COLOMBEY-LES-DEUX-EGLISES, France: Eritrean sprinter Biniam Girmay won stage eight of the Tour de France on Saturday at a finish line in the village where former French president Charles de Gaulle lived and is buried.

Girmay became the first black African to win a stage on the Tour de France on stage 3.

“One win on the Tour is amazing but to win a second on a stage like this, that suits me, I feel just amazing,” said the smiley Girmay.

Overnight leader Tadej Pogacar retained his 33-second lead over Remco Evenepoel in the general standings while defending champion Jonas Vingegaard is third.

Girmay’s second stage win after his historic triumph at Turin on Monday extended his lead atop the best sprinter standings in the green jersey.

The final sprint was raced up an incline that favored the more slightly built sprinters even though Jasper Philipsen, the 2023 green jersey, came second while Belgian 22-year-old Arnaud de Lie was third.

Girmay is the first rider to win two stages so far with rival sprinters Dylan Groenewegen and Mark Cavendish having won previous sprint stages but who were outside the top 10 Saturday.

“We had a good plan,” said Intermarche rider Girmay.

“I stayed near the front on the way up the hill and it was easy because I followed two Cofidis riders up the hill. It was like teamwork.”

Norwegian rider Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X raced ahead of the peloton for most of the afternoon staying ahead for 170km and extending his lead in the king of the mountains polka dot jersey race for at least two more stages.

The stage ended in Colombey-les-Deux-Eglizes, home of de Gaulle and his wife Yvonne.

De Gaulle led the Free French during WWII and was later president and architect of the Fifth French Republic.

In a much remembered race incident in 1960 De Gaulle and his wife came out to see the Tour de France pass by their village and, seeing him there, the peloton stopped briefly to greet him.

Olympic medal hope and 2019 world road race champion Mads Pedersen pulled out of the Tour “to focus on other goals” ahead of stage eight having failed to shake off a shoulder injury.

Sunday’s circuit around Troyes in the Champagne-growing region features 14 gravel sections in a Tour de France first, opening up to the growing popularity to gravel racing.

“There’s no favorite for tomorrow (Sunday). Maybe someone on a breakaway, Whoever wins will have to be good,” said the yellow jersey.

Aiming for a Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double that was last achieved in 1998 by Marco Pantani, Pogacar dismissed any idea he might be tired.

“The Giro is already a long time ago, I don’t feel it has hurt me racing both because I have honestly never felt better. We’ll see later though, who knows,” said the 2020 and 2021 champion who races for UAE.

His twin concerns are Sunday’s gravel stage and then keeping his team focussed until they get to the mountains next weekend.

“I did a recon ride on this interesting stage,” said the race leader kitted out in a woollen hat in stark contrast to a week ago in Florence where the temperature was around 20 celsius higher on a sizzling opening day.

“You need to be careful from start to finish, it could be really chaotic.”

CAIRO: Palestinian karate champion Mais Elbostami went to bed thrilled after winning a competition in the Gaza Strip. She awoke the next day to a different world.
“I’d won first place,” the shy 18-year-old told AFP from a Cairo suburb, where her family now lives after escaping the war and where she is training in the hope to one day represent her country internationally.
She said she “hadn’t even hung up the medals” she won on October 6 before Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Immediately, she and her family fled south from their home in the northern Gaza Strip as Israel launched a relentless retaliatory military campaign.
Over the past nine months, the war has reduced much of the besieged Palestinian territory to rubble and killed more than 38,000 people, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.
Amid the hell of bombing and displacement, “every hour that passed felt like it aged you by a year,” said Elbostami.
Death was all around her.
“In the first 10 days alone, I lost my coach Jamal Al-Khairy, and his granddaughter who used to train with me,” she said.
When the family made it to the Egyptian capital in April, Elbostami had two things on her mind: making sure relatives back home were safe, and getting back to her karate training.

Despite being trapped in Gaza, Palestinian national team coach Hassan Al-Raiy put her in touch with the Egyptian team, and within two weeks she was back on the mat.
“My coaches here in Egypt have practically adopted me, and they’re working with me so I can get good enough to compete in the next championships,” she said.
Whenever she can, she spars on the mat. But with limited resources and gym time, Elbostami has also had to train in the streets and gardens around her house.
She often finds her mind wandering to Gaza’s Mediterranean shore.
“Training back home was different. Every Friday my teammates and I would go and train by the sea,” she said.
Karate is known for its strong focus on discipline and self-control, and this has helped the young karateka to “detach from reality” — living as a refugee from a brutal war — even for a little while.
“My emotions sometimes get the best of me. There are times I can’t get through a full session” without remembering “fleeing on foot as air strikes fell all around us,” she said.
Elbostami tries to focus on her goal — “to represent my country and raise its flag in international competitions.”

She has a long way to go, and her first stop on that journey is Egypt’s own national championships in August.
“It’s a tough challenge,” she said, because Egyptian karate athletes have historically outperformed their Palestinian counterparts.”
“But it will bring my level up, too.”
Elbostami’s Egyptian coach, Mamdouh Salem, told AFP that the teenager was an “athlete with a lot of potential, dedication and persistence.”
“We’re working on her technique, but ultimately karate is more a game of skill than talent — I expect Mais will excel.”
He said he wants to help her raise the Palestinian flag around the world.
“If we can’t fight with them” in Gaza, “we can at least help them represent their country abroad,” he said, echoing widespread Egyptian solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Her Gazan teammates, coaches and most of her relatives may remain trapped in Gaza — and she said dozens of them have been killed — but against all odds, Elbostami has survived.
“So I don’t have any excuse to keep me from achieving my goal,” she said.
“I’ll do everything I can to highlight the Palestinian cause. Every championship and every time I represent Palestine, it’s for my country, for the martyrs and for the wounded.”