'He pushes like a madman' – Wærenskjold on Girmay, who received a warning for stage 8 sprint
24 hours after finishing second to Tim Merlier on stage 7, Søren Wærenskjold was hoping for a similar result in Bergerac, but his progress was halted by a slightly errant Biniam Girmay – I say 'slightly' because the move made by the Eritrean sprinter, while not permitted, was only enough to earn a warning.
"He pushes like a madman," Wærenskjold told TV2 afterwards, having finished 11th in the stage 8 sprint. "It really makes me angry; he pushes me through the entire corner. It is very annoying. He bumped into me a few times and rides like a complete idiot."
The 'bumping' happened in the last corner just inside the last 600 metres, where overhead footage shows Girmay forcing Wærenskjold wide towards the outside barriers, which naturally meant a loss of momentum for the Norwegian.
“I was too far back and lost a lot of speed in the corner,” said Wærenskjold. He then gave another assessment of Girmay's actions, “He acts like an idiot the whole time. It is desperate and he absolutely does not deserve to pass me."
Girmay went from also being somewhat out of position on to Merlier's wheel, where he had the pace to follow and out-sprint the rest of the field to secure his best result of the Tour so far. The Eritrean was not the only sprinter to receive a warning from the jury, with Olav Kooij also appearing in dispatches, likely for his attempts to push Max Kanter off Jasper Philipsen's wheel.
