The current cycling season is very special due to the presence of the Olympic Games in Paris, which will be held after the 2024 Tour de France. As is logical, some teams will not allow their riders to participate in the two events due to the importance of the Grande Boucle. This has been the case for INEOS Grenadiers with Egan Bernal.
This Thursday, two days before the arrival of the Grand Départ of Florence, it has been confirmed that the British team has denied Bernal the authorization to compete for Colombia in the Olympic Games. The 27 year old rider is part of the star line-up that INEOS is taking to the Tour with the objective of finishing, at the very least, on the podium of the general classification. Due to this decision, the Colombian quota for the Olympic Games will be filled by Santiago Buitrago.
Although it is frustrating for Colombian cycling and certainly for Egan Bernal himself, it is logical that INEOS Grenadiers wants one of its best riders to concentrate fully on giving his all in the Tour de France. In the end, Bernal will be one of the three super domestiques who will help Carlos Rodríguez, the team's leader for the general classification, in the high mountains along with Geraint Thomas and Tom Pidcock, also operating as something of a plan B himself.
Moreover, it is that the opportunity for INEOS to achieve a great result in the Grande Boucle is very clear. Except for Tadej Pogacar, who is perhaps more than a step above the rest of the competition after winning the Giro d'Italia 2024 in a complete landslide and arriving in France in one of the best moments of his career, there are many doubts regarding the rest of the competitors.
Firstly, Jonas Vingegaard will start the Tour de France with no races in his legs after the serious accident he suffered in early April at the Itzulia Basque Country. Remco Evenepoel, meanwhile, did not convince much in the high mountains of a Criterium du Dauphiné won by Primoz Roglic. The Slovenian and Vingegaard himself, who in the end is the champion of the last two editions of the Grande Boucle, seem to be the main rivals of INEOS Grenadiers in the fight for the podium. That's why the British team needs Egan Bernal, who is coming from a great level in his last races, to be 100% focused on the Tour de France.
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