2022 Gent-Wevelgem winner Biniam Girmay has blamed his underperformance in this year’s edition on forgetting to eat enough during the race.
After a strong start to 2023, coming close to winning two of the Mallorca Challenge events and then taking his first victory of the season in the opening stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, to date Girmay has failed to follow that up in his Spring Classics campaign.
The Intermarché-Circus-Wanty leader finished 28th in Milan-San Remo, was a DNF in the E3 Saxo Classic where he placed fifth last year and most strikingly of all, was second last in Gent-Wevelgem, a race he won in 2022.
Girmay told VRT’s Vive Le Vélo Leve De Ronde! podcast that the reason for his below-expectations performances in the Classics was because he had not applied the correct refuelling strategy.
"Nutrition has become essential in today's cycling and I have experienced that in recent races. Now I know that the next race I must eat at least 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour," he said, as well as acknowledging that his Classics campaign "is not going well for the time being."
Girmay will next be racing in the Tour of Flanders, and he'll celebrate his 23rd on the same day. He'll go up against the likes of Gent-Wevelgem winner Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) at the cobbled Monument.
"I have already called my family. They will cut my birthday cake when the race starts. Hopefully that will bring luck," he said.
As for the Classics in general, Girmay said that he appreciates "the crowds on the cobblestones and on the slopes, their cheering gives me extra power."
Girmay added that the rainy weather which has been battering the Classics this spring has not been a problem for him, insisting that "I like to drive over the cobblestones like that."
