I nearly fell off my chair with happiness after watching Biniam Girmay become the first black African cyclist to win a stage of the Tour! Also, Richard Carapaz becomes the first Ecuadorian cyclist to wear the yellow jersey… an emotional day for two champions at the Tour!
“Today, we showed that the Intermarché-Wanty team had the best sprint train in the pack. The plan was to prepare the final sprint for Gerben Thijssen, with me as a free electron. I followed the train and then snuck in to play my card. Finally, I closed my eyes and gave it my all to win. My joy is indescribable.”
-Biniam Girmay
“There were many risks like crashing and the team did such an amazing job where they left me at one kilometer to go and from there I could defend myself as well as I could, and then Marijn and I just went full into the finish line. It was spectacular. There are not a lot of us in the WorldTour and I hope this helps cycling so it can grow in my country. Every day I feel better and I feel ready to defend the jersey.”
-Richard Carapaz
“The yellow jersey is one of the strongest symbols in cycling, the pinnacle. If you meet somebody who doesn’t know anything about cycling, has never been close to the sport, they know what the yellow jersey is. It’s a huge honour for the team and for Richie to have it and we’re going to make the most of it.”
-Charly Wegelius Sports Director.
“At the Tour de Suisse he had an infection and had to take antibiotics. It’s really amazing that he’s been able to recover from all of that and perform at the level that he has. And then today we executed on kind of a crazy plan. Basically the whole team was giving Richie a leadout into a field sprint. We know he’s not going to win the field sprint but the hope was he would finish like 15th and that would be enough to break the tie and he’d be able to wear the yellow jersey. Frankly it’s rare when a plan works out like you want it to.
-Jonathan Vaughters CEO Ef Procycling
Comments