Egan Bernal on drinking bicarbonates to improve time trial performance: "You have to be very careful not to sin by wanting to gain a couple of seconds"
Cycling
Ineos Grenadiers rider Egan Bernal made his debut as a commentator in Colombia on Sunday and left his impressions about the day's stage and what to expect from his former teammate and a good friend Daniel Martínez, currently place third overall in the Giro d'Italia general classification, just 15 seconds shy of runner-up Geraint Thomas.
Regarding what to expect from Martínez, Bernal pointed out that the final week will be critical for the standings in Rome: "Be patient, many times we would like the rider to attack in all stages. But often it is with a cool head, waiting, waiting and waiting. Tomorrow is a rest day but there are two very hard stages ahead in which differences can be made," he indicated in Caracol Sports.
According to Bernal we shouldn't be looking either at the time trial or the queen stage isolated, but rather at the combination of the two stages. "You have to look at how people recovered from yesterday, from the effort of the time trial, which is very important."
He goes on to explain why it's important to view the two stages as a whole: "Now in time trials you drink a lot of bicarbonate, which is basically salt and that helps. It's like a lactic acid buffer so your legs don't hurt. It's like drinking brine, it's horrible, but you take that so your legs don't hurt," Bernal noted on topic of the art of time trialing these days.
"But the next day many people retain fluids and can wake up with two or three extra kilos, which is a lot for them in a high mountain stage," he continues. "That's why a day like today is very special and you have to be very careful not to sin by wanting to gain a couple of seconds," said Bernal.
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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StardustDragon20-05-20243
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- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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Las revelaciones de Egan Bernal en su debut como comentarista en Caracol. -Está haciendo mejores números que cuando ganó Tour y Giro. -Va por Tour y Vuelta 2024. -Descartó el Giro que propusó el Ineos. -No descarta los JJ.OO. -Le falta definir entre T. de Eslovenia y V. a Suiza.
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