“Every morning when I train, I have the thought of winning the Tour de France again in my head" - Egan Bernal refuses to give up on his dream
CyclingWednesday, 26 June 2024 at 14:22
Not so long ago, Egan Bernal looked like being the dominant force in Grand Tour cycling for years to come. Tour de France winner in 2019 and Giro d'Italia winner in 2021, the Colombian has sadly seen his goals significantly adjusted in recent years following a life threatening crash.
In 2024 however, the now 27-year-old has shown the surest signs yet that he is somewhere near back to his best. Podium finishes at Gran Camino and the Volta a Catalunya, plus a 4th overall at the Tour de Suisse and top-10 finishes at the Tour de Romandie and Paris-Nice, Bernal has shown a consistently competitive level so far this year. As such, the INEOS Grenadiers man heads towards the tour de France later this week full of renewed confidence.
“The podium at the start of the season was a nice surprise for me. It motivated me to train even harder,” Bernal recalls of his solid Gran Camino, where only Jonas Vingegaard and Lenny Martinez bettered him, in quotes collected by Velo. “At the end of 2022. I wasn’t able to prepare properly because of the after-effects of the accident and all the recovery and fitness work that I’d had to do. But for this year, in the off-season, I was able to prepare properly. So I’m feeling much better.”
Although it may seem far fetched given all he has been through, Bernal has not given up on his goal of getting back to Grand Tour winning ways. “Every morning when I leave to train, I have the thought of winning the Tour de France again in my head, of becoming the number one again," the diminutive Colombian admits. "I don’t know if it’s really possible, but it’s my primary motivation, my goal.”
Part of a very strong INEOS Grenadiers lineup for the 2024 Tour de France, Bernal joins the trio of Carlos Rodriguez, Geraint Thomas and Tom Pidcock all with potential general classification ambitions.
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- Have you gone Mads? Jeez, this is the Giro, and apart from there being other races and riders not participating, there are over 150 riders with plots and subplots, including a thing called the GC for which I doubt VERY much he’ll come into contention. Are there no other stories or topics to propose currently? Does every article have to include MP? Comparisons to Wout, to Danes, how hell fare on every single stage. Soon Pogi will start feeling like he’ll have to do some publicity stunt to become relevant again. How about updating us on how his UCI ranking is evolving with all the frenzy?Mistermaumau13-05-2025
- I wonder if Mads' resurgence has something to do with Lidl-Trek electing to go with Jonathan Milan for Tour de France, thereby relegating Mads to the Giro and missing TDF for the first time in his career. The way he's performing now, he looks like he's out to prove he's still viable as top gun.FredMan13-05-2025
- Let's not forget that Pedersen won the Worlds in Yorkshire in true North of England conditions which are hell basically, when it's bad..
leedorney12-05-2025 - Vingo is the best Dane cyclist. He's the only one who beat Pogi two time in Tour de France.
James2631812-05-2025 - Its a pretty easy comparison, Jonas is the best. Look at his opponent the Best rider of his generation and 3rd best of all time Pogi who he has beaten twice in TDF. Pedersen cant even beat MVDP in monumentsabstractengineer12-05-2025
- Did the person who wrote this article catch any of last season and what happened? Cut the guy some slack and stop feeding of someone else’s hard times, the above article is pretty redundant.Jezla12-05-2025
- Hey, all great and deserving of respect but let’s not look at things too pinkly. He’s only just above Marc Hirschi in the UCI rankings. He’s had the potential to do this for the last 7-8 years, it’s just all come together at once, having his moment. Maybe he went on a secret HA camp :-) Seriously though, he’s NEVER said he doesn’t believe in it (challenge: find me that quote), he said he hates it in words that would get an F1 driver punished, and for the same reasons that his fellow countryman Jonas gets crucified for, being away from family (though given team budgets, there is an obvious solution to that). Besides, not very professional of media and pundits to linger on past out of date sayings, he’s more or less changed his mind in the meantime and is no longer categoric about refusing to try.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- I don’t think that pays off in cycling, you never know when your next problem will happen, injury, illness, crash, and using so much time to prepare for a big goal risks being very disappointing in a short career.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
- I love Remco but this year is a write-off. The smart move would be to treat it all as preparation for next season.Renz12-05-2025
- What you forget about hunting is that time is on the side of the hunter. You’d be a fool to underestimate rivals who haven’t peaked and I doubt you’ll hear any riders including TP or JV brushing him off like you’re trying. He’s done one GT against them, his first, what were you expecting? Still way ahead of any other contenders and that as a first-timer.Mistermaumau12-05-2025
He won his only Tour when the road was suddenly closed up ahead while he was the virtual leader. It was the year that Alaphilippe held the yellow jersey and was riding out of his mind.
Egan is a great person deserving of much respect but in my mind I asterisk that win due to the circumstances. Would have liked to see him win another TdeF to change my mind.
These stories are part of what makes cycling so great. Sastre winning, and Cadel taking it on what seemed the the downward spiral from his pean don't deserve an asterisk. And it's not like anyone has won the TdF clean in even the last 60yrs
Would be great to see him flying up the mountains again. Fingers crossed
He has worked hard and he is showing improvement year over year, But he has never shown the talent of being able to out TT Pog and Vinge and so will always be at a disadvantage. It will require some luck or misfortune to rivals to win.
Keep it up Egan!! The big boys aren’t too far off! 🫶🏽
He should never give up, as long as he's racing there is always a chance.
Very unlikely it will ever happen again
Yup, and there's nothing wrong with "only" winning one TdF