History was made at the Tour de France on Monday, but in the end it was not Mark Cavendish who made it. The Manx rider, chasing the 35th stage win which would make him the most successful Tour stage winner of all time, was one of a number of sprinters caught out by a late crash on the first bunch sprint of the race into Turin. Instead, it was Biniam Girmay, a 24-year-old Eritrean, who entered cycling’s record books, becoming the first black African to win a stage of the sport’s greatest race.
The 111th edition of the Tour de France is under way. The race is one of the three grand tours – the others being the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España – that form the backbone around which the cycling season is structured.
Girmay, 24, won a stage of the Giro d’Italia in 2022 but this moment will carry much greater significance.
So it took Tadej Pogacar just two days to claim the yellow leader’s jersey at this year’s Tour de France. With a searing attack over the top of the final climb into Bologna on Sunday, the big pre-race favourite opened up a 30-second gap over the rest of the GC group as if they were standing still.