🎥 A crying Girmay, images for the history books: "This is for Eritrea and Africa, this is our moment"

One stage victory in the Tour de France is not the other. July 1, 2024 will forever go down in the history books as the day a black African won a stage for the first time in the world's greatest cycling world. Biniam Girmay, who already pulled off the same feat in the Giro d'Italia in 2022, was the lucky one in a sprint on behalf of Intermarché-Wanty from a peloton thinned out (by a crash). The emotions among the protagonists and his team caused goosebumps afterwards.

"First of all, I want to thank God for the strength and support," Girmay told the flash interview immediately after his surprising victory. Just as he wanted to talk further, the 24-year-old Eritrean was overcome with emotion. 'Since I started as a cyclist, I could never have dreamed of being part of the Tour de France. Now I don't believe my second participation is winning a stage, from a bunch sprint.... This is incredible.'

Girmay, who recorded his fourteenth win of his still tender career, was clearly well behaved. No party went unnamed. 'I also want to thank my family and friends, as well as all the people of Eritrea. We should be proud, now we are really part of the big games. This is our moment, our time and so congratulations to the team for finally winning a Tour stage. I am super happy. This is a victory for Africa, for everyone. A black rider shining on the biggest stage, but now we are showing ourselves. The team has shown what we are capable of.'

Sports director Aike Visbeek also knew immediately at Eurosport what the win meant. 'We have written history, those were my first words over the radio. This is super important for a whole continent, this is what they were waiting for. Let's hope this opens the gates to more African riders. Bini is an ambassador and this win is teamwork. You see what is possible when you give these guys a chance.'

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Intermarché-Wanty wanted to sprint with Thijssen, and then....

That Girmay's victory came as a surprise was also partly due to the team plan. 'The plan was to do a lead-out for Gerben Thijssen and when the conditions were difficult, I could also try for myself. As a team we did well and when I lost Gerben's wheel, I tried for myself. The fact that I beat the fastest guys in the world here is a great motivation," Girmay said.

Visbeek agreed. 'We had a clear plan and frankly the guys stayed very cool. Bini had a free role and we confidently took the initiative for Gerben. We had both guys where we wanted them and Bini then finishes it off. When he's in that position, he has great acceleration," said the Dutchman. Teammate Georg Zimmermann said, 'We made a clear plan, that we wanted to be at the front early and the result shows that was a good choice. We are all very happy and full of disbelief. I've been with this team since 2021 and we were trying to win a stage all that time. We never really succeeded, until now...'

'Tour successful,' concluded Mike Teunissen, talking to the NOS. 'For this team, a win at the highest level does mean a lot, especially with our superstar. We worked well as a team, because it was a big goal for us. To succeed immediately... Hopefully there is more to come, but we could only dream of this. Bini is a special one: sometimes he lets himself be easily drummed away and sometimes he goes on at 400 meters and no one can get over him. Normally he strikes in the tricky rides, but now everything falls into place'.