Biniam Girmay's Tour de France stage win shines a light on visa issues facing young African cyclists

Biniam Girmay - who yesterday became the first black African to win a stage of the Tour de France - almost had his career derailed by issues obtaining a visa, an obstacle still facing talented riders taking their first steps into the professional world.

The 24-year-old Eritrean fought to get a visa approved late in 2019 and into early 2020, before signing with Team Delko. With entry to Europe approved, he was able to chase his dreams, signing with Intermarché-Wanty in 2021 and becoming the first black African to win a Grand Tour stage in 2022, at the Giro d'Italia. 

His history-making career almost ended early.

"Biniam's visa issues were so challenging," Team Africa Rising's Kim Coats told Cycling Weekly. The not-for-profit organisation helps riders across the continent, and Coats says that many are still facing the same battle. 

As an example, Coats highlights the story of 19-year-old Florence Nakaggwa of the Masaka Cycling Club in Uganda, who recently agreed a deal with the Canyon-SRAM Generation development squad. Several months after signing, Nakaggwa has still been unable to secure the documents needed to move to Europe, where she can cut her teeth racing in larger pelotons. 

"She's a fantastic cyclist, she's only 19 years old, and she was signed by Canyon-SRAM. She submitted her visa paperwork three weeks ago for the third time, and they still don't have any word back on her," Coats said. 

"I'm also trying to get four young women from Benin to a month-long training camp in France. It's a really big challenge, and it will derail some of their careers, sadly enough," Coats said.

Speaking at a press conference following his stage win in Turin, Gimay highlighted the need for young African riders to access the European racing scene. 

"We need to come as junior riders to Europe," he said. 

"I remember when I was a junior, I needed to learn the culture in Europe because it's totally different to Eritrea. I needed to learn English and to learn the cycling language which took a while.

"If you come at 23, 24 you already lose some time. I don't know what the problem is these last few years. The UCI already stopped having African riders on the development team. There is a lot of talent in Africa but it always depends on how the others look to support African riders."

Sadly, the situation is not improving. 

"It's getting more challenging as the years go on," Coats adds. "There's so much talent and when I hear people say things like 'they just have to show what they have, get 'em to the race and they just need to show up’ they can't show up, they have to overcome so many hurdles, both financially, with visas and with international politics."

The moment Girmay crossed the finish line in Turin, Coats' phone exploded with "hundreds of messages" from riders across Africa. 

"This win by Biniam takes it to a whole new level. This is the Tour de France. This is the pinnacle of where all these guys and girls want to be someday. I guarantee you the belief level has gone through the roof with all of our riders. 

"You just have this huge groundswell of development and enthusiasm for the sport. Biniam [has] showed every single one of these kids that they can do it too, because representation matters."

Speaking after his win, Girmey implored cycling's major stakeholders to invest in talent from outside of Europe. 

"Please continue to search for young talent and give them support and help them to continue to be part of the European cycling culture. [Ecuadorian Richard] Carapaz wearing yellow and an Eritrean winning a stage shows that cycling is starting to become even more global right now. 

"I hope we can continue to inspire young talent from Africa and I hope the big teams also start to look at talent that isn't just in Europe."