Tour de France points leader Biniam Girmay had a rough day at the office on Tuesday, but the 24-year-old Eritrean will ride on despite crashing near the finish of stage 16.
“Fortunately, the medical exams did not reveal any fractures,” Intermarché-Wanty team doctor Simon Claeys said in a press release. “Biniam has contusions on his right shoulder, elbow, and knee. His right elbow injuries required two stitches. Despite this setback, Biniam is in fighting spirit and will be ready for the start of stage 17 tomorrow.”
Girmay hit the deck in a pileup inside the final 2 km of stage 16 that also brought down several EF Education-EasyPost riders. In the team press release, he explained that “the road narrowed before the last kilometer and I touched another rider’s handlebars. I braked hard but it was impossible to avoid the crash.”
He thus missed out on the chance to contest the sprint in Nîmes, where rival Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the day, drawing much closer to Girmay in the green jersey battle. Behind, Girmay remounted slowly and teammates helped push him to the finish line.
In other words, Tuesday was a setback – but Girmay said that the frustrating stage would not deter him from pressing on at the race.
“I consider myself lucky. Mentally I’m not down, far from it, actually,” he said. “I’m going to fight to the end in Nice.”
After stage 16, where Girmay did score some points at the intermediate even though he took none at the finish, he still has a lead of 32 points in the green jersey battle. What’s more, there are no obvious sprint opportunities left in the Tour. Any change in the points standings will come from the intermediate sprints over the last few stages, and Girmay has acquitted himself very well in those opportunities so far.
Riding through the pain of the injuries he sustained Tuesday may be his biggest challenge, and we will only know in the days to come whether he can hold on – through some tough stages in the Alps – to finish the Tour.
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