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Bernal winner of his first Giro: "I was crossed by a lot of doubts"

2021-06-03T07:47:29.100Z


The Colombian (Ineos) won at the age of 24 the cycling Tour of Italy, Sunday in Milan, two years after winning the Tour de France.


“I wondered if I would manage to come back,” said Egan Bernal who admitted, after his success on Sunday in the Giro, having been “crossed by a lot of doubts” after his victorious Tour de France in 2019. “Winning the Giro me place in a wonderful situation.

I look calm at the moment but I feel inside me an explosion of joy, ”smiled the Colombian, deeply happy after he was finished.

"I'm at a very good level, it allowed me to win the Giro but I have to keep my feet on the ground because you have to see that there are other riders like Pogacar and Roglic who are also very strong. .

I have returned to the game, but others can do well.

Thanks to them, I will find new motivations, ”added Bernal.

Bernal irresistible in the first two weeks

His Italian teammate Filippo Ganna took the 21st and final stage, a time of 30.3 kilometers. The time trial world champion won for the fifth time in a row in this event at the Giro. In the final standings, Bernal preceded the Italian Damiano Caruso, present for the first time on the podium of a grand tour, and the Briton Simon Yates, winner of the Vuelta 2018. The Colombian succeeded the honors of the Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart , surprise winner last year and absent this year. He signed the third success for his team since 2018 and the sensational victory of Briton Chris Froome.

Bernal, irresistible in the first two weeks, won the 9th and 16th stages, in Campo Felice and Cortina d'Ampezzo.

He was the most consistent throughout the three weeks of the race, managing the last stages with the support of a strong team, including the Colombian Daniel Martinez.

On Sunday, Ganna, who helped him powerfully throughout the race, justified his status as the peloton's best rider in the final stage.

Despite a puncture that forced him to change bikes near the finish, the Piedmontese beat Frenchman Rémi Cavagna by 12 seconds and Italian Edoardo Affini by 13 seconds.

“Winning the Tour is every cyclist's dream.

I wondered how to find real motivation.

I lacked "grinta" "

Egan Bernal

Cavagna, the French time trial champion, went straight into the last kilometer as he was able to challenge the victory at Ganna. Winner at an average of 53.787 km / h, Ganna concluded the Giro as he had started on May 8 in Turin with a victory in a time trial. Bernal added the best young rider white jersey to his outfit. Peter Sagan, for his part, brought back for the first time the cyclamen jersey of the points classification, the Slovakian's specialty in the Tour de France (seven times green jersey). Frenchman Geoffrey Bouchard won the blue mountain jersey.

The Colombian then looked back on the last two seasons: "At 22, I won the Tour but then I didn't know what to do with my life. Winning the Tour is every cyclist's dream. I was wondering how to find real motivation. I lacked "grinta." My data was good but I was aware that my situation was not the same. "

“There have been a lot of changes in my personal life which have not been easy for me,” continued the Giro winner.

“I was the first Colombian to win the Tour de France, which was a great achievement for us.

But, then, with my back problems, I couldn't demonstrate what I wanted.

I was crossed by a lot of doubts, I wondered if I would manage to come back, if I still wanted to win or not.

(…) With this Giro, I found what I was looking for, ”concluded Bernal, who defined his next goal… without specifying a date:“ As the next goal now, the most important thing would be to win the Vuelta. ”

Read also

  • Critérium du Dauphiné: Ineos, a steamroller in the Alps one month before the Tour

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-06-03

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