Blazin’ Saddles: More to come from Eritrea's Biniam Girmay after historic Gent-Wevelgem win

With the first half of so-called Flanders Week done and dusted, the scene is set perfectly for Wednesday’s Dwars van Vlaanderen, the last race before the showpiece finale on the weekend: the Tour of Flanders. On top of Biniam Girmay’s emphatic Gent-Wevelgem win in front of his adopted home crowds in Belgium, a busy weekend of cycling action also included the conclusion of the Volta a Catalunya.

Here are the main talking points… Floodgates to open for African trailblazer Girmay Ad/> Joining a Belgian team might have been the best decision Biniam Girmay made. In his first season at WorldTour level, the 21-year-old has been riding a far busier schedule than he did previously at DELKO while being introduced to the kind of races he may not have considered otherwise.

Gent — Wevelgem'I don't know when I'll be back to my normal self' — Pidcock19 HOURS AGO And it’s fair to say that the Eritrean has taken to the Belgian cobbles like a duck to water: a solid fifth place in the E3 Saxo Bank Classic midweek forced him and his team to change his programme and enter him into Gent-Wevelgem, where he took an historic win on Sunday. Some debut.

Not only did Girmay become the first African rider to win a cobbled classic, he became the first rider since his current Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen in 2009 to win Gent-Wevelgem on his debut, and in so doing won the race at a younger age than the likes of Sean Kelly, Bernard Hinault, Tom Boonen and Peter Sagan did. Illustrious company.

Biniam Girmay wins historic Gent-Wevelgem for Eritrea Who is Biniam Girmay? The Eritrean youngster who has beaten Evenepoel Girmay’s win was not any old win, either. The entire peloton came up against a rampant Wout van Aert from a deadly