If last Spring was the difficult second album, then the current Classics campaign marks something of a return to form for Biniam Girmay. “It’s nice to see myself back in the game again,” he admitted when he lined up for Gent-Wevelgem in Ypres’ Grote Markt on Sunday morning.
On his Gent-Wevelgem debut two years ago, Girmay made history and headlines by becoming the first African rider to win a Classic. At the same race 12 months ago, he experienced the other extreme of racing on this terrain. After enduring an afternoon of miserable conditions along the Franco-Belgian border, he rolled home over 11 minutes down in second-last place.
That anonymous Gent-Wevelgem outing was of a piece with a difficult Spring and, as it turned out, with much of Girmay’s season. There were occasional bright spots, most notably a stage victory at the Tour de Suisse, but the year felt flat in comparison to his effervescent 2022 campaign, where he also scored a Giro d’Italia stage win, beating Mathieu van der Poel in Jesi.
The Eritrean’s relative travails prompted a rethink from both the rider and his Intermarché-Wanty team, and the subtle shifts to his preparation appear to be bearing fruit this time around.
At E3 Harelbeke on Friday, Girmay was in the group chasing winner Van der Poel until he was undone, like many others, by the drop in temperature in the final hour of racing. At Gent-Wevelgem, he placed seventh after contesting the sprint for the final spot on the podium. He hasn’t scaled the heights of 2022 just yet, but the upward trajectory is clear.
Intermarché-Wanty performance manager Aike Visbeek believes there was some obvious mitigation for Girmay’s subdued performances in last year’s Classics campaign, which ended with a crash at the Tour of Flanders.
“I think 2022 was very forgiving because it was always good weather. Every day Bini was in Belgium was a good training day,” Visbeek told Cyclingnews. “But 2023 was a year with more bad luck and more bad weather. It was more complicated.”
Girmay’s youth was another factor. Young riders may routinely arrive in the WorldTour peloton ready to win these days, but that doesn’t mean they don’t endure the same teething problems as previous generations. The seamless rise of a man like Tadej Pogačar is an outlier. Most, Girmay included, endure missteps even after scoring breakout wins.
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