Date: Thursday, 11 July 2024
Girmay won stage 12 on ThursdayAFPGirmay became the first black African to win a stage on the Tour on the third day of this year's edition in Turin and was first again on stage eight.
He then proved fastest in a bunch sprint finish on stage 12, as he topped the podium ahead of Wout van Aert and Pascal Ackermann.
Asked if he was comfortable as a role model, Girmay said: "Cycling is not a global sport yet, so for African cycling this (his stage wins) is a good thing.
"Now maybe the European teams may take more Africans. For now I'm the only one and I wish there were more black riders in the peloton," he said.
"I'm in the best shape of my life. I get up every morning and look in the mirror and tell myself to live the day.
"To win three stages in one race is wonderful. After the last win I had nearly 600 messages from home."
Girmay now has 328 points to Jasper Philipsen's 217 with few real sprint stages remaining, with the exception of Friday's stage.
Title pretender Primoz Roglic provided the shock of the day as he fell further behind and seemingly out of contention for the title.
He had been fourth overnight but trailed home 2min 27sec behind Girmay after a fall that left his shoulder bleeding.
Roglic started the day 2min 15sec adrift but looked haggard as he crossed the line after struggling home over the final 12.5km.
The fall happened outside the zone where late crashes are overlooked for overall times.
An Astana rider failed to see a slender traffic island and took down around a dozen riders.
Overnight leader Tadej Pogacar remains 1min 06sec ahead of Remco Evenepoel in second, with Jonas Vingegaard in third, another 8sec behind.
Pogacar's thoughts were for his compatriot Roglic.
"I heard the crash but didn't look round. I was shocked by the bad news," he said.
"I'm really disappointed for him. It really sucks. I hope he can carry on. We know he's a big fighter."
When asked about his thoughts on being beaten to the line Wednesday by Vingegaard, he said he was happy in his yellow overall leader's jersey.
"I'm comfortable in the lead. It's up to him to attack if he wants the lead," said the 2020 and 2021 champion.
Pogacar's team-mate Joao Almeida is now fourth in the overall standings, with Ineos rider Carlos Rodriguez in fifth.
Evenepoel, the wearer of the white jersey for the outstanding young rider, said he had been extra careful.
"We knew there was a lot of road furniture in the final stretch, it's tricky. Better to stick to the front," said the Quick Step man.
The Tour lost two further participants on Thursday. First, bulky Belgian sprinter Fabio Jakobsen found it too hard to keep up with the swift pace and fell off the back to retire.
Spanish rider Pello Bilbao was also ill in the 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) heat and pulled out half-way through the stage.
Jonas Abrahamsen is level with Pogacar in the mountains classification on 36 points.
However, the Slovenian is the nominal leader due to his higher standing.
Stage 13 is one of the last obvious sprint stages on a flat run Friday from Agen to Pau, the gateway to the Pyrenees.
"Between Pau and Nice there is hardly any flat terrain at all," said route architect Thierry Gouvenou.
Girmay has won againGirmay, who became the first Black African to triumph on the Tour when he won the third stage, sealed his third win at this year's race on a day for the sprinters.
"We didn't want to take any risks today," Intermarche-Wanty rider Girmay said after the 204 km ride from Aurillac to Villeneuve-Sur-Lot.
"But in the end, when everyone came together, I felt super good, and I said on the radio, 'give me support and I can deliver'. So I'm just super happy."
Girmay out-paced Belgium's Van Aert and Arnaud Demare although Demare was later relegated to the back of the sprint bunch meaning Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) was promoted to the podium.
His win consolidated his hold on the green jersey with a 107-point advantage over Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
"From now on I will continue full focus on sprinting and the green jersey. As soon as I started wearing (it), I felt the fastest. If I have the right moment and the right position, I can prove myself in the sprints," he said.
It was disappointing result for Van Aert who said he got "boxed between Demare and the barrier".
"I should look back at what happened. Anyway, I had to relaunch my sprint - and I still came close to the victory. If I didn't have to stop pedalling I would have had a good chance," Van Aert said.
"It's also important to take some good things away today - for sure, I'm happy that I felt good again."
It was a quiet day for the general classification contenders with Pogacar protecting his one-minute and six-second lead over Remco Evenepoel, followed by defending champion Jonas Vingegaard a further eight seconds back.
Pogacar's compatriot Primoz Roglic, meanwhile, lost more than two minutes due to a crash towards the end of the stage.
The 2023 Giro d'Italia winner Roglic was brought down 12 km from the finish line, a day after losing 25 seconds after another crash on stage 11.
"I'm really sad for Primoz," Pogacar said. "I was shocked, it's a really bad news. I'm disappointed for him and wish him the best. I think Primoz would be flying in the last week."
