Egan Bernal consolidates overall podium in Suisse ahead of final time trial: "I was mainly concerned with not losing time on Mattias"

INEOS Grenadiers will most likely be heading to the Tour de France with a monster team. There, comeback kid Egan Bernal will normally be one of the most important trump cards. This also applies to jack-of-all-trades Tom Pidcock, who emphasized that he mainly wants to be pursue his own goals. At Tour de Suisse, both riders showed that their form is coming to where they'd like it to be.

We have witnessed the British team up the pace on the later parts of the nearly eight-kilometers long climb. "From our side, the plan was as follows: to solidify the race," Bernal opened the interview with Cycling Pro Net, after the penultimate stage in Switzerland. "I think we have one of the strongest teams in the race. Everyone was committed to that plan and we did our utmost."

Read also

"Remco is Remco. He can always win" - UAE Team Emirates wary of Evenepoel threat to Tadej Pogacar at Tour de France

The 2019 Tour de France winner crossed the line sixth in Villars-sur-Ollon, sixteen seconds behind the UAE Team Emirates duo, in a group that also included Pidcock and his closest GC opponent Mattia Skjelmose, who is 59 seconds behind Bernal. "I'm still on the podium," Bernal then said, referring to his third place in the general classification. "I still felt very good on the last climb, although I was mainly concerned with not losing time on Mattias. Fortunately, Tom was also in the group and he was able to pick up the pace in the last kilometers. That made it a lot easier for me."

Pidcock, who eventually crossed the line in eighth place in the group with Bernal, also responded to the performance achieved in Switzerland. "We also used this tactic in other stages," he said in a video message from INEOS Grenadiers. "Then Skjelmose and a few other riders had to unload. So we tried it that way again. However, the final climb was not steep enough to create major differences. The UAE team is clearly the strongest, so we had to try something. We cannot sit back and monitor them all the time."

Read also

"We must admit that beating Tadej Pogacar is almost impossible" - Neilson Powless and EF looks for different ways to ensure successful Tour de France

"Is it necessary to put Jonas Vingegaard at the start of the Tour de France" - Cyrille Guimard proposes Vuelta a Espana instead for recovering Visma leader