"He’s taken another step forward" - INEOS Grenadiers' confidence in Egan Bernal return growing after podium at Gran Camino

For a long while, the possibility of Egan Bernal ever again competing for wins in the biggest races looked like nothing more than a pipe dream. After a steady 2023 though, the Colombian has started 2024 very impressively.

"I’m pleased but also not that surprised because of how he works, his mentality, and it’s really nice to see him continuing to improve all the time,” INEOS Grenadiers’ Director of Racing, Steve Cummings, told GCN after Bernal secured a podium position behind Jonas Vingegaard and Lenny Martinez at Gran Camino. "Egan was there at the start and he was there at the end, so it seems like he’s taken another step forward, which was really good."

Bernal, a Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner in his peak, is lucky to be even riding at all after a life-threatening crash a few years ago. To be competing alongside Jonas Vingegaard in stage races shows a lot about the immensely competitive spirit within the diminutive Colombian climber. The question is, just how good of a level can Bernal return to?

“He doesn’t really know himself and we’re still finding that out,” Cummings analyses. “In Colombia, he felt pretty good but he was still unsure about how he’d race when he came to Europe. There are always questions when you come down from altitude and stuff like that but I think he’s answered a lot of them. Now we’ll see how he recovers and then find the best programme that we can for him and work with him on continuing to improve.”

After tackling both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana last year, Bernal is again set to test his level at a three-week Grand Tour later this year. Which one though, is still up for debate. “We’re not quite sure on his race programme. He’s not going to do Strade now and there might be some changes but we’ll discuss that in the next few days," Cummings explains. "Normally we like to be a bit clearer and more precise in terms of what riders are doing. But Egan is a bit of a special case because of his history."

"He always wants to help the team and perform in every race but he doesn't quite know what to expect. This was definitely a good marker though, so we’ll see how he recovers in the next few days and then make a decision," the Brit concludes. “We’re still not sure what Grand Tour he wants to do but you guys can see as much as we can in terms of the steps forward he’s taken so the next one would be seeing how he copes with a week-long WorldTour stage race. From there we’ll see what Grand Tour would suit him and the team best.”