If last Spring was the difficult second album, then the current Classics campaign marks something of a return to form for Biniam Girmay. "It's nice to see myself back in the game again," he admitted when he lined up for Gent-Wevelgem in Ypres' Grote Markt on Sunday morning.
On his Gent-Wevelgem debut two years ago, Girmay made history and headlines by becoming the first African rider to win a Classic. At the same race 12 months ago, he experienced the other extreme of racing on this terrain. After enduring an afternoon of miserable conditions along the Franco-Belgian border, he rolled home over 11 minutes down in second-last place.
That anonymous Gent-Wevelgem outing was of a piece with a difficult Spring and, as it turned out, with much of Girmay's season. There were occasional bright spots, most notably a stage victory at the Tour de Suisse, but the year felt flat in comparison to his effervescent 2022 campaign, where he also scored a Giro d'Italia stage win, beating Mathieu van der Poel in Jesi.
The Eritrean's relative travails prompted a rethink from both the rider and his Intermarché-Wanty team, and the subtle shifts to his preparation appear to be bearing fruit this time around.
'There's so much attention on him and a lot of expectation, but this is a normal phase. He's still only 23'
Aike Visbeek, Intermarché-Wanty
At E3 Harelbeke on Friday, Girmay was in the group chasing winner Van der Poel until he was undone, like many others, by the drop in temperature in the final hour of racing. At Gent-Wevelgem, he placed seventh after contesting the sprint for the final spot on the podium. He hasn't scaled the heights of 2022 just yet, but the upward trajectory is clear.
Intermarché-Wanty performance manager Aike Visbeek believes there was some obvious mitigation for Girmay's subdued performances in last year's Classics campaign, which ended with a crash at the Tour of Flanders.
"I think 2022 was very forgiving because it was always good weather. Every day Bini was in Belgium was a good training day," Visbeek told Cyclingnews. "But 2023 was a year with more bad luck and more bad weather. It was more complicated."
Girmay's youth was another factor. Young riders may routinely arrive in the WorldTour peloton ready to win these days, but that doesn't mean they don't endure the same teething problems as previous generations. The seamless rise of a man like Tadej Pogačar is an outlier. Most, Girmay included, endure missteps even after scoring breakout wins.
"Of course, more people wanted things from him, so it required a bit more focus and structure to ensure that he had the right amount of hours, the right amount of training, the right amount of recovery," Visbeek said. "There's so much attention on him and a lot of expectation, but this is a normal phase. He's still only 23.
"Take the Tour de France, for example. For his debut as a 22-year-old, he actually did a pretty good Tour, but because the expectations are higher, people didn't have that feeling.
"Maybe if he'd been a young Belgian rider, people would have said, 'Wow, that's the next guy.' That makes things a little different, but that's ok, he's used to it. It's about doing the basic things right and I think we're much better now."
Training with Taaramäe in Eritrea
The most immediately apparent change to Girmay's preparation for 2024 came in his race programme. After racing in Mallorca for the previous two Januarys, he opted for a change in tack this year by starting his campaign at the Tour Down Under. The Australian expedition ended on an upbeat note with victory at the Surf Coast Classic, and Girmay then travelled home to Eritrea to train at altitude ahead of Opening Weekend.
There were, Visbeek acknowledges, "advantages and disadvantages" to that approach. The obvious benefit is that Girmay's training roads outside the capital Asmara are 2,400m above sea level.
"Other guys have to sit for three weeks on a volcano in Tenerife and they're really unhappy about it, whereas he can do it at home," Visbeek said.
The drawback is that most of Girmay's training in Eritrea has been carried out alone, or at least without the company of riders of an equivalent level.
The totalitarian dictatorship of Isaias Afwerki is one of the world's most repressive regimes, with Human Rights Watch stating that the government is "subjecting its population to widespread forced labour and conscription, imposing restrictions on freedom of expression, opinion, and faith."
There are also severe restrictions on movement to and from the country. Intermarché-Wanty have previously been unable to get soigneurs or mechanics into Eritrea to accompany Girmay, but this year, Rein Taaramäe was able to secure a visa to train with his teammate in Asmara in February. Taaramae, who has previously trained at altitude in Rwanda, was an obvious candidate for the trip.
"If Bini trains in Eritrea with local riders, he drops them after two hours and then he's riding alone," Visbeek explained. "But when you send you send a strong guy with him, he's training five hours at a good level. It's not rocket science.
"Having an extra guy in training with him pushes him and increases the quality of the work. You can make some gains there. It also gave us the opportunity to see how it's going. He trains in a good way anyway with his younger brother, but this was just about the extra couple of per cent he could get out of it.
"The idea was that if every training ride was a bit better in those weeks, then hopefully it would make his foundation better for this year."
There were other tweaks, too. Girmay had previously tended to refrain from training on Sundays during his time in Eritrea, devoting the day to attending Mass and spending time with his family. Het Laatste Nieuws reported how a compromise saw Girmay squeeze in a training ride between the church service and Sunday lunch.
"Everything is more structured," Visbeek said. "We made more quality, more hours. We planned it better together with him instead of having him trying to figure it out by himself, which is hard, as he doesn't spend much time here."
In the chasing group behind Van Aert and Van der Poel
On arriving in Europe in February, Girmay raced at Opening Weekend for the first time. Although he made little impression at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, it was still useful to bank a little more experience on the cobbles.
"It already gave him much more feeling for these races," explained Visbeek, who was equally unperturbed by Girmay's low-key outing at Milan-San Remo. "He lacked a little bit the last push to be with the best 12 guys, but to be honest, the three times he's raced San Remo, he's been in the second group."
On the cobbles of the Flemish Ardennes in recent days, on the other hand, Girmay has looked more at ease. He was on course for a top-five finish in Harelbeke before he faded on the run-in, and he was comfortably near the head of the peloton each time up the Kemmelberg on Sunday.
Girmay famously rode to fifth on his Harelbeke debut two years ago without performing so much as a recon beforehand, but Visbeek insisted that experience is always a most precious commodity amid the spires and fields of Flanders.
"He knows when he has to be switched on and he knows when he can relax to eat and drink. That makes a big difference."
That indelible 2022 Gent-Wevelgem victory means that Girmay has a high bar for himself every time he lines up in a cobbled Classic. He has two more chances to shine this Spring, at Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders, though Visbeen was adamant that his rider doesn't need to win for his campaign to be deemed a success. Above all, the focus is on forward progress.
"You have the legends Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, and then there's a big group behind them with guys like Jasper Stuyven and Kasper Asgreen," Visbeek said.
"Biniam needs to be in that group. And if he's not there this year, then he has to be close, and then hopefully next year he is there. That's the group where he can be, but it's not a given fact. A lot of things have to go right."
After a 2023 Classics campaign where everything seemed to go wrong, Girmay is moving in the right direction. His upbeat assessment of Sunday's Gent-Wevelgem suggested as much.
"It was nice," he smiled. "Fun. Hard."
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