The Tour de France hoped – expected? – for history on stage three in Turin, but the occasion that ensued was different and much more significant than Mark Cavendish winning a 35th stage; Biniam Girmay triumphing ahead of the best sprinters in the world to become the first black African cyclist to win a stage in the race is a watershed moment for the sport, a ceiling, at long last, punched through.
While Cavendish, and almost every other bike rider in the professional peloton, had the opportunity as a child to watch the Tour de France on holiday, a young Girmay never had the chance to watch his heroes, which included Cavendish, in the flesh.
