Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Monday July 1, 2024 at 5:18 p.m.
The Eritrean Biniam Girmay won the third stage of the Tour de France in a sprint, in the streets of Turin, ahead of Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud de Lie. A reduced committee sprint following a massive fall in the final. Richard Carapaz takes the yellow jersey.
Biniam Girmay wrote a page in cycling history this Monday! The Eritrean became the first black African rider to win a stage of the Tour de France, two years after having done the same on a Flandrian classic (Ghent-Wevelgem) and a stage of the Giro. The 24-year-old rider won during the 3rd stage after a sprint in the streets of Turin, which took place in a small group, due to a fall in the last kilometers which delayed some sprinters , starting with Jasper Philipsen, the big favorite. If Sam Bennett was carried very well by his Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale train and if Mads Pedersen seemed powerful enough to winit was finally Girmay who emerged on the right side, near the barriers, to go and secure this historic victory, the fourteenth of his career.. His tears as he got off the bike spoke volumes about the feat he had just accomplished, he who had finished third in Bordeaux and sixth on the Champs-Elysées last year for his first participation in the Grande Boucle. It is also the very first victory for the Intermarché-Wanty team, which arrived in the World Tour in 2021, on the Tour de France.
A stage without escape
The Colombian Fernando Gaviria and the Belgian Arnaud De Lie complete the podium for this stage, the scenario of which was not necessarily as expected.
If usually the relatively flat stages ending in a sprint are marked by a long breakaway, caught a few minutes before the finish thanks to the work of the sprinters’ teams, this was not at all the case this Monday. After a difficult first weekend, both in terms of weather and terrain, the peloton felt the need to take a breather. So no breakaway worthy of the name formed. The Uno-X Mobility duo Jonas Abrahamsen and Johannes Kulset left in the first fifteen kilometers but got back up. Fabien Grellier (TotalEnergies) stretched his legs by running at the front for 38 kilometers, but never had a lead of more than 35 seconds.
Carapaz steals the yellow jersey from Pogacar
At the end of this stage, the yellow jersey changes shoulders for the second time in three days, as Richard Carapaz takes it from Tadej Pogacar. The Ecuadorian, former winner of the Giro, is classified in exactly the same time as the Slovenian, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard, but in total places since the departure from Florence (respectively 46, 56, 60 and 97), it is Carapaz who takes the lead in the ranking. On Tuesday, the peloton arrives in France, with a 140-kilometre stage between Pinerolo and Valloire and, already, the Galibier (hors catégorie) to climb twenty kilometres from the finish. There should no longer be a tie in the standings…
