Egan Bernal continues to be constant at Tour of Switzerland 2024. Although the stage shortened to just 42 kilometers was full of pitfalls considering the downhill start followed directly by the final climb, the rider of the Ineos – Grenadiers he was the protagonist of another convincing performance, finishing the stage in fourth place. behind the usual UAE Emirates duo composed of Joao Almeida (stage winner) e Adam Yates and of a revenant Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl – Trek), returned among the best after the efforts of Thursday’s stage. With this performance the Colombian climber consolidates his third position in the general classification, entering the final weekend of the race with almost a minute’s lead on the Dane, currently fourth.
In a 2024 in which he truly seems to be on the right path to return to what he was before the serious accident in January 2022, the rider from Bogota is taking racing day after day, focusing on the positive aspects in view of his return to the Tour de France. “It was a very fast stage, there was a lot of nervousness – his words to our microphones at the end of today’s stage – In the end it was a good stage, it was another good test. The Tour is something different, the Tour is special. But I’m feeling good, I’m recovering well day after day. I knew I wouldn’t arrive in top form here in Switzerland, but the important thing now is to recover well from these efforts, then we hope to go to the Tour.”
Having arrived on the eve of the last two stages which include another very tough stage tomorrow followed by a hill climb on Sunday, the 27 year old says he is ready to attack to try to undermine the dominance of the duo in the UAE Emirates jersey: “If I have the legs I will try to attack in all the stages that are missing as I have done up to now, I’ll try to put on a bit of a show and shake up the race. We all know that the race isn’t over until you cross the finish line on the last day, so we’ll have to be super focused.”
