Girmay makes history at the Tour de France
+ The next African star, African women preparing for the Worlds in Belgium, Tour of Qinghai Lake and more from the world of cycling
Welcome to Global Peloton!
After a week of rainy camping in the west of Scotland, I’m all caught up on the Tour. What a race it’s been so far.
If you enjoy this, please consider sharing, and don’t forget to subscribe.
Dan
History Makers
The dream of an Eritrean stage win at the Tour de France hasn’t come true just yet. After getting boxed in during the sprint on stage 11, Biniam Girmay has three more possible chances on stages 18, 19 and 21.
Despite this, it’s already been a history-making Tour for Girmay. On stage 7, he became the first black African to achieve a stage podium in the history of the Tour de France. If the win never comes, that is still a monumental achievement.
The previous best result by a black African had been Daniel Teklehaimanot’s 7th place on stage 16 of the 2016 Tour. He followed that up with 12th the following day.
This is already the deepest Girmay has ever gone in a Grand Tour, so it will be a test for him to continue to perform well in the final week.
If Biniam Girmay is the current king of African cycling, his successor might be on the rise already - the next history maker for African cycling.
Ethiopia’s Hagos Berhe has had an excellent few weeks of racing since his return from injury. The Jayco-Alula man rode brilliantly at the Tour de Suisse to take 16th on GC.
Last week, he backed this up with an even better 6th overall at the Österreich-Rundfahrt, including two second-places to a flying, three-stage-winning Ecuadorian, Jhonnatan Narvaez.
Berhe’s experienced team-mate Tsgabu Grmay has tipped his protegé for great things. With these results off the back of relatively little experience, it’s easy to see why.
Jayco-Alula’s General Manager, Brent Copeland, told Xylon van Eyck on the Supersapiens podcast:
“Hagos has got this incredible talent which we don’t even know how far he can go with it. He surprised us this year. He started out with an unlucky crash in Valencia in Spain. A bit of a concussion took him out for a good couple of months. Our medical staff didn’t want him to start again. He came back and rode his first race at the Tour of Switzerland. He was one of only a few riders that could actually follow Evenepoel. That just shows what kind of talent he is. The margin of improvement is huge. Besides the talent it’s just great to have him on the team and to be working with African riders.”
You can read a full transcript of the interview on the Team Africa Rising website.
Burkina Faso’s Awa Bamogo has shown her potential for a couple of years having twice been on the podium at the African Continental Championships.
Recently, the 24-year-old has managed to get across to Europe to train, race and hopefully compete in the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow. She is benefitting from the CAC Horizons Africa Women’s Cycling project, which is holding a training camp for African women in Belgium before the World Championships.
In her first race, Bamogo came 30th in PK Oost-Vlaanderen, managing to stay with the front group in a strong field. As a rider who’s never raced outside of Africa, it’s an encouraging result.
Other riders on the programme include:
Habiba Osama (EGY)
Maíra Correia (MOZ)
Marli Labuschagne (SA)
Malak Mechab (ALG)
Eden Spangenberg (NAM)
Mariate Byukusenge (RWA)
Emmanuella Rakundo (BUR)
Raja Chakir (MOR)
Skye Davidson (ZIM)
UCI racing returns to China
While the biggest race in the world roars on in Europe, UCI racing has returned to the world’s most populous nation.
The 2.Pro Tour of Qinghai Lake kicked off on the 9th of July and features five Pro Teams, thirteen Continental teams (including three from Europe) and three national teams.
The European Pro Teams have dominated most of the stages so far, with a couple of wins for Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè’s Italians and Henok Mulubrhan sitting in fifth overall and wearing the points jersey.
Wilmar Paredes of Team Medellín leads the GC after infiltrating a breakaway win. His fellow South American, Eric Fagundez of Uruguay and Burgos BH, is sitting in third.
As expected, the best Chinese performer in the race so far has been China Glory’s Xianjing Lyu. Lyu recently won a stage at the Tour of Sakarya and finished second overall. He is currently sitting in 9th place and his South African team-mate, Willie Smit, is one place behind.
No other Chinese riders are within 30 minutes of Paredes, but their have been a few encouraging stage results. Zhihui Jiang was 4th on stage one and Chinese champion Binyan Ma was 11th. 18-year-old Xi Li secured a top-20 on stage 5.
The Tour of Qinghai Lake is the first of many men’s and women’s UCI races scheduled for China in the coming months. The rebirth of cycling in China is well underway.
Other News
South African Ashleigh Moolman Pasio has extended her contract with AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step. Here’s my story for Cycling News. Look out for a longer interview piece with Moolman Pasio before the TDFF.
Isaac Del Toro went very well at the 2.1 Sibiu Tour. The young Mexican finished 10th overall after taking 8th on stage 3’s mountain top finish
Another young Mexican, Heriberto Quiroz Gutierrez has joined the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA feeder team, Caja Rural-Alea. The 19-year-old is currently racing the Vuelta a Zamora and finished 8th in the first stage. Quiroz had some strong results in European junior races last season.
In Portugal the GP
At the Pan-Arab Games, Nesrine Houili has won the women’s TT for Algeria, Moroccan Mohcine El Kouraji won the men’s race. Another Algerian, Chahra Azzouoz won the women’s road race. The men’s race is later today.
Thanks for reading Global Peloton!
There will be no post next week. I’m sure you’ll survive with all the TDF madness!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing and sharing.
Everything is free for now, you can add a paid subscription if you want to support Global Peloton.
Thanks for the shout out on Brent’s interview