VENI, VIDI, BINI?

As Biniam Girmay plots a momentous victory at the Tour de France, Tom Davidson traces his journey to cycling's biggest stage

In a darkened conference room, on the third floor of Bilbao’s concrete-panelled exhibition centre, Biniam Girmay sits and waits, anticipating the big question. He knows it is coming. He has answered it a thousand times. In fact, rarely an exchange goes by where the Eritrean is not asked it, be it by dictaphone-wielding journalists, fans in the street, or the shopkeepers back home in Asmara.

A hand goes up, and with a tremble in the voice, the moment finally comes.

“What does it mean to you to be a history-maker?” someone asks. Intermarché-Circus-Wanty have come to this year’s Tour de France with a clear ambition – to help Girmay to a stage win. If he succeeds, he will become the first black African ever to do so at the race.

Girmay stares back. “I think, sometimes, it’s kind of boring,” he says, in a resigned tone. The journalists look around the room at each other. Girmay continues. “I started my career to be a good rider, not to represent Eritrea or to represent Africa. I don’t need to always hear about this.”

It was not the soundbite the assembled world’s press had hoped for, but it was probably the one they needed to hear. On the eve of his Tour debut, Girmay made his point. The past is the past. Let’s stick to the cycling.

Technically talented