He did it! The young Eritrean, Biniam Girmay, took his first WT victory in epic fashion in the Gent Wevelgem! In the preview I asked why couldn’t his first WT win be Sunday? The answer? It could and it was! Honestly, I didn’t think he’d do it due to a combination of odds and experience. It’s just incredibly difficult to win a classic of the caliber of this one regardless of ability or experience. Many extremely qualified riders try their whole careers and never achieve a victory of this caliber. Look no further than last year’s 2nd place, Giacomo Nizzolo. The Italian is a household name among cycling fans and an extremely complete rider. Regardless, I would argue he doesn’t have a victory as prestigious as the Gent Wevelgem in his illustrious palmarés. And that’s just one example of many.
The race progressed pretty much as expected. The group of contenders was thinned out by Wout Van Aert with approximately 30 kilometers to go. The Belgian champion actually had a few seconds advantage exiting the final ascent of the Kemmelberg but couldn’t hold on and was reeled by the chasers soon after.
The group that formed had 3 Jumbo Visma riders (Van Aert, Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot) out of a total of 8. Jumbo couldn’t hold off the peloton and a big group soon formed, at around 25km to the finish line. As they did last year with Nathan Van Hooydonck, Jumbo Visma attacked with Laporte in the final 25km. Unlike last year, Laporte actually managed to get away from the peloton, but he brought company: Biniam Girmay (Intermarché Wanty Gobert), Dries Van Gestel (TotalEnergies), and Jasper Stuyven (Trek Segafredo). The quartet stayed away until the end. Girmay accelerated first, with about 250 meters from the finish. His burst was so great that, despite Laporte actually looking faster during the sprint, nobody was able to reach him.
Jumbo Visma
When you go 1-2 in the E3 classic nobody wants to work with you. Especially when your riders make up 40% of a group. Jumbo Visma’s window to maximize their odds of winning was right after the final ascent of the Kemmelberg when they were 40% of the leading group. Unlike last year, they didn’t manage to hold on to that lead. When the bunch regroups like that 25km from the finish in a 250km classic favorite status doesn’t matter. It almost becomes a lottery. Jumbo Visma probably decided they couldn’t (or didn’t want to) to bring the race to the line and trusted Laporte to finish the job for them. Hard to blame them at that point. The Frenchman almost won too. Their key to avoid this lottery was those 5km after the Kemmelberg. They couldn’t do it.
TotalEnergies
I am very critical of Jean-René Bernaudeau. I think he leveraged his status as a former (good) professional cyclist into a career he isn’t really qualified for. You see it all the time in sports. Coaches that leverage their playing careers into roles they shouldn’t be playing.
Still, adding a 3rd place in the Gent Wevelgem to a stage win in the Paris Nice and a 2nd place in the Milano Sanremo makes for a fantastic start of the season for the French team. Their production outside of this is limited but for a team that struggled so much to make their mark on WT races, these results are sensational.
Christophe Laporte
He didn’t win the Gent Wevelgem but adding a 2nd place to another in the E3 classic and a stage win in the Paris Nice is great, in my opinion. I was just praising a whole team for doing this. The French rider is certainly reaching a whole new level ever since moving to Jumbo Visma. He was great in Cofidis but never a favorite to win WT races. After his start of the season, he will be.
Jasper Stuyven
For a rider that’s supposed to be quick he certainly hasn’t made use of his quickness in a long time. Last year he disappointed the Belgium fans that came out en masse to support their contingent in the world championship. I obviously don’t blame him for losing to Alaphilippe, but he couldn’t even outsprint Dylan Van Baarle OR Michael Valgren. Not “and”. “OR”. Yesterday he was, once again, a complete non-factor in the sprint. The last time he outsprinted someone for a victory was in the 2020 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (1vs1 against Yves Lampaert), more than 2 years ago. He’s a very intelligent, great one-day racer. Not someone I’d trust in a sprint.
Biniam Girmay
On the preview I wrote that his potential is endless. He just started making his mark on the WT. We’ll see what he does from now on. Waiting is all we can do now, really. We don’t even know what kind of rider he’ll become. Biniam Girmay has all the tools to contend in the classics, but he also has the potential to fight for the sprints in Grand Tours. To be fair, these goals aren’t mutually exclusive. His ambitions in the classics will probably preclude him from becoming the best sprinter in the world but he’ll be more than good enough to contend in the classics while fighting for green in the Tour, for example. Maybe he won’t be the main favorite to win pure sprint finishes in GTs, but he will certainly win stages there.
Anyway, all of that is speculation. What’s not speculation is that, at 21 years of age, this prodigy already won the Gent Wevelgem. What a rider!