Two years ago, Biniam Girmay made history when he became Africa’s first winner of a Tour de France classification, claiming three stages on his way to the green jersey. He hasn’t hit the same heights since that record-breaking July, but the Eritrean will be back to fight for the maillot vert once more this year.
In the 18 months that followed the 2024 Tour, the wins dried up for Girmay. His then team, Intermarché-Wanty, looked a spent force as it endured financial problems, eventually merging with Lotto ahead of this season. The merger allowed Girmay to break his contract and pursue a fresh start, which he found in the rebranded NSN Cycling Team, itself desperate for a new dawn after pro-Palestine protests at the 2025 Vuelta forced the team previously known as Israel-Premier Tech into a change in identity.
At this year’s Tour, Girmay and NSN will write the next chapters of their respective stories, and both are hoping for a return to 2024 form and an opportunity to make yet more history.
“We want to go there to win,” the team’s head sports director, Sam Bewley, told Escape. “Bini's obviously won there in the past. He's not shying away from that challenge. We want to be competitive across the whole Tour de France, if we can be. We'll try to bring a squad that will allow us to be competitive across the whole Tour; bunch sprints, breakaways, et cetera. But ultimately, our firm focus is on that sprint group and we've got quite a number of opportunities there. So, yeah, without really pulling any punches, we want to win at the Tour with Bini or others.”
A stage win is the first priority, but NSN are also looking intently into the possibility of challenging for the green jersey at the 2026 Tour. This year, stages that Tour organisers ASO categorise as flat will be worth 70 points to the winner rather than 50, potentially weighting the competition in favour of the quicker finishers.
Caley Fretz
This year, seven stages have been categorised as flat; however, a couple of these contain late tests which could favour Girmay, who is among the best-climbing sprinters at the Tour. Bewley and the rest of the NSN staff have carried out a deep analysis of the competition.
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