12/07/2024

LANCE ARMSTRONG, CRAZY WITH BINIAM GIRMAY AT THE TOUR DE FRANCE: "WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT SOMETHING LIKE THIS COULD HAPPEN?"

Biniam Girmay won his third victory in the Tour de France 2024 yesterday. The Eritrean is making history for his country in a Grande Boucle in which he is being, by far, the best sprinter of the competition. In fact, he has thepoints classification very much on track and only abandoning the race could prevent him from taking it next June 21 in Nice. Lance Armstrong has talked about the African talent, as it could not be otherwise, in his latest episode of his podcast The Move.

The American, accompanied by his former teammate George Hincapie and former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, was thrilled by what Girmay is achieving for a country that, little by little, is developing within cycling.

Armstrong made it clear in his podcast that nobody expected that the Eritrean could achieve what he is achieving in the Tour and that this is a very special edition because of Cavendish's achievement, surpassing Eddy Merckx in stage victories and because of what an unleashed Girmay is doing:

"I expected to see sprint history in this Tour de France and we've seen it. On the one hand we've seen Mark Cavendish get his 35th win, but here we have another kind of history, the first win for Eritrea and now the hattrick, three stage wins, who would have imagined that could happen? Also, I don't think he's going to lose the green jersey, I think that competition is over."

Hincapie and Wiggins

Not only Armstrong is in love with Girmay, his colleagues in The Move Hincapie and Wiggins also praised the Eritrean sprinter. These were Hincapie's words:

"My first observation has to do with the confidence that Biniam Girmay has in himself right now, he came into this Tour de France having won a stage in the Giro but not being one of the best sprinters in the world and if you see him how he moves in the last kilometers, going forward, that shows the confidence he has right now, he has smashed the odds. He is at the highest level, he doesn't even need a leadout, he is 'on fire', it's his moment."

Sir Bradley Wiggins is going for more and is asking the Intermarché team to put the focus on him, to surround him with a suitable train and that could see him spend more than a decade winning stages in the Tour and, why not, overtake Cavendish:

"He's growing in confidence and always puts himself in the right position, some people need a big leadout. [Jasper] Philipsen needs it, he's not able to put himself in the right position, he's just wonderful, he's only 24 years old and he's already won 3 stages. It's a pity he has to spend 3 more years in that team (Intermarché, ed.), because they should completely surround him with a train like Jasper Philipsen. We're talking about Cavendish's record, a rider like him as a team working like him could be winning stages for 15 years in the Tour de France."

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