as rumours linking Girmay to the team had been going around for quite some time.<\/a> \u201cI think it was clear already from a few months ago that Biniam Girmay would go there\u2026 I think it’s a pretty good name for that team.”<\/p>\n“However, it’s fair to say that Biniam Girmay didn’t have the greatest season in 2025 after his amazing 2024 season with three stage wins in the Tour and the green jersey. But it’s a personality, right, and so he’s very recognised\u2026 I think it’s a good move for both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin argued that the Eritrean\u2019s contract made the decision inevitable. \u201cIntermarch\u00e9 was closing shop essentially, so he’s going to have to go to a new team anyway. Might as well go to the team that’s going to pay you more than two million euros a year. I actually like the move for both parties. It gives NSN a much-needed identity right off the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Girmay remained winless in 2025, something that raises some questions according to the American analyst. \u201cHe didn’t win a race in 2025. That’s not great for a rider that you’re going to pay that much money to. It is still a great deal for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bruyneel emphasised that the deal made total sense for him, at least from the rider’s perspective. \u201cI think it’s a great deal for him. If you’re able to strike such a contract – a very lucrative contract – after a season that was far from good, I think that’s great. If he would have stayed at Lotto or the new team Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9, they don’t have the means to get anywhere close to that kind of money\u2026 especially because they already have Arnaud de Lie, who’s on a big contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can Girmay return to top form?<\/p>\n
Bruyneel acknowledged uncertainty but expressed confidence in the 25-year-old\u2019s potential, arguing he can still come back to the 2024 shape. \u201cConcerns? Yeah, I mean he’s young so I don’t know exactly why he underperformed this year. Did he underperform this year? Did he overperform last year? We don’t know. He is definitely a talented rider and I can see him bounce back. Actually I can see him win races.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he also warned of the sport\u2019s increasing intensity. \u201cAlthough, you know, in cycling nowadays everything goes at such a fast pace that once you’re out of it you better don’t stay out of it for too long, because there’s new people coming all the time. And before you know it you’re one and a half, two percent worse than you were before and you’re not competitive anymore,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bruyneel suggested the agreement was essentially completed before the team\u2019s rebrand. \u201cI think the agreement was probably…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[129873,49,48,635,43703,15645,145101,134808,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-329446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-biniam-girmay","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-israel-premier-tech","13":"tag-johan-bruyneel","14":"tag-nsn-cycling-team","15":"tag-spencer-martin","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}