This Monday, the sprinters had the opportunity to prove themselves for the first time in this Tour de France. After two stages entirely ridden on the soil of Spanish Basque Country, the third stage entered French territory to reach Bayonne after 193 kilometer, with a last race hour without any difficulties.
Biniam Girmay, the protected rider for the final, benefited from the work of his teammates who started the approach towards the sprint all together. The experimented Adrien Petit and Mike Teunissen guided Girmay through the road furniture, to eventually emerge at the front just before the red flag. At the finish, the Eritrean rider of 23 years old finished just outside the top ten in his first sprint in the Tour de France.
"For this first stage for sprinters in this Tour, we showed that we were present collectively. It was important. I followed my teammates, I had full confidence in them. At the key moments we determined before the stage, they brought me into an excellent position. It was only in the final kilometer that we could have waited for a better moment to start our effort. I remember the positives, my form is good and there are still a lot of sprint opportunities to come."
