Historic for the first start from Italy, the Tour continues to write new pages. In Turin, two: the first victory of a black African, the first yellow jersey of an Ecuadorian. Both Biniam Girmay and Richard Carapaz are used to being precursors: they have already both cut several goals handed directly from the news to history.
Priority to Girmay, the man you don’t expect because in a sprint for pure sprinters he should have helped teammate Thijssen, more suitable than him. And instead: having lost the Belgian along the way, the Eritrean goes it alone and with a comeback on the barriers he slips past Pedersen, chivalrous in leaving the door open for him. Already the first black African to win a classic (the Gand-Wevelgem 2022) and to win the Giro (the same year, in Jesi, when he went home immediately after shooting himself in the eye with the cork of the sparkling wine on the stage of the awards ceremony), at 24 years old and in his second participation Bini also becomes the first to win the Tour, where his team had never won.
“It seems incredible to me, it’s a great day for me and for Africa: I dedicate it to my continent, to my family, to the team. It wasn’t my turn, but in the last kilometer I couldn’t see Thijssen anymore and I tried: I managed to beat the fastest in the world…”, sobs Girmay, who grew up in the Swiss center of the world federation and revealed himself to be a winner as soon as he set foot among the pros. He’s happy, the favorites are disappointed, from Philipsen deprived of the trailblazer Van der Poel due to a puncture in the final to Cavendish chasing records, all cut off from a sprint halved by a huge fall on a road a couple of kilometers from the finish line.
Girmay is celebrating, it’s a day to toast also for Carapaz, who by wearing yellow completes his collection of jerseys in the three major tours and sends a message to his federation that at the Games preferred the first pink of the Giro, Narvaez, despite being the reigning Olympic champion. In the quadrille at the top of the rankings, the Ecuadorian is the only one who wants the jersey: while he fights to obtain the placement needed to go to the top of the Tour, the three tied with him (Pogacar, Evenepoel and Vingegaard in order of position) pass by with indifference. And with the same motivation: starting as leader in the first real stage, which from Pinerolo brings the race back to France and in the finale faces the legendary Galibier, more than an honor can turn out to be a burden.
