POLL: How will Egan Bernal's GC challenge go at 2024 Tour de France?

Egan Bernal won the Tour de France in 2019 and then the Giro d'Italia in 2021. In early 2022 he suffered a training crash that changed his life and career, but he has completed a lengthy recovery and is currently racing at the same level as before. But will this be enough for him to contest for the GC once again at the Tour?

Consistency may be the biggest challenge for the Colombian, but he completed two Grand Tours last year in an attempt to recover this ability to race three weeks. After a year of returning to racing and recovering his competitive level, in 2024 he had the pressure to actually bring in results for INEOS Grenadiers. However he succeeded. He was third at the Jonas Vingegaard-won O Gran Camiño, third at the Tadej Pogacar-won Volta a Catalunya, and recently was fourth at the very mountainous Tour de Suisse. Tactics, high-altitude racing and endurance are all specialties for the INEOS rider, who is one of several options for the team at the Tour.

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"The Tour de France is different, but I'm feeling good. Day after day I'm getting back in better and better shape," Bernal said during the Tour de Suisse. "I knew I wasn't going to arrive in my best form in Switzerland, but the important thing is to recover well after these efforts and then go to the Tour."

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Several analysts believe Bernal is ready to be competitive at the Tour. Philippa York wrote that "Bernal is improving with every race and with his Tour de Suisse results, he becomes a valuable asset for INEOS again" whilst Thijs Zonneveld wrote that "I really think he may push the same wattages as in his glory years, maybe even better".

Bernal may be a second GC option for the British team behind Carlos Rodríguez who was fifth last year. Tom Pidcock and Laurens de Plus could also fight for the overall classification if they are able to consistently race at the level they showed in Suisse and Dauphiné respectively. Bernal's return to the Grand Boucle is highly anticipated.

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"Egan Bernal is improving with every race... Tom Pidcock slightly disappointing" - Philippa York assesses INEOS Grenadiers ahead of Tour de France

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