Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary | Our YouTube page
2023 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia

In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497. - Warren Buffett

---

Les Woodland's book Cycling's World Championships: The Inside Story is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.

Current racing:

• June 29 - July 21: Tour de France

Upcoming racing:

• July 27 - August 11: Olympic cycling

Latest completed racing:

• June 9 - 26: Many National Championships
• June 15 - 18: La Route d'Occitanie Cancelled because security forces busy with Olympics
• June 9 - 16: Tour de Suisse
• June 12 - 16: Baloise Belgium Tour
• June 2 - 9: Critérium du Dauphiné
• June 5 - 9: ZLM Tour
• June 7: GP Canton Aargau
• June 2: Brussels Cycling Classic

---

Tour de France stage 3 reports

We posted the race organizer's report with the results.

Here's the Tour report from stage three winner Biniam Girmay's Team Intermarché-Wanty:

This Monday, July 1, 2024, Biniam Girmay won the third stage of the Tour de France in Turin and offered Intermarché-Wanty its first historic success on the Grande Boucle.

Biniam, Girmay wins stage three. ASO photo

A historic victory for Jean-François Bourlart’s team, who are taking part in the world’s most prestigious cycling race for the seventh time. After two demanding opening stages, this third day in Italy was destined to crown a sprinter, after 230 kilometers between Piacenza and Turin.

United around Biniam Girmay and Gerben Thijssen, the Belgian team mastered the final stretch. Positioned by Georg Zimmermann at the start of the last 10 kilometers, launchers Hugo Page, Laurenz Rex and Mike Teunissen then took control in the final hectometres.

The Intermarché-Wanty train, spearheaded by Gerben Thijssen and with Girmay as a free electron, launched the sprint through the streets of Turin. Along the barriers, on the right-hand side of the road, Girmay emerged from Mads Pedersen’s wheel to win after a final 200-meter effort.

The winner, Biniam Girmay, becomes the first rider from black Africa to win a stage in the Tour de France, and thus makes cycling history with Intermarché-Wanty after his resounding successes in Ghent-Wevelgem and the Giro d’Italia.

Biniam Girmay:
“This is a historic day, I’m so happy for myself, for my Intermarché-Wanty team, but also for my country and my continent. Ever since I was a child, taking part in the Tour de France was a dream, almost unhoped-for. Winning the Tour de France is so incredible, especially in such a competitive sprint. I’d like to thank my team, in particular Jean-François Bourlart who dreamed of this Tour victory, my family, all my compatriots and all those who supported me. We can be proud of this victory. We’ve shown that we can take part in the big races and win.

"Our time has come. Today, we showed that the Intermarché-Wanty team had the best sprint train in the pack. The plan was to prepare the final sprint for Gerben Thijssen, with me as a free electron. I followed the train and then snuck in to play my card. Finally, I closed my eyes and gave it my all to win. My joy is indescribable.”

With this victory, the tenth in 2024, Intermarché-Wanty completes its trilogy of Grand Tour victories, following those of Taco van der Hoorn, Girmay and Jan Hirt in the Giro, and Rein Taaramäe, Louis Meintjes and Rui Costa in the Vuelta.

Here’s the Tour report from new GC leader Richard Carapaz's Team EF Education-EasyPost:

Richard Carapaz sprinted into the lead of the Tour de France today in Torino.

Our Olympic champion from Ecuador seized the race's maillot jaune with a daring dash to the line down the Corse Unione Sovietica, after a powerful leadout from his EF Education-EasyPost teammates. Richard started the day tied for time after matching the GC favorites' attacks over the top of the Côte de San Luca yesterday in Bologna at the finish of stage two. With the overall rankings then to be decided by the riders' accumulated placings in previous stages, Richard wanted to go for yellow in the sprint, backed by our whole squad. If he could finish far enough ahead of Pogacar, Evenepoel, and Vingegaard in the sprint, yellow would be his.

Richard Carapaz will ride stage four in yellow. Sirotti photo

For the first 200 kilometers, Richie and his teammates kept their cool, rolling across the Italian countryside in the peloton. As the race hotted up in the final hour, our boys came to the front, massed around Richie with one goal: the maillot jaune.

The peloton rode the last ten kilometers at a searing pace, as teams surged forward to the sprint. Our team did an amazing pull through the chaos of the final kilometers, with Marijn van den Berg shepherding him through the peloton.

Richard stayed safe in the final kilometer and rode across the line in 14th place, securing the yellow jersey and making a lifelong dream come true.

He kissed his maillot jaune on the podium. Richard is excited to wear it tomorrow across the Alps and into France.

Richard Carapaz
"It's a dream for me because of all the respect I have for the Tour, to wear yellow at the best race in the world. I've always prepared so much for this and today to enjoy this moment is huge.

"We knew we had the opportunity. We knew that the finish was the first sprint of the Tour. There were many nerves and we had to be very well positioned. There were many risks like crashing and the team did such an amazing job where they left me at one kilometer to go and from there I could defend myself as well as I could, and then Marijn and I just went full into the finish line. It was spectacular. "I worked so hard for this moment. It also means a lot to my country. There are not a lot of us in the WorldTour and I hope this helps cycling so it can grow in my country.

"Tomorrow is a very hard day. It’s a very hard one to defend the jersey but I will try. Every day I feel better and I feel ready to defend the jersey."

Charly Wegelius, Sports Director
"When we spoke with the riders before the race, we talked about one-percent chances and taking those, because there's going to come a stage in the race—I didn't expect it to come so soon—where I'll ask you to put a lot of energy and effort into something that looks like a one-percent chance of success. You really do have to look under every rock in the Tour to get results. You can't just play it safe. Today was one of those chances.

"We looked at the rule book. We looked at the gaps, because if everybody's on the same time, they run it back to stage placings. So we made the plan based around that, with our feet on the ground, knowing that it was a long shot and that it depended on a lot of external factors that we couldn't control. We had some good engines for it. It was a real team effort and it's nice that it paid off.

"It was the first sprint stage of the Tour and one that a lot of riders and a lot of teams in the race had been waiting for, so we knew it would be chaotic. And nobody hesitated. I think you can see that in how they raced.

"The yellow jersey is one of the strongest symbols in cycling, the pinnacle. If you meet somebody who doesn't know anything about cycling, has never been close to the sport, they know what the yellow jersey is. It's a huge honor for the team and for Richie to have it and we're going to make the most of it."

Jonathan Vaughters, EF Pro Cycling founder and CEO
"Everyone on the team, we all understand how absolutely talented Richie is. He’s just an incredibly talented bike rider. But obviously he had some pretty bad luck in his run in to the Tour de France. At the Tour de Suisse he had an infection and had to take antibiotics. It’s really amazing that he’s been able to recover from all of that and perform at the level that he has.

"And then today we executed on kind of a crazy plan. Basically the whole team was giving Richie a leadout into a field sprint. We know he’s not going to win the field sprint but the hope was he would finish like 15th and that would be enough to break the tie and he'd be able to wear the yellow jersey. Frankly it’s rare when a plan works out like you want it to."

Here's the Tour report from Remco Evenepoel's Team Soudal Quick-Step:

The last stage of this edition [of the Tour de France] to take place entirely on Italian soil was the longest one (almost 231 kilometers) and travelled from Piacenza to Torino, the first capital of Italy, more than 150 years ago. It was a quiet day, with just two breakaway attempts – both easily reeled in by the peloton – but with several crashes in the final 15 kilometers, things became hectic in the outskirts of Torino.

Casper Pedersen was one of the riders to hit the deck, with 15 kilometers to go, and the Dane suffered a collarbone fracture that forced him to leave the Tour. Casper, who was riding his third Grande Boucle, will undergo further examination at the hospital in Herentals, Belgium, in the coming days, where he will be assessed and a course for his further medical treatment and recovery will be decided.

Biniam Girmay leads the pack across the line. Sirotti photo

Another crash then took place just a couple of kilometers from the finish, disrupting the lead-out trains and splitting the peloton into several groups. It was Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) who took the win in the Piedmont, while Remco Evenepoel crossed the line together with the yellow jersey group and kept his white jersey. Ahead of Tuesday’s tough stage four, concluding in Valloire after an ascent of the mighty Col du Galibier, Soudal Quick-Step’s Belgian sits in third place overall, same time as the leader of the race.

And here's the Tour stage three report from Team Visma | Lease a Bike:

Team Visma | Lease a Bike endures hectic final in third stage

The riders of Team Visma | Lease a Bike reached the finish line in the third stage of the Tour de France without any problems. The stage, won by Biniam Girmay, had a chaotic finale due to several crashes.

After two days in the Italian hill zone, the peloton could get ready for a long sprint stage today. There was not much enthusiasm for the breakaway of the day as, despite the low pace at the beginning of the stage, no group got away.

As the end of the stage approached, the speed also increased considerably. This eventually caused chaos in the race. With a few kilometres to go, a part of the peloton smashed hard against the ground. Wout van Aert was right behind the crash, but stayed on his bike like all his teammates. This did leave the Belgian without a chance for the stage win.

Birthday boy Matteo Jorgenson crashed in Sunday's stage. The American is not too bothered by that slide. "The further today's stage progressed, the better I started to feel myself. The legs are fine anyway. I even feel that I have improved a little bit compared to the Critérium du Dauphiné. Tomorrow we will go into the high mountains for the first time. I am looking forward to it and it is fair to say that we are all looking forward to it. The important thing is to get Jonas through that stage without any problems. He has impressed me over the past few days. Jonas is riding with a lot of confidence. Tomorrow is going to be another test," said 25-year-old Jorgenson.

Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary