Steve Cummings on Egan Bernal: "16 months ago, he nearly died, and to get back to where he is now is exceptional"

Egan Bernal's return to the Tour de France is confirmed. As INEOS Grenadiers reach Bilbao for the start of the 2023 edition, the team is headlined by Tom Pidcock who is looking to test himself in the mountains, and the Colombian who completes a year and a half recovery process towards a good level which he's taking to France this coming month.

"What we can say is that 16 months ago, he nearly died, and to get back to where he is now is exceptional in itself, and he keeps improving," team DS Steve Cummings told Eurosport. "So it’s difficult to put a timeline on how much he will continue to improve and how long that will take. I do know he’s pretty special in terms of his recovery and his mentality. Let’s see, it’s quite exciting in a way.

Bernal, who in January 2022 broke dozens of bones and was at risk of death, had a long and painful recovery. It was one that succeeded however, which in itself was an incredible achievement. From there on the 26-year old has however only put on more and more successes on the table, enough by mid-June to convince the team to re-add him to the Tour list.

“It’s unbelievable. I’ve never met anybody like this kid. He’s a mentality monster, that’s what I see," Cummings, who in the past raced for INEOS himself, said of Bernal. "Ever since I’ve known him, that’s the best way of describing him. His self-belief, his ability to suffer – add that to his talent, the way he talks, the way he wants to win, the way he wants people around him. It’s exactly what you need.

Fresh out of a 12th spot at the Criterium du Dauphiné, Bernal has cemented his responsibility as one of INEOS' leaders. Together with Carlos Rodríguez and Daniel Martínez he will be trying to go for a high position in the overall classification, even if the British team start the race with more modest ambitions of those they've had in the past.

“Often people refer to the leader as the strongest rider, physically. But that’s not always the case. It might be that people call him that because he’s mentally the strongest of the group. But in Egan Bernal’s case, even if he’s not strongest physically, he still leads by example," Cummings concludes. "And if he is the strongest physically then he’s the leader on all counts. We have to be really realistic and apart from Egan, we haven’t seen any evidence yet that they can fight for the podium and after his big crash of 2022, he’s still quite far away."