                                

                                                                           Eddy Merckx circa 73/74

If you don’t know about cycling, hill climbs on the tour are very hard for sprinters. It's like trying to get a Clydesdale horse to run the Grand National, the physiology is all wrong. They are expected to suffer in the heat, the altitude, the incline and the camera motorbikes are right there to capture it all.  

Often all the sprinters from all teams are at the back, together. They pass water to each other, they help to feed each other, the support cars are often up at the front helping out the climbers who are about 9 stone at zooming up  the mountain like a goat. The twelve stone sprinters don't have the power, weight advantage. There’s a formula that calculates the the time it takes for the winner to cross the line, then they do a count back and it’s usually about forty minutes that the sprinters have to get over the line at the top of the hill or they are out. It sounds harsh but it's a safety measure, if you are ill, going hypo or dipping too much in the red, STOP. 

Mark Cavandish  will take 39 minutes and fifty two seconds on a forty minute time limit as there's no point in expending energy if you don’t need to.

Headlines were saying 'tour de force' but the best one was the 'mark de triumph'.

My mum was saying that my dad once cycled with Merckx. My mum failed to get the photo as they went past.  I don't think Dad was very happy. 

PS well chuffed with the results of the UK elections. I hope such sense prevails in your elections too.