Hello everyone, we are at the Tour de France again this year, to bring you breaking news and live content* on the progress of the three African riders, and exclusive content with many other figures in pro cycling around African cycling topics. We will be very active across our social channels on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn so please do give these accounts a follow for the very latest content…
We leave the live blog now, with this final image, when the face of cycling (hopefully) changed. Biniam ‘Ambesa’ Girmay – the Lion of Eritrea takes the stage. Thank you all for your time and interest! Onwards to the Olympics… #AfricaRising
21 July: This is it, the last stage, a 33km ITT from Monaco to Nice, and Biniam Girmay starts the day in his Green Jersey knowing he only has to finish the stage to be the first black, or African rider to win an overall Tour de France jersey at this most prestigious race! He does so with ease, with an army of nearly 500+ Eritreans forming a beautiful area on the final stretch of the stage! History made for him, his country, the continent of Africa, and for cycling and sport globally. As Biniam said, “I have opened the door.”
Ryan and Louis put in very good ITT performances, with Louis getting pipped by just 45 seconds for the 19th spot in the GC overall, so another top 20 Tour de France classification for him. He is still one of the most successful African – and South African – riders at the Tour de France ever. Congrats to all three!!
20 July: Today’s and the last three stages were over to the climbers, so all African eyes on Louis Meintjes again, and he delivered well! A brilliant #13 on Stage 17 (Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Superdévoluy) was swiftly followed by a #24 finish on Stage 18 (Gap to Barcelonnette) – both c.180km stages, then #21 on the massive 144km Stage 19 (Embrun to Isola) which had over 4,500m of vertical climbing, saw Louis break into the #20 in the overall GC – at #19 – with six minutes on his nearest rival. Saturday saw the climbers in action again, starting in Nice and racing 133km to Col de la Couillole, where Louis finished #25 overall, but his lead over 20th place slashed to just 25 seconds! Biniam and Ryan both survived these stages well, being nursed over the many mountains by their brilliant team-mates.
16 July: Today was the 16th stage, 188.6km from Gruissan to Nîmes, as the race heads back east towards the Rhone valley and the SW Alps of Provence. Only 1,176m of climbing so a pretty flat stage overall, a bunch sprint was predicted and this is what we got. Best African performer was Ryan Gibbons, coming in a brilliant 9th, his second top ten of the race, with Biniam suffering a pretty decent crash as the peloton tried to negotiate several roundabouts on the road to the finish. He re-appeared an hour or so after the crash, heavily bandaged on his knee and elbow. Everyone praying he can continue, which he confirmed later that day to the media.
14 July: The race has headed into the Pyrenees mountains proper so African attention turns to Louis Meintjes who takes very respectable 15th and 29th on stages 14 and 15. The fight between Pogacar and Vingegaard makes all the headlines, with Tadej winning both stages impressively. We sign off to the smell of barbeques all around us as the French celebrate Bastille Day today! The team at the On Yer Bike podcast were in touch again for thoughts from the road-side, and we obliged. Jeremy, our man on the ground features at 28’35” if you want to hear this section, but we recommend the whole podcast is worth hearing.
Little memory to share today from 14 July 2022 when we were asked to help the Qhubeka Charity (a charity supported by the Tour de France) with their fundraising activation at the race. Adrien Niyonshuti, our rider coaching and online training lead (and current National Team head-coach for Benin) kindly agreed to try to ride the Alpe d’Huez climb on their iconic bicycle! Many were dubious, Adrien was not! He rode the whole thing easily, one handed at many points as he checked his WHOOP data on his phone, or drinking from his Zwift bidon. He spoke with Hannah Walker of EuroSport/GCN at the end, about the challenge of this ride, and his career as one of the first black African pro cyclists in the World Tour*.
(*Many folk are talking about Daniel Teklehaimanot in this vein currently at TDF 2024 due to him being Eritrean and an inspiration to Biniam – and rightly so as he held the KOM jersey at the Tour de France for several stages – however Adrien was riding World Tour races for many years before on the MTN-Qhubeka / Dimension Data team, and his old team boss Doug Ryder speaks of him fondly as one of the true pioneers.)
Tomorrow (15 July) is a rest day so we are back in action for Stage 16 (Gruissan to Nîmes (188.6km).
12 July: Alongside the race, we are excited to see our friends at the Qhubeka Charity (charity partner of the Tour de France) launch an impromptu auction for a Santini-made original TdF Green Jersey which he kindly signed! The auction launched last night and ends at 18:00CET on Thursday 18 July. Full details on Qhubeka’s website HERE.
At the race, another sprint finish was anticipated in Pau after the 165km stage from Agen, and it was thus, with Jasper Philipsen taking the win, with Biniam in fourth, just off the podium. Bini is still around 70 points ahead of Jasper. Ryan Gibbons came in 29th in the sprint.
11 July: We are in Villeneuve-sur-Lot this afternoon for the end of the 203km stage from Aurillac and wow, Biniam has won ANOTHER STAGE, beating Wout van Aert in another big bunch sprint, just incredible to see him dominating the world’s fastest sprinters. Huge ‘Bini Bini’ cheers from the fans on the sides of the course, Biniam is becoming a real hero of the race.
10 July: Today is Stage 11 from Évaux-les-Bains to the ski resort Le Lioran, a 211km stage and not one we were expecting much from for the African riders, and this is how it went. A breakaway formed and won the sprint points, Louis worked hard and came in top 30, around 6’50” down, and Ryan and Biniam guided home safely by their team-mates.
9 July: We are back after a rest day, and we were in Orléans at the start of the 187.3km Stage 10 talking to Louis, Ryan and Biniam. Louis is still biding his time for the mountains! We had a good chat with Ryan, who was the lead-out guy for Mads Pedersen but he was a DNS on Stage 8, about whether he is now free to have a go at the sprints. He was suitably humble and said he was “a bit deer in the headlights, and hadn’t take part in his own sprinting in many years, but it does open up some opportunities and you don’t get this opportunity often!” Ryan eventually took 14th in the mass sprint into Saint-Amand-Montrond, with Biniam taking 2nd to Jasper Philipsen, but goes 74 points clear in the green jersey.
8 July: Its the rest day today and we went along to the Intermarche team’s press conference (and BBQ!) to meet with Biniam to talk the race so far. You can see our video summary of this on our Youtube channel. Biniam was relaxed and looking like a pro.
7 July: The GRAVEL STAGE!! This one really divides folks, the purists don’t want to see the format messed with and don’t see a place for gravel, the progressives see it as a major part of cycle sport now. Anyway, we have a 199km stage, a loop starting in the centre of old Troyes and heading east, and including 14 gravel stages (32.2km offroad). We spoke with Aike Visbeek this morning, Sport Director of the Intermarché – Wanty team about this gravel component and he was pretty relaxed.
“It makes a lot of excitement and makes a lot of people nervous but its ok, we have to take it day by day, bar by bar, gel by gel, and bottle by bottle! We have a clear plan of what to do, bring Biniam to the final, but with days like this you need luck on your side. We have prepared it very well, we have reconned it, I think we have the right tyres. You know, our office is 50km from Roubaix so we are well aware of what we need to do with that part, so in that sense Biniam has everything he needs, so we see!”
At 17:51 local time, Frenchman Anthony Turgis crossed the line after a crazy, dusty race, with Bini sitting in a chase group and coming in #9 at just 1’17” behind the winner. He added to his green jersey tally, which now sits at 224, 96 points ahead of his nearest rival Jasper Philipsen (Belgium).
Team Africa Rising’s reporter on the ground (Jeremy) was featured in a episode of the On Yer Bike podcast – run by Sky Sports commentator Sanny Rudravajhala and cycling journalist Katy Madgwick – today to give views and insights from the race route. You can listen to this episode HERE, or subscribe to hear them all. We now take a break for the rest day…
6 July: Wow, just wow. We dared to dream, and Bini delivered a second stage win in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises tonight! It was a rising finish and Bini and his team delivered a powerful finish and as he crossed the line with his arms outstretched, the 24 year old equalled South African Robbie Hunter’s 17 year old record of three individual stage wins. Will Bini beat this record at the Tour de France….
In addition, in further good news, South African riders Louis Meintjes (Intermarché – Wanty) and Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek) both finished with the peloton and moved up in their GC positions a little, Louis up to #27, and Ryan up to #80. With Mads Pedersen having to leave the Tour through injury, we wonder if Lidl-Trek will let Ryan have a crack at a stage win?!
4 July: Another huge day for Biniam today: starting in the green jersey and finishing in the green jersey, with a second place on the stage, taking a load of sprint points and finishing the day with an impressive 38 point lead now over second-placed Mads Pedersen. Dare we begin to dream about an African rider finishing in Nice with one of the top race jerseys. You can see the full results on ProCyclingStats.
Today was also ‘Africa Day’ at the Tour de France, with a delegation of young cyclists from the UCI’s World Cycling Center riding the last 20km of the stage today to raise the profile of their programme, and to promote the UCI World Championships taking place in Africa in 2025.
David Lappartient, President of the UCI said: “With just over a year to go before the first UCI Road World Championships in Africa, it is fantastic to see the continent’s talented young riders experiencing the atmosphere of the Tour de France and participating in the event. The UCI and its World Cycling Centre (WCC) have developed a solid strategy to prepare these young cyclists for next year’s UCI Road World Championships. The UCI and the UCI WCC have supported African riders for many years and continue to closely follow the exploits of their former trainees, such as Daniel Teklehaimanot, Merhawi Kudus, and, of course, Biniam Girmay, winner a few days ago of stage 3, and who has been training with us in Aigle, Switzerland, in 2019.”
Tomorrow, the 2023 Eritrean National Champion Awet Aman Goniche will complete the 25.3km of the time trial stage between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin before the professionals on a Qhubeka bike – the same bike that the Tour de France has donated to nearly 2,000 African students since 2018 to enable them to get to school. Anthony Fitzhenry, founder of the Qhubeka Charity, an association that has been a partner of the Tour since the launch of the “Riding into the Future” programme through which the event is committed to cycling mobility in all its forms, will also be on hand to portray this message of solidarity and encourage the young rider.
3 July: Race update overall at the end of Stage 5: Biniam came 9th in the sprint finish, which saw Sir Mark Cavendish become the record holder for stage wins, with Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché – Wanty) both finishing in the peloton safely. Ryan put in an awesome effort to lead out his team but the finish saw a nasty crash for Mads Pedersen who went down hard about 100m from the line. Louis is sitting in #28 in the GC, just 6’50” down currently after some hard opening stages. Full Stage 5 results can be found on ProCyclingStats HERE.
2 July: We post a more in-depth piece on the impact of Biniam’s victory, you can read this HERE. Our CEO Kimberly Coats is quoted extensively across various media publications, including this piece in Cycling Weekly, and others – links embedded in the article. We also checked our partner ProCyclingStats’ website and realise Biniam is the only African rider to ever win a stage at both the Tour de France and the Giro. More history made! Robbie Hunter (South Africa) still hold the ‘most Grand Tour wins’ record for Africa, with three stage wins, a record Biniam is looking to break…
1 July: What a day… History made. Biniam Girmay wins Stage 3 of the 2024 Tour de France, the first ever black African to win a stage at this race. Our social media channels were inundated with hits, with our tweet about the win having 21,000+ hits, and Eritrean social channels going hard into the night! We saw several clips of celebrations back in Asmara, it looked amazing. Bini is even more of a hero now.
28 June: We attend the Intermarché – Wanty team to ask questions of the riders, and team Performance Manager Aike Visbeek, on their thoughts ahead of the 2024 Tour de France:
Biniam: How are you feeling for your second Tour de France, and how is your presence here helping cycling back in Eritrea?
“For me this my second year, so I learned quite a lot from last year, and I have also prepared myself really well and I’m really looking forward to a good result this time. Cycling in Eritrea has been really successful over the last 3 years but there is still a lot to do for local riders, as we still have a lot of difference between the pro riders and the local riders – they still need to improve a lot. The Tour de France is also a really big motivation for local riders because this is one of the most known races in Asmara so I think our [the Eritrean riders in the World Tour] achievements can help them a lot. I’m still hoping to shine more and to give them more motivation.”
Aike Visbeek: Intermarché – Wanty is now arguably the leading team at the top level for giving African riders the chance to race against the best in the world. With African riders now on both your World Tour and Development teams, how do you see the future for talent from the continent, and what barriers still exist for this young talent?
“I think it is still a challenging road ahead, there is talent but giving opportunities to African riders comes with investments in energy, money and time. I think it still lacks real support a little bit from the international community and there should be more riders in junior categories given the chance to gain racing experience- that is not happening enough and that means that we are taking on riders (we now have two Eritrean riders) with a gap in experience, and the gap is really big.
They have the physical talent but it involves so much more, you need experience, positioning, bike handling skills and that is why it is crucial for African cycling that more riders on a junior level get the opportunity to get these skills, otherwise it will only lag behind more. There is also so much science, equipment, nutrition that they don’t have access to at the moment [on the continent] while the juniors in Belgium go off to camp and they have everything almost on a professional level, so the gap is growing and it needs more attention.
I know there is a lot of focus on the World Championships coming up in Africa [in 2024], but they want to make a mountain race for the climbers! I’m sorry but if you want to inspire young African cyclists you cannot make a course for climbers. If you make the course full of climbing there won’t be a lot of African riders making it to the finish if the big stars of cycling race there. It really needs some thinking on an international level how you can help these talents, because it’s not only about us giving the opportunity, we see a big gap for African cycling is what happens in the juniors and Biniam is focused on it and has also said it to us. We need more riders under 16 or 17 years old because they need to have the skill set.
So again yes we help, we are focused, we are looking for the African talents but if something is not done fast I think the gap will only grow for African talent to make it to the pro level. It will be very difficult. The good thing is that Biniam and Louis have opened the door, and attention is more focused on African cycling, we know there are talented riders but it needs to go one level down, it needs to go to the clubs, to the junior clubs and UCI to bring out these talents. If that happens, the sky is the limit.”
Louis: Listening to Aike’s comments, do you agree and what else would you add from your experience as a junior coming to Europe?
I would agree, I think it is still the case that we face a slightly bigger barrier, it’s still harder for African riders and it takes a bigger investment to get your first footstep in Europe and that’s unfortunate because I don’t think many Africans have the means or capabilities to do this themselves, so what our team does to give the guys the opportunity it’s something for which we should be very grateful as Africans.
You need to be here to get the experience and right now it’s also more and more younger guys so it needs to start being at a more junior level where the young African riders start to get the exposure. I came over as a junior at 17 years old, but I was only prepared once I started to come to U23, so we should find how we can get the guys over here even younger, get them some kind of experience from a younger age because if they only do it after school then I think it’s almost too late for them to make a big impact.“
27 June: Team presentation in the beautiful Piazza Michelangelo, on a hill overlooking the stunning city-scape of Florence (Firenze in Italian). We were there for the first glimpse of our focus riders: Louis Meintjes (South Africa), Biniam Girmay (Eritrea) – both on the Intermarché – Wanty team – and Ryan Gibbons (South Africa) on the Lidl-Trek team.
Biniam was looking relaxed as he rolled down the ramp for his second Tour de France race…
Ryan Gibbons rolled down the ramp, sporting his brand new South African National Road & ITT Champ 2024 jersey, and was looking calm and composed ahead of only his second start at the Tour de France. His last start was 2020 so its great to see him back at the race. He has raced 4 editions of the Giro, and 2 editions of the Vuelta so is a strong stage racer, we hope to see him feature well here at the TdF.
27 June: Africa Rising representative arrives in Florence (Italy) for the Grand Depart of the 2024 TdF!
* All Statistics and Data are provided by our long-term partner ProCyclingStats – the world’s most popular online cycling statistics, results and rankings database.
