Green jersey champion Biniam Girmay and young Intermarché-Wanty squad 'squarely focused on stage victories' at Tour de France

Intermarché-Wanty have become the third team to unveil their lineup for the Tour de France, with the Belgian team throwing their weight behind Biniam Girmay as they seek to stave off the threat of WorldTour relegation.

Girmay heads into the Tour as the reigning points classification winner, having taken three stage victories on the way to taking home the green jersey last summer.

The Eritrean, who became the first Black African to win a Tour stage in Turin last July, has yet to win a race in 2025. However, he represents the team's best chance of success at the Tour and will once again be in the mix for green.

French racer Louis Barré, the team's second-best performer this season, is a rider to watch in a young Intermarché-Wanty squad largely geared around supporting Girmay.

The 25-year-old from Nantes is making his Tour de France debut and has 15 top-10 results to his name in 2025, Trofeo Laigueglia, Paris-Camembert, Amstel Gold Race, the Giro dell'Appennino, and two stages of the Dauphiné.

24-year-olds Vito Braet and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk are also making their Tour debuts, while 23-year-old Hugo Page and 25-year-old Laurenz Rex are taking on the race for a second year in a row.

Page, the second Frenchman in the selection, has top 10s at the Famenne Ardenne Classic and Copenhagen Sprint to his name this season, while Belgian racer Rex performed strongly throughout the spring, having scored top-10 finishes at Classic Brugge-De Panne, Gent-Wevelgem, Paris-Roubaix, and the Antwerp Port Epic.

A pair of 27-year-olds, Jonas Rutsch, who finished sixth at Roubaix, and Georg Zimmermann, who won the Giro d'Abruzzo, round out the eight-man team as the veterans of the group. Rutsch, who moved from EF Education-EasyPost over the winter, has two Tours to his name, while Zimmermann will race his fifth Tour.

"To build on our success from the 2024 Tour de France, we started working back in August to assemble a team squarely focused on stage victories for the 2025 edition," said Intermarché-Wanty performance manager Aike Visbeek.

"Biniam Girmay is naturally our spearhead for sprint finishes and stages with tricky finals. We've strengthened the core around him by integrating Jonas Rutsch into our team, alongside Laurenz Rex and Hugo Page, and by regularly having talents like Vito Braet and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk race with Biniam.

"Roel's selection marks an important moment for our structure. In 2023, he was the first young talent to raise his arms with our U23 Continental Team. Now, he's the first from our development structure to make his debut in the Tour de France, which speaks volumes about the progress made and the hard work of our staff.

"Vito is a quiet but powerful force, capable of performing well in the sprint stage with tough profiles. Both are invaluable assets for Biniam's lead-out train. Jonas highlighted his potential at Paris-Roubaix; he's one of our options for stage hunting through aggressive racing.

"We also have two other serious contenders for stage wins with Georg Zimmermann, who's riding his fifth Tour with us, and Louis Barré, the revelation of the first season half. Both are ready to animate the stages. Louis is making his Tour debut, and we're eager to see what he can achieve, especially after what he recently demonstrated at the Dauphiné."

As well as the primary goal of seeking stage victories and keeping Girmay in the points classification battle, Intermarché-Wanty will head to France hoping to pick up UCI points as they battle against potential relegation from cycling's top flight for 2026.

The team has won just twice in 2025 and currently languishes in 16th place in the UCI rankings, with their three-year haul of 24,387 points putting them just 1,176 clear of the 19th-placed team, Cofidis.

Girmay (775 points), Barré (573), and Rex (487) are responsible for almost half of the team's 3,980-point haul this season, and the team will be looking to both to add more to their tally this July.

Last year's Tour saw Girmay rack up 3,352 points on his own; even a partial repeat performance from the team's star rider would see the Belgian squad safe in the WorldTour for another three seasons.

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