He has already written himself into the history books, but Biniam Girmay has barely finished his first chapter
Words Andy McGrath Photography Mike Massaro
The beatific smile on the face of Biniam Girmay as he crossed the finish line to win at Wevelgem and Jesi were the moments of the cycling year. So much had precipitated those wins, so many difficult times, so many calls to answer the question: how much do you want this?
The groundwork was laid back in Eritrea, only it wasn’t just about hitting the right power zones at altitude, riding up 40km ascents past camels and baboons. Every evening Girmay would journey to an internet cafe, upload his TrainingPeaks data and chat over a shaky connection with his coach.
Even now, when we meet in a Brussels coffee shop, the suitcase in the corner tells of Girmay’s return from the Canadian embassy in Paris after having to arrange a visa for races in Québec and Montreal.
But no amount of red tape or dodgy Wi-Fi can slow his rise. Wins this season – his first on the WorldTour – at Gent-Wevelgem and the Giro d’Italia saw Girmay shoot into the limelight like a prosecco cork – an apt if unfortunate analogy given how he went from celebrating his first Grand Tour stage win to abandoning the Giro having shot himself in the eye with the cork from the obligatory winner’s fizz.
‘It’s the good moment and the bad moment,’ Girmay says. ‘After that amazing victory, to miss the race because of the champagne bottle? It’s bad luck or, I don’t know, my fault. I was feeling mad in that moment. Now I’m fine and I don’t worry about what happened. It has already passed.’
Clearly he can see the funny side: the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert rider has since raced with the words ‘Bini: Victim of the Cork’ on his helmet. But while the incident stole headlines at the time, it is the way he beat Mathieu van der Poel in Jesi that history will remember. As the riders approached the line after a mammoth sprint, the slowing Dutch champion gave Girmay a thumbs up.
For a long time there has been talk, great desire and exhaustive efforts to bring through a bona fide black African challenger in the conventional, Caucasian, Eurocentric sport of cycling. That thumbs up cemented what Girmay had just shown the world – he is here.
Born in bikes
Whether following Girmay on television or lining the streets of the country’s capital, Asmara, to watch the weekly Sunday races, cycling is huge in Eritrea. ‘It’s like here in Belgium,’ Girmay says. ‘People are used to riding a bike. It’s part of our culture, so it’s not really that I just showed up and I won. There’s a long history behind me.’
The sport is a point of Eritrean pride and self-expression. Under Italian control between 1890 and 1941, Eritreans picked up the imported love of cycling. Yet that passion has been muted. Since gaining autonomy in 1993 from Ethiopia after a bloody war, Eritrea has become one of the world’s most oppressive and closed-off countries, a one-party state with an abject human rights record.
That its athletes are allowed to compete internationally has never been a given, but whether by happy coincidence or some other contrivance, international sporting success and political choices are not mutually exclusive.
Girmay grew up in Asmara, perched at 2,325m above sea level, the second oldest of six siblings. His love for the sport emanated from his father, a carpenter, and his older brother Heven, although it took some time to take root.
The young Girmay would spend afternoons watching the Tour de France in the city’s bustling cafes, although ‘when you’re a kid it’s boring to watch cycling for five hours. When I was 11, I couldn’t sit down for more than 30 minutes. I wasn’t really passionate about cycling back then.’ Instead, Girmay preferred to play football with friends.
When he did turn to competitive cycling, he was inspired by the first Eritreans to race the Tour in 2015: Daniel Teklehaimanot – who wore the King of the Mountains jersey for three days – and Merhawi Kudus. Girmay was racing for fun, but still collected a lot of trophies. ‘It’s all about the winning,’ he says. ‘Not just in cycling, but in my whole life. If you don’t win, I think you don’t enjoy it.’
Europe was to be the next step in his development. Attending the UCI’s World Cycling Centre in Switzerland felt like a quantum leap. The academy designed to develop talented but less advantaged riders was a culture shock.
‘It was a big change to my life,’ Girmay says. ‘A big door opening in my cycling career. But it was only me who came from Eritrea. Those first months were really difficult and I wanted to go home. I was 18 and it was a totally different culture – we had seven different nations in one team. But I really like to race, to live my dream, so that’s why I passed all the obstacles – communication, living alone.’
Tough as the experience was, it gave Girmay the chance to live like a professional athlete and learn about recovery, nutrition and gym work. On the bike his strength was already apparent. He was one of few juniors to beat Remco Evenepoel in 2018, and he regularly placed in the top ten.
Breaking through
After a year in the under-23 ranks, Girmay signed for French ProTeam Nippo Delko One Provence for 2020. He arrived at Marseille airport in December in a T-shirt and shorts. ‘He has the heart of a climber and the kick of a sprinter,’ the team doctor exclaimed after examining him. However, there was a steep cultural learning curve for Girmay before he could show his repertoire.
In the first two months he distinguished himself by creating a new email account every time he forgot his password on their internal system. If it was raining, he had to force himself to go training. That question cropped up again: how much do you want this? The team’s performance manager, Luc Cheilan, would sometimes have to ride with him for motivation.
Nutella and crisps appeared in his diet. Finding the balance between Europe and home was difficult: after returning from Eritrea following the first spring of Covid, Girmay was four kilos below his racing weight.
‘Outside of the stars, he didn’t know any riders,’ Cheilan says. ‘But that’s an advantage too. He could never say, “So-and-so is much stronger than me, I can’t beat him.” There were no barriers there.’
The results backed that up. Belgian puncheur Loïc Vliegen first noticed Girmay at the Tour du Doubs in September 2020: ‘That day he was in the break the whole day. The bunch caught his group and he still finished second. So I said, “What the fuck? Who is he?”’
Within a year they were teammates. Delko suffered financial problems and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert swooped on the talent, beating off interest from UAE Team Emirates. It was the right move, as it would prove easier to have a leading role on the Belgian WorldTour squad than with one of the sport’s powerhouses.
But another reason Girmay signed was the freedom the team gave him to spend precious time in Eritrea. For Girmay in Europe, it is still ‘hard for me to be alone’. He talks to his family every day over the phone or internet chat. He has a wife and an 18-month-old baby in Asmara.
‘When I’m there I never look at my phone. It’s really nice. We are one century behind, so it is the beautiful life. I really like to spend time at home.’
Pushing on
Despite Biniam Girmay’s superb year, his trainer Ioannis Tamouridis believes there is a considerable margin for growth. ‘His base is good, but I still believe he can improve so he’s more efficient at the end of the race,’ he says. ‘His strength is his anaerobic capacity, the way he can recover after high-intensity efforts. He’s also fast and explosive, but he can still improve his pure strength.’
Girmay has attracted comparisons to Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, given his ability to get over hills and contend in bunch sprints. Tamouridis sees him as more of a puncheur than a pure fast-man, a rider who could achieve success in Milan-San Remo and Flanders.
‘I believe he’s capable of everything. Someone who finished with the first group [12th] in his first Milan-San Remo? He won Gent-Wevelgem – OK, he likes that kind of race – but it was his first year on the WorldTour. You really never know with this guy.’
Ah yes, Gent-Wevelgem. Girmay wasn’t even meant to be there. But after he finished fifth in the E3 Saxo Bank Classic just days before, the team decided to substitute him in. Seeing how he raced like a hardened Flandrien and outsprinted Christophe Laporte from a four-man breakaway, it’s fair to say it was a smart call.
Girmay’s rise is intertwined with that of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert. A few seasons ago they were the whipping boys of the top tier, renowned for their doomed, camera-hogging breakaways. But helped by shrewd signings on a modest budget, they have had more wins in 2022 than the previous three years combined and are ranked fifth in the world. Their effervescent Eritrean leader epitomises their underdog spirit and is central to their future.
Part of Girmay’s own success also comes from having a functioning ‘family’ away from home. Filmmaker Lieven Corthouts has followed him for a docu-film since 2018 and become one of his best friends; fellow Eritrean professional Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier of Trek-Segafredo is Girmay’s housemate in San Marino. Then there’s Loïc Vliegen: they room together on races and the Belgian affectionately calls him hawey, the native Tigrinya word for ‘brother’.
‘He is here alone,’ says Vliegen. ‘The mentality and culture in Africa is more being with family, it’s completely different to us. I think he really needs me for company and advice.’
Before a race, Vliegen studies VeloViewer with Girmay and discusses the wind direction and positioning. Girmay also pores over re-runs of past races – this season’s Milan-San Remo was his first, although to watch him you’d never have known his racecraft came from YouTube.
It is also easy to forget the Giro d’Italia was Girmay’s first Grand Tour too, given his five top-five finishes in the opening eight stages. It became a matter of not if but when he would win a stage. Jumping with 250m to go on Stage 10, he cracked his rivals, and shattered a glass ceiling.
That long sprint is a Girmay hallmark. ‘Bini’s capacity to keep the same watts and sprint for so long is incredible. Sometimes in training I lead him out just for fun and when I pull off, he’s still sprinting for 30 seconds,’ says Vliegen.
Staying focussed
Given his talent, infectious smile and history-making feats, the expectations on Girmay will ramp up. Has anything changed with his results?
‘This year, for sure,’ he says. ‘I tell you, the people are really crazy about cycling, so it’s special to be the first black African to win a Classics race. I’m really happy, I have a lot of respect for my people and they do for me.
‘The number of selfies you have to take can be hard. But nothing changed for me. I’m still working hard, I’m still looking forward. This is the beginning. I want to become stronger to inspire more African riders. I’d really like to see more black riders in the peloton because we don’t have a lot. There isn’t a lot of black colour in the cycling world.’
Girmay says Eritrean prospects need experience in big bunch riding, corners, small roads and cobbles to excel. Maybe he could build a cycling academy in Belgium then, like the World Cycling Centre that helped nurture him?
‘I wish I could do this in a few years. But for now other teams have their own development squads, and I hope they will bring some African riders through, not only Eritreans.’
While he’s been lifted into the air by fans – quite literally after winning the Eritrean time-trial title this summer – Girmay’s feet are staying firmly on the ground. ‘Sometimes people ask me for an interview and I say, “For what?” I think I see myself still really down,’ he says. Down, as in a small rider, a normal person? He nods.
‘When I end my career, this can change, but as a rider it’s not good to see yourself as high like that. I ride a bike, but I don’t know what will happen tomorrow.’
Making history
The inexorable rise of Biniam Girmay
2000: Born on 2nd April in Asmara, Eritrea
2018: Wins the African Continental Junior Road Race, time-trial and team time-trial titles with Eritrea. Beats Remco Evenepoel to a stage of leading Belgian junior race, Aubel-Thimister-Stavelot
2019: Takes his first pro win as an 18-year-old at the Tropicale Amissa Bongo race in Gabon, outsprinting André Greipel, and wins a Tour du Rwanda stage. Finishes fifth on a Tour de l’Avenir mountain stage
2020: Turns pro with second-tier French team Nippo Delko One Provence. Wins two stages at the Tropicale Amissa Bongo as well as second at the Trofeo Laigueglia and Tour du Doubs
2021: Misses three months as his Delko team suffers financial problems. Signs for Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert and wins Classic Grand Besançon Doubs. Finishes second in the U23 World Road Race
2022: Wins the Trofeo Alcúdia at the start of the season and bookends his spring with Gent-Wevelgem glory. After numerous top-five Giro d’Italia stage placings, sprints to victory on Stage 10
Girmay on…
Biscoff spread
‘Especially this year, I was going crazy for it. Even before leaving for Asmara, I had to buy four or five pots in Belgium. Even my wife is crazy for it. If there is no Biscoff in the morning, it’s not good!’
Interviews
‘Do I like them? No. I really like to speak with friends, even to meet new people, but in interviews you have to be careful how you answer and think about what you say. I started doing a lot this year – in all my life, I’d never done interviews before, even in Asmara.’
Eritrean fan favourites
‘Eritreans are more fans of Peter Sagan, still now. We like to watch a sprint stage, that’s why we’re fans of him and Cavendish. Also Froomey we like because he’s kind of African, and Valverde. Some people like Tom Boonen too, including my brother Heven, because he won Flanders and Roubaix.’
His turning point
‘The 2018 African Championships. I won three golds and I was thinking maybe I can become a professional rider so I have to follow every training session.’
Hopes for 2023
‘The Tour de France is a big goal because I tell you we’re really crazy about it in Eritrea. And also I’d really like to do Roubaix and Flanders. That’s my big dream.’