Published on 01.07.2024
Eritrean Biniam Girmay won the third stage of the Tour de France in Turin on Monday in a sprint. Richard Carapaz took the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar.
A historic victory! For the first time in the history of the Grande Boucle, an Eritrean won a stage. Intermarché sprinter Biniam Girmay managed to surprise everyone. He finished ahead of Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud De Lie.
Jasper Philipsen was expected for this first sprint, but the Belgian, six-time stage winner on the Tour, was caught in a fall in the very last kilometers. The sprinter from the Alpecin team had also lost his leader and pilot fish Mathieu van der Pool to a mechanical problem 6 km from the finish.
It was therefore the runner from Asmara who took advantage of the racing conditions to achieve a historic success for his country. Stage winner of the Giro in 2022, we remember that Girmay won a stage of the Tour de Suisse last year. This is the third African victory on the Tour after the South Africans Daryl Impey and Rob Hunter.
Overall, Tadej Pogacar gave up his yellow jersey to Richard Carapaz. The two men are on the same time, but Carapaz finished several places ahead of the Slovenian.
On Tuesday, the peloton will return to France after the Italian debut. And the least we can say is that it will be a stage for the strong with three climbs on the program. The 140 km stage will leave Pinerolo to reach Valloire. After the climb towards Sestrières, the runners will attack the Col de Montgenèvre and especially the Col du Galibier and a summit at 2627 m just before the descent to Valloire.
Carapaz will have his work cut out for him against Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel who are all in the same time as him.
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