Biniam Girmay withdraws by way of damage

Girmay made historical past as the primary black African winner of a Grand Tour stage

UCI Biking World Championships 2023

Hosts: Glasgow and throughout Scotland Dates: 3-13 August

Protection: Watch dwell throughout BBC TV and iPlayer, with 200 hours of dwell streams on the BBC’s digital platforms

Eritrean historical past maker Biniam Girmay is out of the Biking World Championships in Scotland due to damage.

The 23-year-old hoped to turn into Africa’s first world champion in Sunday’s males’s highway race after final 12 months changing into the primary black African to win a Grand Tour stage.

Nonetheless, his Intermarche Circus Wanty group stated he wouldn’t be capable to race as he was recovering from a crash.

“I am after all very disenchanted to withdraw,” Girmay stated.

He stated the occasion had been “a predominant aim for this season” however the accidents suffered in a crash eventually weekend’s Clasica San Sebastian “precipitated too extreme ache to have the ability to defend my probabilities within the Worlds”.

The 60km/h crash had left Girmay struggling “from contusions and ache within the hip”, his group stated.

“My precedence is now to recuperate from this crash after which the preparation for the final a part of the season,” Girmay added.

Girmay gained silver within the under-23 males’s race on the 2021 World Championships. The next 12 months he made his Grand Tour debut on the Giro d’Italia, successful stage 10 for his history-making second.

Information of his withdrawal got here hours after reviews claimed Girmay and three of his Eritrean team-mates had been refused entry to the UK for the World Championships.

World Biking Community stated the 4 had been denied visas to enter the nation. One of many riders, Merhawi Kudus, retweeted a hyperlink to the story, writing “Unhappy!!” and tagging world governing physique the UCI and the championships organisers.

BBC Sport has contacted the UCI and the Residence Workplace.

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