Biniam Girmay, a world class cyclist from Eritrea, became the first Black African to win a stage at the Tour de France. Today was the day. History was written. After 15 years of dogged determination, a commitment to African cycling development, investment in countries throughout the continent by Team Africa Rising, a Black African won a stage in the 111th edition of the greatest cycling race in the world.
#History
Next Step
This is not a culmination of our work in African cycling development. It is the next step. Often those next steps fall months, even years apart from one another. They are steps forward nonetheless. From the moment we set foot on the continent, landing in Rwanda and building the Rwandan National Cycling Team, we knew this day would come. We knew an African rider would win a stage at the Tour de France. Some days, they felt like they were right around the corner. Others, light years away. Today was the day.
Today harkened back to memories of the early days in Rwanda when we lost race after race after race in spectacularly brutal fashion. The race in Egypt in 2008 when a young Rwandan had a minor crash and writhed in pain screaming “Fire!” over and over. It was Daniel’s one and only “professional” race. The two years we sent the Rwandan team to the Tour of Morocco only to lose most everyone on the team the first day due to being out of the time limit (OTL). Last month, Adrien Niyonshuti took the Benin team to the Tour of Morocco, all of us warning the Benin Federation the carnage that was about to befall the team. Benin finished the 10 day stage race with one rider, Remi Sowou.
Team Africa Rising is still doing what we did all those years ago — preparing young cyclists to tackle the professional tackle the top tier of the sport. It’s still ugly, challenging, and yet, rewarding because this is exactly what they need to become the next Biniam Girmay.
Representation Matters
That is why Biniam’s win today was so important. Representation matters. It happened in 2015, when Daniel Teklahaimanot took the KOM jersey at his first Tour de France riding for MTN Qhubeka. Team Rwanda was crouched around a 15″ MacBook Pro screen watching NBC’s coverage of the Tour de France thanks to VPN and a somewhat stable internet connection. The second the team realized Daniel had secured the points for the King of the Mountain, they erupted in cheers and high fives. Utter joy! One of their friends, a rider who came from where they came from did it — proving they could do it — belief.
You cannot underestimate the power of representation. Our phones began blowing up this morning in the US. Messages from our Benin riders and cyclists all over — Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya…..everyone BELIEVES they have a shot. Biniam’s win today upped the game. These kids believe they can be a TdF champion. That’s what Biniam does for the millions of cycling hopefuls on the African continent.
The cycling world exploded with well wishes and love for Biniam, Eritrea, and African cycling. Eritreans, Nigerians, Beninois riders, teams, companies, riders….this was a day for all to celebrate!
Journalists reached out and asked for our take on today’s performance.
You can hear from Kimberly Coats on the “On Yer Bike” podcast at the 36 min mark.
And at the Write Bike Repeat website….
Kimberly also spoke extensively with the editorial team at Cycling Weekly on Biniam’s success, but the key hurdle that African athletes still endure (visas, you guessed it!)
This coverage even extended to the US, with the story featured in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Tomorrow….and the next day
Tomorrow we’ll wake up at Team Africa Rising and figure out how to get the Benin women’s team to France and the Benin junior boys to Holland. We’ll follow up with the Wahoo trainers we sent to Masaka Cycling Club in Uganda. TAR will look for more riders in places like Benin, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia. We’ll help Trhas. an Ethiopian woman seeking asylum in the UK who was once the National Champion of Ethiopia. She proudly owns a pair of Biniam’s bibs from one of is former teams, Delco. We’ll follow up on Florence’s visa so you can be the female Biniam from Uganda racing for Canyon/SRAM Wildlife. Because that’s what we do. It’s who we’ve been for the last 15 years and will continue to be in the future.
Until some day a Black African cyclists wins the Tour de France GC….anything is possible. Thanks for making us believe, Biniam.
