Biniam Girmay finished sixth in the opening stage of his first Paris-Nice (2.UWT) and repeated this performance on day three at the end of an explosive final with a slightly uphill finish in Dun-le-Palestel.
Earlier today, his teammates took their responsibilty in the lead of the peloton behind an escaped trio with a maximal advantage of 5 minutes.
Before the bunch sprint, three hills of third category within the final 70 kilometer provoked a selection among the sprinters. Girmay was well surrounded by his teammates and reached the top of the final difficulty in front of a group of 50 units.
In the battle for the best positions in the approach of the red flag, the Eritrean rider was pushed into the lawn edge and quickly gained back his position in the front thanks to an ultimate effort of Georg Zimmermann, before Loïc Vliegen powerfully launched the sprint with 900 meter to go. With his sixth place, the 21 year old continues his strong efforts in his first Paris-Nice.
Luckily Biniam and I crashed without harm yesterday. So we lined up without consequences of the crash, aiming for taking a sportive revenge on our bad luck. We stayed united in the front all day, and thanks to the work of Dimitri Claeys and Baptiste Planckaert the gap to the breakaway melted. The explosive final on small roads wasn’t easy, we can be satisfied about how me managed to protect Biniam in the front. In the final kilometers there was probably room for improvement in our coordination, so I’m convinced that a stage win is within our possibilities if another opportunity like today arises.
