Biniam Girmay had never once ridden up the Paterberg or Oude Kwaremont until he hit them at full bore in the finale of the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, but that lack of experience scarcely seemed to be an impediment to the Eritrean at Friday's race.
Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte's dominant two-up victory will draw the day's headlines, but Girmay's assured fifth place in his first cobbled Classic was more than simply a footnote to Jumbo-Visma's remarkable ascendency.
It certainly wasn't entirely a surprise, given the quality of Girmay's performances throughout the opening weeks of this season. Racing in this corner of the world is rarely kind to neophytes, of course, yet the 21-year-old had already given notice of his intentions when he spoke to Het Nieuwsblad on the eve of the race.
"I race to win, not just to ride along," he had said.
Girmay was as good as his word here. Although he missed Van Aert's initial selection on the Taaienberg with 80km to go, he bridged across three climbs later on the Eikenberg. On the stiffest slopes of the Paterberg, he was the last man to resist Van Aert and Laporte's decisive two-man onslaught.
By the following Kwaremont, the Jumbo-Visma tandem already had an unassailable lead, but Girmay was generous in his efforts in the forlorn pursuit over the final two climbs. On the flat run-in to Harelbeke, meanwhile, he worked to keep the chasers together in order to sprint for third place, though Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) succeeded in stealing a march on the rest in the final kilometre.
"I am proud of 5th place because you saw the race, I covered many attacks in the last 10k. I was almost on the limit so I'm happy with 5th place," Girmay told reporters outside the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert bus afterwards.
"I know everybody was on the limit but I tried my best to follow all the attacks. In the last 800m [Küng] came from behind me so I couldn't follow him, but I'm happy for my first race like this."
Girmay races for a Belgian team, but his European base is in San Marino and his exposure to cobblestones has been limited. By his reckoning, he hadn't ridden on cobbles of any description since he was in Leuven for last year's World Championships, where he placed second in the U23 road race. He didn't even perform a reconnaissance of the E3 Harelbeke route, meaning that his very first experience of the Flemish Ardennes came in the august company of Van Aert et al.
"It's unbelievable, it's a totally different kind of race, because this is only my second race in Belgium this year. I had a little bit less experience," Girmay said.
"I just watched the race on TV, but I didn't know the road, this is my first time. So it was really difficult. Sometimes I was a bit back in the positioning, but my team did a really good job to keep me in the front. But E3 was one of the hardest races of my life.
"I learned from the start to the finish, all the race. I just need more experience about the positioning. I didn't know exactly which corner it was when things were going to happen, but we have experienced guys like [Andrea] Pasqualon and [Adrien] Petit in the team, and they told me on the radio where to be."
Girmay's only obvious misstep on Friday came on the Taaienberg, where he was too far back when Van Aert launched his first onslaught, but he had the nous to bide his time and choose the right moment to correct that error, forging across on the Eikenberg.
"I was not in position at that time, but I kept calm because I knew the peloton would come back because there were some strong guys behind and there was a long way to go," said Girmay, who was later tucked just behind Van Aert and Laporte when they made their winning move on the Paterberg. "I tried to follow Van Aert and Laporte, but I couldn't. They were just too strong."
Gent-Wevelgem and the Giro d'Italia
On crossing the finish line in Harelbeke, an exhausted Girmay immediately sat down on the road to catch his breath, and as he did so, a fellow countryman emerged from beyond the barriers and draped him in an Eritrean flag.
The WorldTour only belatedly took notice of the nation's longstanding cycling tradition over the past decade or so, and Girmay already looks poised to make a considerable impact at this level.
Next week, Girmay is slated to return to the country for a stint of altitude training ahead of his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia. Despite his remarkable showing in Harelbeke, Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert have resisted the temptation to ask him to postpone the trip until after the Tour of Flanders.
"That will be for next year, yes, but this year I already had my plans so we'll keep to that. But for the future, for sure, all the classics in Belgium are in my heart so I really need to race in Belgium more," Girmay said.
His team management clearly think so too. Girmay had initially been scheduled to race in France this weekend at La Roue Tourangelle, but he is now set to line out at Gent-Wevelgem instead.
"I have a race on Sunday," Girmay said carefully. In Belgium? "Yeah, normally," he smiled.
