It is hard to believe that Biniam Girmay is still only 24. As the brightest star of African cycling, he has been in the spotlight since joining the WorldTour in 2022. Little matter if he is making history by becoming the first African to win a major Classic, or crashing in the Tour de France, the Eritrean attracts attention. At times, he admits, it can be daunting. But throughout the many highs and lows, Girmay and his Intermarché-Wanty team have focused on long-term objectives. And after winning three stages, as well as the green points jersey in the 2024 Tour, it is safe to say that such goals are paying off with big dividends.
Girmay burst into the big leagues after winning Gent-Wevelgem in 2022, followed by a stage in the Giro d'Italia the same year. But the 2023 season was filled with far more setbacks than success, as he crashed heavily in the Tour of Flanders and struggled in his first Tour de France. But he learned valuable lessons that helped guide him to his stellar 2024 Tour. As he enters 2025, Girmay is focused on another goal: winning his first Monument.
“Bad things can happen to anyone, but 2023 was only really my second real year in the WorldTour," Girmay told Rouleur. "I was still learning. I was learning how to train. I was learning how to deal with the pressure from the press or the expectations of the fans. In bike racing, you have good races and bad races, but whenever you have good races, people just seem to expect more. And then there was the stress that I put on myself, because me, I always want to improve. I was still giving 100%, giving everything, but things were not going how I wanted.”
After that season, however, Girmay sat down with his team to learn from their errors and improve. “He made a lot of rookie mistakes in the first Tour de France, but we had real conversations,” said Aike Visbeek, the performance manager at Intermarché-Wanty, who has guided Girmay since he joined the team. “He learned from those mistakes, and we learned.”Everything from training, to his travel schedule between Eritrea and Europe, was examined, and major shifts were made. “One thing we have learned about Biniam is that he has great recovery,” Visbeek explained. “He recovers better than anyone on the team, really, and at training camps he only got better and better. So we learned that we were not maximising that strength and we weren’t training him hard enough. With his trainers I focused on giving Biniam a harder, more structured training program. We really looked at the maximum number of training blocks we could fit in and just made every day count.”
Visbeek underlines, however, that numerous other issues were studied, from his leadout train, to eating and drinking in races.
“I learned a lot in 2023,” Girmay said. “You can give 100%, but you also have to be smart with your training, with your nutrition, with your recuperation. But everything I learned from the past years paid off. As a result, my confidence increased and boom, I had very good results.”
In many ways, his was the feel-good story at the 2024 Tour. The softspoken Girmay has earned a reputation as a clean sprinter who rarely complains when things don’t go his way. As a result, everybody seemed happy each time he raised his arms in victory.
Visbeek admits that three wins were more than he or the team could ever have hoped for, but he also knew that Girmay was primed for Tour success. “It’s interesting because, sometimes he won where we didn’t even expect it. Take his first victory in stage three for example. We knew that it was going to be a super-fast sprint, but Biniam was ready. He quickly understood that the first two stages were too hard for him and he just sat up and recovered. Then, on the morning of stage three he said to me, ‘OK, I feel really good’. He really had the legs to make a long sprint that day, and after he won there, I knew we were going to have a great Tour.”
“Three wins, the jersey was just amazing,” Girmay said. “The emotions were so strong, not just for me, but for my team and for everybody in cycling, for my fans, for my country. It is hard to explain. It was just amazing.”
But while Girmay’s 2024 season will long be remembered, it is already a thing of the past, and Girmay knows now that expectations will be high in 2025, from his fans, as well as himself.
As he enters 2025, the Tour de France will of course be a top objective, but also the Spring Classics. After storming to victory at Gent-Welgem in 2022, he has shown that he can win some of the toughest Classics, and now he hopes to become the first African to win a Monument.
On paper, Milan-Sanremo is perfect for a powerful sprinter like Girmay, but the Tour of Flanders also suits him, as the efforts required on the short, steep climbs are not unlike the short, powerful bursts required in sprints. Just ask veteran sprinter Alexander Kristoff, who managed to win both Sanremo in 2014 and Flanders in 2015.
“He is dreaming and aiming at Milan-San Remo and Flanders will be his last Classic,” Visbeek said. “The early-season goal is to win a Monument. And that is a goal for the team as well.”
