Egan Bernal is a former Tour de France and
Giro d'Italia winner, but in 2022 a life-threatening crash equally looked to be on the brink of ending his career. The Colombian has since returned to his best level, although the peloton rides at a stronger pace nowadays, but the hopes to be in the mix for a win after his first successful GC stint in three years.
“Being back in the GC mix is very exciting and marks a great step forward for the future," Bernal said in a post-race interview in Rome as
shared by INEOS Grenadiers. "I hope I will contend for a Grand Tour victory again in the future. I wake up everyday thinking of that. If you want to reach the moon, you have to shoot for the stars.”
Bernal was one of the headliners in this year's Giro and his ambition is what made several mountain stages exciting. INEOS did not settle with places in the Top10, and so he and Thymen Arensman often went on the attack far from the finish in several stages of the first and second week. On the sterrate stage, where Isaac del Toro jumped into the pink jersey, it was after following a collective attack from the British team.
On stages 11 and 15 Bernal attempted to blow up the race with long-range attacks in the mountains and was closely followed by Isaac del Toro on both occasions, but UAE's tactics at the same were to keep the block together and also protect Juan Ayuso who had been slightly injured. Bernal nevertheless rode at a high level, struggling in the queen stage at the Colle delle Finestre but riding to seventh place in the final overall classification. The Vuelta a España will likely be in his schedule later in the year.
He was in the mix, just first time in a while he has the legs and uses them up with suicide moves etc
What a delusional bloke! Talking about fighting for the overall while being 13 minutes down the GC. It’s evident that his crash into the parked bus damaged not only his performance but brain as well. With Jonas as the best GT rider and other top GT GC riders absent, the gap was 13 minutes. Otherwise it would have been more than 20 minutes...
What a delusional comment! Following a similar reasoning, riders classified from 2nd and 6th places, distanced respectable 4 to 8 minutes from Simon, had poor performances. Should Pogy and Jonas have been competing, those differences would have ballooned. Right fellow?