Rising star Biniam Girmay will lead the Belgian cycling team Intermarché-Wanty at the Tour de France targeting stage wins and a top 10 overall finish.

Girmay became the first Black African to win a Grand Tour stage on the 2022 Giro d'Italia, and his team have high hopes he can add to that in July.

"His principal job will be to target a sprint stage win. To that end we have been practicing a sprint-train," Girmay's sports director Aike Visbeek said.

"We'll try and pull off a top 10 spot too and we'll give him all the support he needs," Visbeek said.

The 23-year-old Eritrean won his Giro stage in a four-man sprint ahead of Mathieu van der Poel before earning almost as much notoriety popping the cork of a fizzy wine bottle into his eye on the podium.

"It will be a big moment for me and for Eritrea," Girmay said of riding the Tour.

He has previously won a sprint classic and took a sprint stage at the recent Tour of Switzerland.

Girmay won three golds at the 2018 African Championships, earning a place at the UCI world training centre in Switzerland. He turned pro in 2020 but his Delko team went bust. Intermarché then scooped him up.

Team

Lilian Calmejane (FRA), Rui Costa (POR), Biniam Girmay (ERY), Louis Meintjes (RSA), Adrien Petit (FRA), Dion Smith (NZL), Mike Teunissen (NED) and Georg Zimmermann (GER)

The 2023 Tour de France begins on July 1 in Bilbao and runs for 21 days, with just two rest days, before coming to a stop in Paris on July 23.

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