Latest news with #BiniamGirmay
Zawya
2 days ago
- Sport
- Zawya
Eritrea: Strong Start by Biniam Girmay at 112th Tour de France
Eritrean Olympian Biniam Girmay of Belgian team Intermarché-Wanty kicked off the 112th edition of the Tour de France with an impressive second-place finish in the opening stage. The 184.9 km race was completed in 3 hours, 53 minutes, and 5 seconds, with Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck claiming first place. Biniam crossed the finish line with the same time, narrowly missing the top spot but asserting his presence early in the competition. In the intermediate sprint, Biniam secured third place and earned 15 points in the green jersey classification. As a result, he enters Stage Two ranked second overall in both the yellow and green jersey standings and leads the white jersey category for best young rider. The second stage of the Tour will continue on Sunday with a 209.1 km route. Biniam Girmay made history in the 111th edition of the Tour de France last year, winning three stages and becoming the first Black African cyclist to win the prestigious green jersey. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Information, Eritrea.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Jasper Philipsen emerges from the choas to win stage 1 of Tour de France in Lille
Jasper Philipsen won a chaotic opening stage of the Tour de France to take the first yellow jersey of the race. Philipsen took his 10th career Tour stage but the first to put him into yellow as he beat Biniam Girmay in a much-reduced bunch sprint after crosswinds split the peloton to pieces. Overall hopefuls Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic were both caught out, conceding 39 seconds to the main favourites Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, with the Dane having done much to instigate the splits inside the last 20 kilometres of the 185km stage that started and finished in Lille. Fewer than 40 riders made it into the front group but Philipsen's Alpecin-Deceuninck team had four of them and they made it count, putting together an ideal lead-out for Philipsen to comfortably beat Girmay and Soren Waerenshjold to the line. "It's really amazing," the Belgian said. "My 10th victory is something I will never forget. The team performance was incredible. I think we were there all day. It was very nervous but we knew today could be our day and we have to be in the front and we were there in the split. "The team did amazing and in the end we could just use our strength and finish it off... "I have dreamt about (the yellow jersey). Already I had the green jersey from two years ago but to have the yellow jersey hanging somewhere in my house in the next years is going to be amazing." Philipsen became the first pure sprinter to pull on yellow since Alexander Kristoff won the opening stage in Nice in 2020, but it was far from a straightforward bunch finish as strong crosswinds in northern France added to the stress of the opening day of the Tour, producing chaos. Benjamin Thomas, the Olympic Madison champion, ended the day in the king of the mountains jersey but only after crashing into Matteo Vercher as they crossed the line battling for the point at the top of the cobbled climb of Mont Cassel. Thomas had been part of an original five-man breakaway reeled in before the mid-point of the stage as teams fought for position. Another rider to go down was former world time trial champion Filippo Ganna, and the Italian later abandoned the race, a huge blow for the Ineos Grenadiers. In summing up the stage Geraint Thomas, riding his final Tour de France, said: "I should have stopped last year, to be honest. It was very stressful. "It's a big, big shame to lose Pippo. I saw the crash and it didn't look too bad but he gave his head a bit of a knock, so there's a concussion call which is the right thing, but it's a big, big shame to lose him." The yellow jersey will be expected to change shoulders on Sunday given the lumpy finish to 209km stage two from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer.
France 24
2 days ago
- Sport
- France 24
Philipsen wins nervy Tour de France opener as Evenepoel loses time
Philipsen took the yellow jersey in a frantic sprint finish at the northern city of Lille, while double Olympic champion Evenepoel was trapped in a second group and lost around 40 seconds. Race favourites Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard both finished safely in the lead pack on a day marred by a series of falls. Africa's sole rider Biniam Girmay, winner of three stages in 2024, was second on the day as Philipsen got ahead of him with 100m to go. Around 40 riders in the first group contested the sprint where one of the day's many falls happened. Primoz Roglic of Red Bull and Team UAE's Joao Almeida were also caught in the surprise split in blustery winds. Fans packed the route in one of France's more modest regions passing First World War memorials, red-brick houses and slagheaps from long-closed coal mines along the Belgian border. Racing towards an intermediate sprint over cobbles, escapee Benjamin Thomas slid sideways and took out his sole rival Matteo Vercher in one spectacular fall and the pair were still bickering when the peloton shot past them. Former time-trial world champion Filippo Ganna was one rider who will take no further part after a clumsy fall on a corner. The Italian would have been a contender on the lengthy stage 5 individual time-trial, as well as key in the Ineos team's campaign to get veteran Geraint Thomas into the top 10 on his 14th and final Tour de France. Philipsen, in yellow, will lead the peloton out for Sunday's second stage, a hilly 209km route to the beaches of Boulogne-sur-mer.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Philipsen wins stage one to claim first yellow jersey
Jasper Philipsen will wear the yellow jersey for the first time in his career as he won stage one of the 2025 Tour de France.A sprint finish was expected after a flat stage beginning and ending in Lille, and Alpecin-Deceuninck's lead-out train delivered the 27-year-old in the perfect position to claim the stage Belgian rider ended up beating Biniam Girmay by a comfortable margin to claim his 10th stage win on the Tour."It's really amazing," said Philipsen. "My 10th victory is something I will never forget."The team performance was incredible. I think we were there all day. It was very nervous but we knew it could be our day and we have to be at the front and we were there in the split."The team did amazing and in the end we could just use our strength and finish it off."Philipsen claimed four stage wins in 2023 and finished that edition of the Tour with the green jersey as the points classification leader."I have dreamt about [the yellow jersey]," he added. "Already I had the green jersey from two years ago but to have the yellow jersey hanging somewhere in my house is amazing."More to follow.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: Philipsen wins chaotic first stage as Evenepoel and Roglic suffer
Crashes, infighting and relentless stress characterised a frantic opening stage of the 2025 Tour de France, which was won by Jasper Philipsen, of Alpecin-Deceuninck, in Lille Metropole. Winner of three stages in 2024, the Belgian sprinter was too quick for the Eritrean Biniam Girmay, of Intermarché Wanty, and Norway's Søren Wærenskjold, of Uno-X Mobility, and claimed his first yellow jersey. Eighteen kilometres from Lille, the gusting crosswinds forced a decisive coup, as a select group, including Philipsen, moved ahead. In the front group were the favourites, Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Jonas Vingegaard of Visma Lease-a-bike. Behind, there were multiple splits in the bunch, with more scrambling required by those who had lost the wheel in front of them. Among those cut adrift were the Olympic road race champion, Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step, and Primoz Roglic of Bora Hansgrohe, five times a Grand Tour winner. In a chaotic opening stage, raced at breakneck speeds through incessant crosswinds, there were soon crashes, punctures and dropped riders, with many left chasing back frantically through the race convoy. Among the casualties were Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers, Visma Lease-a-bike's Simon Yates, the Giro d'Italia winner, the former world champion Julian Alaphilippe, now with Tudor Pro Cycling, Bahrain Victorious's French hope Lenny Martinez, and Florian Lipowitz of Bora Hansgrohe. The sight of first Martinez and then Yates, battling alone to rejoin the peloton, was puzzling, given their supposed protected status. Eventually all of them, apart from the stricken Ganna, who quit the race, rejoined the back of the peloton, but with frayed nerves after a typically stressful start to the Tour. The stage looped south-west and then headed north, through the Pas de Calais, before turning back towards Lille and skirting the Belgian border as the peloton sped towards the finish. The early breakaway of five riders survived 70km before the peloton reeled them in shortly before the first intermediate sprint, at La Motte au Bois, won by Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek from Bryan Coquard, riding for Cofidis, and Girmay. The subsequent lull was filled by the French duo Benjamin Thomas, a gold medallist on the track in last year's Paris Olympics, and Matteo Vercher. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion A momentarily at ease peloton was content to give them their head on the approach to the stage's two short climbs, the Mont Cassel and Mont Noir, as they built a lead nudging a minute. But in a moment that seemed to epitomise the home nation's malaise, the pair somehow managed to sabotage each other when sprinting for the climbing points at the fourth category climb to Cassel, Thomas's rear wheel sliding across the cobbles and taking a furious Vercher down, as they crested the top of the climb.
