Continuing to show off his ever improving form, Egan Bernal was impressive again at the 2024 Tour de Suisse. Sadly for the Colombian however, on the final stage individual time-trial, a podium finish just slipped out of his grasp.
"It was hard. I hoped to keep the podium in this race, but this is cycling. I had a bad day on the bike," Bernal reflected in his post-race interview, giving his immediate reaction to the disappointment. "I did my best but I'm feeling a bit sad, also because of the team, because we worked really hard all week for this podium and, in the end, I just lost it by 10 seconds, or whatever it was."
In the end, it was the 2023 Tour de Suisse champion, Mattias Skjelmose who took the final spot on the podium alongside the all-conquering UAE Team Emirates duo of Adam Yates and Joao Almeida after eight stages in Switzerland.
Nevertheless, adding a 4th place at the Tour de Suisse to his performances of 3rd at the Volta a Catalunya and 3rd at Gran Camino, plus top 10s at Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie, Bernal is heading towards a Tour de France return with renewed confidence and optimism. "It is always a hard race, but I think in this edition, we were going really fast on the climbs. The level was super high, and for sure, we did good training for the upcoming races," concludes Bernal, a winner of the Tour de Suisse back in 2019, confirming where he will be racing next. "Hopefully the Tour de France and I think with the Tour I will be happy."
A two time Grand Tour winner, Bernal has been consistently improving and working his way back up to that level in recent seasons after a nightmare crash he suffered back in 2022, that not only threatened to end the Colombian's career, but was initially thought to have had potentially life altering possibilities.
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