Eritrean Biniam Girmay has become the first black African rider to win a stage of the Tour de France. On Monday, the Intermarché-Wanty team rider finished in the lead in the final sprint of the third stage of the competition.
Olympic champion Richard Carapaz took the yellow jersey from Tadej Pogacar, becoming the first Ecuadorian to lead cycling’s biggest race.
Girmay also made history in Italy two years ago when he won a stage of the Giro d’Italia, becoming the first black African to claim victory in a Grand Tour, a term that encompasses the three major three-week races: the Giro, the Tour and the Spanish Vuelta.
The 231-kilometer (144-mile) stage from Piacenza to Turin, the longest of this year’s Tour, was the first to offer the possibility of a bunch sprint. But there will be at least a handful of other opportunities for sprinters after the race returns to France after the first four stages in Italy.
Girmay finished just ahead of Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud De Lie in 5 hours 26 minutes 48 seconds.
Cavendish finished 113th, but was given the same finishing time as Girmay under rules that neutralise times if there is a crash in the final five kilometres.
Pogacar dropped back to second place in the general classification, with the same time as Carapaz – 15 hours 20 minutes and 18 seconds.
Remco Evenepoel, the 2022 world champion and winner of the Vuelta a España, is third overall, and Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time defending champion, is fourth, both having set the same time as Carapaz.