"It helps us to realize the condition we're in" - Impressive Egan Bernal up to 4th overall at 2024 Tour de Suisse following first summit finish

Egan Bernal finished fifth in the first high mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse 2024. The Colombian of the INEOS Grenadiers continues to prove that he is back at a very high level after coming close to tragedy a couple of years ago.

This latest performance has also allowed the British team's leader to move up to fourth overall, behind only Adam Yates, Joao Almeida and Mattias Skjelmose. After the finish, the 27-year-old rider was asked about his feelings during the day and about that final climb that chained two mountain passes, one of second category followed by another of first: "I think it was a good test. It was a pretty long climb, very hard, but good, I think it helps us to realize the condition we're in," Egan answered.

The Colombian continues to prepare himself for the Tour de France, where he will be one of the leaders of INEOS along with Geraint Thomas, Carlos Rodriguez and Tom Pidcock. It is a race that he already won in 2019 and where he was expected to triumph on several occasions but crashes and health problems have prevented him from doing so. However, making act of greatness and courage, Bernal is again among the elite of world cycling, although he no longer aspires to achievements of the level of those achieved by Tadej Pogacar or Jonas Vingegaard.

This season he has already been fifth in the final general classification of the Tour Colombia, third in O Gran Camiño, seventh in Paris-Nice, third in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and tenth in the Tour de Romandie, finishing in the Top 10 of all the stage races he has entered, with a good level of participants present in all of them.

Overall classification of the Tour de Suisse 2024 after stage 4.