Biniam Girmay Is The New Sprint King

As the peloton sped into the final kilometer of Stage 12 of the Tour de France on Thursday, Biniam Girmay was about 20 riders back. The front of the pack roiled; no single team was strong enough to stay in control for more than 50 meters at a time. A pair of Bahrain riders hit the front too early, followed by a similarly doomed pair of Arkea hopefuls. Arnaud Démare was delivered into what could have been a winning position, boxing in Wout van Aert in the process. As the intense pace sheared off the lead-out men, Démare faded and the rest of the top sprinters found themselves out of position. But not Girmay, who was dropped off on Alexander Kristoff's wheel by a perfect lead-out from Mike Teunissen. He made his move at exactly the right time.

Girmay has been the revelation of this Tour, with three stage wins to his name already. The 24-year-old Eritrean won the race's first flat stage in Torino on the third day of racing, going early and holding off world champion and two-time Tour stage winner Mads Pedersen. With that result, Girmay become the first black rider to win a stage at the Tour, but he was not content with just one. Five days later on Stage 8, the race finished on an uphill sprint, which favored Girmay; he's a more well-rounded, Classics-style sprinter than most of his competitors. On that stage, he showed off his immense power again, fighting Jasper Philipsen straight-up for the sprint and holding him off all the way to the line. If Girmay's first two wins were mostly demonstrations of strength, his third win showed how well-rounded he is, and what he can accomplish with a good lead-out. Sprinting is a contest of nerves as much as legs, and Girmay is brimming with confidence. He holds a three-digit lead in the points competition, and is all but certain to wear the green jersey until Nice. "The green jersey gives me wings," he said after his third win. "I feel super fast. It's in the head."

Three stage wins for Girmay is a fairly shocking turn, given the presence of Philipsen, who won four last year. Philipsen's Alpecin team was dominant in 2023, but neither he nor Mathieu van der Poel, the best lead-out man in the sport, look as sharp this year, despite fewer riders forcing the team to work to reel in doomed breakaways. With Philipsen once again showing why he was nicknamed "Jasper Disaster" and MVDP tired from his dominant spring campaign, Girmay has been the Tour's best sprinter, outshining even Mark Cavendish in his fairytale farewell Tour. No wonder they're partying in Asmara.

While Girmay doesn't have the big results of Philipsen, van Aert, or Pedersen, his talent has been obvious for years. In 2022, he won a cobbled classic and a stage of the Giro d'Italia, showing that he had the legs to win difficult sprints against top-level competition. When he notched those wins, his moment at the Tour seemed possible though not certain, as there's a serious step up in competition between sprint corps at the Giro and the Tour. Girmay's a similar rider to van Aert and van der Poel, two era-defining talents who will always be there to target races best suited to him, and he hadn't shown himself to be quite on the level of the top pure sprinters like Philipsen. Ask Bryan Coquard: A rider can be very good for a very long time, but it takes something truly special to win at the Tour.

Girmay's 2023 Tour debut had people excited, but he wound up finishing in the top 10 only twice. What makes this star turn especially impressive is that his team is not flush with cash. Intermarché has the smallest budget in the World Tour, roughly a quarter of the big boys at Ineos and UAE. When the race tilts upward this weekend, the duel between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard will shift back into focus. But Girmay is the rider of the moment, competition be damned.