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Biniam Girmay discussion thread

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Huge win, for him and African cyclists and cycling. Incredibly cool and great strategy for a youngster. Reminds me of a certain Slovene...

Wonder which "big name" team will make him an offer that he (and Wanty) can't refuse?

In a way that would be a shame but I would not blame him for taking a bigger contract.

I could imagine that QuickStep wants to buy him out of his contract - if it‘s possible.

Depends on a lot of factors: what the rider wants, his team wants, other teams want.

The stronger he gets, the more focus is on him in the races, from other riders. So people start riding to make you lose - all top riders make this experience.

Intermarche seems a good team for him at the moment. They are not weak any more.
 
I could imagine that QuickStep wants to buy him out of his contract - if it‘s possible.

Depends on a lot of factors: what the rider wants, his team wants, other teams want.

The stronger he gets, the more focus is on him in the races, from other riders. So people start riding to make you lose - all top riders make this experience.

Intermarche seems a good team for him at the moment. They are not weak any more.
It was striking that Intermarche had 3 further riders in addition to Girmay out front that were all in the Van Aert group.

Along with Jumbo Visma they were arguably the most impressive team of the day.
 
I mean, technically Froome got all his wins riding under the UK's flag, so I can at least understand why people don't really see Froome as African.

This is sadly true. It was a tragedy Froome relinquished his Kenyan/African identity when joining Sky.
All because they wanted to be 'more British'.
One of the worst things to ever happen in cycling.
Well, maybe not as bad as cyclists dying due to drug abuse or getting cancer and other ailments, so maybe a level under that.
 
It'll be interesting to see him race in the classics next year with his new reputation. He had the advantage of people underestimating him in Harelbeke and GW, I'm sure that woun't happen again next year. He'll need to be stronger to win again.

But I woun't be suprised if he's up there next year between MVP and WVA.
 
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It'll be interesting to see him race in the classics next year with his new reputation. He had the advantage of people underestimating him in Harelbeke and GW, I'm sure that woun't happen again next year. He'll need to be stronger to win again.

But I woun't be suprised if he's up there next year between MVP and WVA.

Agree. He‘ll need to be stronger, but I‘m quite sure, he‘ll be stronger. Physically stronger, since his body still develops. Mentally stronger, because he knows he can win big races, and gained self-confidence.

And normally, he‘ll get stronger in the Flemish Classics within the next few years anyways. He‘ll gain experience, get to know the courses, the parcours of every race. The more experience he will have, the less energy he will waste for wrong positioning, wrong pacing, bad handling of the different kinds of cobbles, and so on. He‘ll be able to judge these things by himself, and rely less on DS and teammates.

I have the feeling he already loves these races. A „Flandrien“ was born this weekend… :)

5th and 1st at first participations in E3 and GW, that‘s category Boonen, Cancellara, van Petegem or Museeuw…

Probably, also Belgian fans now just started to like and love him. They are known to be fair and supporting riders from inside and outside Belgium. Girmay obviously is special, and I could imagine he‘ll grow into a living legend there quite fastly… ;-)
 
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According to the CN article on the front page, the sponsors are paying to up his salary to a million euro a year.

It makes sense. Many of the big teams will presumably have been thinking about whether it would be viable to unsettle him and then buy him out of his contract. That’s a lot harder if he is being paid a lot of money rather than being stuck on a long term but suddenly well below market value contract.

And really from the sponsors point of view, if you are already laying out millions to get the publicity that sponsoring one of the smallest WT teams brings, 700k a year extra is pretty good value to get the publicity that sponsoring a WT team with potentially one of the big star riders brings.

They also are going to pay for support riders. Again it makes sense. If you are very confident in the leader, you maximise his chances by giving him a strong team.
 
According to the CN article on the front page, the sponsors are paying to up his salary to a million euro a year.

It makes sense. Many of the big teams will presumably have been thinking about whether it would be viable to unsettle him and then buy him out of his contract. That’s a lot harder if he is being paid a lot of money rather than being stuck on a long term but suddenly well below market value contract.

And really from the sponsors point of view, if you are already laying out millions to get the publicity that sponsoring one of the smallest WT teams brings, 700k a year extra is pretty good value to get the publicity that sponsoring a WT team with potentially one of the big star riders brings.

They also are going to pay for support riders. Again it makes sense. If you are very confident in the leader, you maximise his chances by giving him a strong team.
From appearances he had teammates near him per Hayneplane. It also sounds like the team management can take some serious credit for having new riders prepared to compete. Early season races can be the best boost a smaller team will get. When things get super-serious in months to come their challenge won't get any easier. Good luck, Wanty!
 
According to the CN article on the front page, the sponsors are paying to up his salary to a million euro a year.

It makes sense. Many of the big teams will presumably have been thinking about whether it would be viable to unsettle him and then buy him out of his contract. That’s a lot harder if he is being paid a lot of money rather than being stuck on a long term but suddenly well below market value contract.

And really from the sponsors point of view, if you are already laying out millions to get the publicity that sponsoring one of the smallest WT teams brings, 700k a year extra is pretty good value to get the publicity that sponsoring a WT team with potentially one of the big star riders brings.

They also are going to pay for support riders. Again it makes sense. If you are very confident in the leader, you maximise his chances by giving him a strong team.

I'm really happy to read that. I hate it when up and coming riders get snatched away by big squads who then proceed to turn them into domestiques. I can't fault the riders, of course, nor teams with money. That's the way of the world.

In this case, though, Intermarche is a huge brand with the potential to invest many millions more in the team. Now they have a reason to do so. (The history of Intermarche is quite interesting, by the way: https://www.mousquetaires.com/en/our-group/the-history-of-the-mousquetaires/)
 

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