Ned Boulting: Girmay is a Tour de France star – just don’t expect floodgates to open

Biniam Girmay has been a trailblazer for African cyclists at the Tour de France but the barriers to more joining him remain in place, says Ned Boulting.

It’s been a wonderful start to the 2024 Tour de France. As ever, the race has woven a vibrant tapestry of diverse stories, starting from the moment Romain Bardet and young Frank van den Broek rode to victory, against all the odds, in Rimini on stage one.

That was an emotional, sun-kissed moment. But it has been followed by successive days of overlapping memories: the glory of the San Luca Basilica outside Bologna, the might of the Galibier and its master, Tadej Pogačar and, of course, the manner of Mark Cavendish’s win on stage five, toppling as he delivered his 35th victory a world record that had stood for decades, and had been set by the greatest rider in the sport’s history, Eddy Merckx.

But there is another story that demands our attention not only on its own merits, but because of the questions it raises and the answers it demands.

Over the course of the opening week of racing, the one black athlete in an otherwise entirely white 176 rider peloton (that in itself is a shaming statistic) has set a standard in his particular discipline that none of the other highly-paid more established sprinting stars have been able to match. 

Eritrea’s tall, elegant, softly spoken hero Biniam Girmay has grown before our very eyes. His Tour de France stage wins and vice-like grip on the green jersey have bestowed on him a status that has moved him into a wholly elevated bracket.

No longer is he a promising, up and coming young rider. He is now the boss. And in that regard, he is not only an outlier, he is a pioneer.

This sport, which I love so much, pretends to be global. In reality, it is no such thing. It is a Eurocentric affair, whose heart and soul resides in Belgium, France, Italy and to a lesser extent Spain.

Those competitors who have succeeded from other continents have done so only by relocating to Europe, physically and culturally. And to a man (and woman), they have also been white, and have often come from relatively privileged backgrounds. Until now.

Eritrean cyclists are by far the best in Africa. Their cultural ties with the sport date back to their colonial past and Italian administrators transplanting their love for racing bikes onto African soil.

There are of course good riders from Sierra Leone, Uganda and across the North African coast, from Morocco to Algeria. Rwanda hosts Africa’s premium stage race and will also be the scene of next year’s UCI World Championships. 

But riders from all of these countries are forced to leave for Europe if they want to succeed as professionals. There is no path to a career in Africa alone, and this is where the simplistic notion that Girmay’s achievements will open the floodgates to a surge of African success falls at the first hurdle.

The obstacles which stand in the way remain the same: the cost, the opportunity to train and race, the huge difficulty of getting entry visas into the EU for black Africans…these are overwhelming structural problems. 

Then there is the matter of racism. Black riders, at worst, have been abused over recent years in the most degrading manner by certain white colleagues. And the generation of sports directors who work in the teams, plus their aging, white team managers, tend only to hire black riders on the lowest wages, and for the most menial of roles within the team.

Of course, I could and should extend this critique still further. I am a white man, all my colleagues at ITV, male and female are white. The huge media entourage conforms almost without exception to the same background.

And, in the middle of all of this maelstrom of attention, Girmay has been quietly going about his business with a calm ruthlessness that demands our respect. When you understand the context a little more, the scale of his achievement grows accordingly. He is a true champion.