Following the tradition, the Tour de France was concluded with a royal sprint on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées this Sunday 23rd of July, at the end of the 21st stage. Biniam Girmay finished the first Grand Tour of his career with sixth place.
At the end of three weeks, the Walloon World Team reached the French capital with seven riders and two stage podiums thanks to Biniam Girmay, third in the bunch sprint in Bordeaux, and Georg Zimmermann, who was close to victory after a long breakaway in Issoire, defeated by Bilbao.
Louis Meintjes was fully engaged in the battle for the top ten in the final classification, but was forced to abandon after his crash in the fourteenth stage. Despite this bad luck, the World Team never gave up following the example of Adrien Petit, who was rewarded for his courage with the Combativity Award in the fifteenth stage, or Georg Zimmermann, who was nominated among the most combative riders of the 110th edition.
“I’m very happy to finish my first Grand Tour. The feeling to finally arrive on the Champs-Elysées, after three weeks of efforts and suffering, was great. I felt really good in this last stage and I love this finish. My sixth place against the best sprinters in the world is a nice result, even though my ambition was to do better. Finishing this Tour was crucial to acquire experience and to come back stronger in the future. I will continue working hard for my next goals, with first the World Championships in Glasgow.”
