Girmay out of Giro with eye injury sustained in celebrating

Biniam Girmay’s Giro d’Italia has been cut short after an eye injury suffered during the celebrations of a stage win forced the Eritrean rider to pull out of the competition.

Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The 22-year-old became the first Black African rider to win a Grand Tour stage on Wednesday, beating Mathieu van der Poel with an impressive sprint to claim stage 10.

Whilst on the podium during the celebrations of his landmark win, Girmay placed a bottle of prosecco on the floor as he attempted to open it, and was hit by its cork in his left eye.

The Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert rider was quickly taken to a hospital in the Italian town of Jesi for a medical examination following the incident.

“Medical examinations revealed a haemorrhage in the anterior chamber of the left eye of Biniam Girmay,” team doctor Piet Daneels said in a statement.

“His injury is evolving in the right direction and will be followed up by a medical team in the next days. In order to minimise the risk of expansion of the haemorrhage and the intraocular pressure, it is strongly recommended to avoid physical activity.”

It was an unfortunate end to what was a landmark Giro for Girmay who earlier this year became the first rider from Eritrea to win a cycling World Tour (elite) race at the Ghent-Wevelgem classic.

“I was a bit sad about what happened with the champagne,” Girnay said in a video message. “When I came back to the hotel, my team was super happy but also a bit afraid. When (they saw) I looked okay, we really enjoyed, and I’m happy.”

Girmay left the Giro d’Italia second in the sprint standings, three points behind France’s Arnaud Demare.

Dainese claims maiden Giro stage win as Lopez retains lead

taly’s Alberto Dainese won his maiden Giro d’Italia stage on Thursday when the DSM rider clinched victory with a perfectly timed sprint to the finish in stage 11, a 203-kilometre (126.14 miles) ride from Santarcangelo di Romagna to Reggio Emilia.

The 24-year-old surged past the favoured trio of French sprint leader Arnaud Demare, Briton Mark Cavendish and Australian Caleb Ewan, before sprinting off his compatriot Simone Consonni for victory.

Colombian Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) finished second and Consonni (Cofidis) came in third.

Dainese was led out by team mate Romain Bardet, who started the race third in the general classification, but later dropped to fourth.

Italian riders Luca Rastelli and Filippo Tagliani were the early pace-setters, leading the flat stage 11 for the first half of the race, before being caught up by the main group with 91 km to go.

Dutchman Dries De Bondt of Alpecin-Fenix powered ahead with 50 km left, remaining in the lead until he was chased down just over one km from the finish.

Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez retained his 12-second lead to hold on to the overall leader’s pink jersey, while Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz leapfrogged Portugal’s Joao Almeida into second place in the overall standings.

Friday’s stage 12 is a challenging 204km ride from Parma to Genoa, which features numerous climbs and a long and technical descent.