Egan Bernal unveils the secret of his special jersey for the Giro d'Italia: "It's inspired by..."

Egan Bernal arrives at the Giro d'Italia with great enthusiasm. The INEOS Grenadiers rider will be wearing a very special jersey. As Colombian road and time trial champion, he will wear the colors of his country's flag during the race, but not in any way, but as a tribute to a mythical Colombian team that awakened the enthusiasm of many children, including himself, for two wheels.

"It's a special jersey, inspired by the old Café de Colombia team, a team that inspired many cyclists, many children to ride a bicycle, inspired a whole country, made them believe that it was possible for a Colombian to win a grand tour, gave many victories to Colombia and that's what we wanted to do with the jersey is to inspire the next generation. We want to be the ones to inspire them like the old generation inspired us", Bernal explained in statements to CyclingPro.net.

On his arrival at the Giro, the Colombian was sparing with words, not wanting to dwell on whether he sees himself as a favorite or not and simply making it clear that he is very excited: "The Giro d'Italia brings back very good memories, this is the second time I'm going to do it and I'll try to enjoy it as much as I can."

Having turned 28 last January, he won the Giro in his last participation in 2021. He now arrives as one of the outsider candidates to try to make things difficult for favorites Primoz Roglic and Juan Ayuso. His great start to the season winning the Colombian Nationals was interrupted by his crash in the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior that had him out for several weeks due to a collarbone fracture. His only race since then has been a Volta a Catalunya in which he finished seventh overall with a good feeling in the mountain stage finishing in La Molina.