Egan Bernal presents itself at the start of Tour de France 2024 full of ambitions and hopes. The Colombian climber, fabulous winner of the 2019 Grande Boucle, manages to get to the start of this race in excellent condition this year, after two troubled seasons due to the accident that left him on the line in January 2022. The 27-year-old from the Ineos Grenadiers he had also participated in last year’s Tour, but admits that it was a risky choice that had caused him “great suffering” but also “great emotion”.
This season, however, the music has changed significantly and his uphill performance has returned to that of the years before the accident. “This year I feel much better, the sensations are very different compared to last year. I really want to see in the competition how my body will respond to high-level competition – said Egan Bernal in an interview with EFE – I think this year I was able to prepare better for the Tour and I’m leaving with ambitions. The general classification is clearly a possibility, in theory I want to try. If I wasn’t able to keep up with the pace of the best, then I would go and help my teammates as much as possible until the end.”
The aforementioned accident, which occurred during training on the roads of his native Colombia, also changed the mentality of the 27-year-old climber, who is now a much more mature person. “In 2020, when I had to defend my title and I couldn’t finish the race, the world collapsed on me. Now I know that there are other things in life besides cycling. This is my job, what I like to do. I love spending 7 or 8 hours on a bike. But now I know that if I don’t win, if the race doesn’t go as I would like, I can go home where my family is waiting for me” highlighted Bernal.
