World cycling is Colombia and Egan Bernal (Zipaquirá, 23 years old) is the only Colombian who has won the Tour. More reserved than Nairo, he is not so worried about popularity as well as tranquility, balance, to mentally face the great challenge of 2020, to impose himself as the leader of the best team in the world. "It's about doing things right, getting in good shape and trying to win again," he says in an interview with two media.
Question. Froome, Thomas, you, Carapaz ... Doesn't it give a bit of vertigo, three Tour winners, now a Giro winner arrives, on the same team, the team of the figures? It would not be foolhardy to think that a Game of Thrones will be developed inside ...
Reply. I don't know, it's complicated. Speaking here sitting down is very easy to say 'no, there will be no problem, everything will be quiet, blah, blah, blah', and maybe things get complicated on the road. But at this moment there is no point in thinking and killing my head about it.
Q. But will you go to the Tour as team leader or will there be discussion with Froome and Thomas?
A. I think it's a very good question, and even I don't know the answer right now. In that, Dave [Brailsford, the manager of the Ineos] is very, very intelligent, and knows how to organize things very well so that everyone feels happy about how he will go to the Tour. You talk to him, who is the one who decides, and makes him feel, it makes me feel, that he will have all the support of the team. For me, that is what matters most to me right now. Feeling that Dave gives me the floor that I will have the support of the team. Surely he will also tell Thomas and tell Froome, but once we are on the Tour, as long as they take me to the flat stages, to take us protected, once the mountain arrives, with a Runner like Thomas, or like Froomey, and I really mean it, it is relatively easy to find a communication, and one goes so hard on a Tour, so hard, that you can't pretend when it's going well or when it's going wrong. And if someone is stronger than the other, they will see, they will see, and the team will have to make a decision [and snap their fingers] because they will not let the Tour escape. I, right now, see that I will have two very good teammates, that each one has won the Tour, and they deserve all the respect in the world, just as I deserve it too, and it is a motivation even to train hard and to say, I'm going to win that position in the team. And if one of them is stronger, it will be difficult, but I will have to accept it and, perhaps, I will have to help them. If they are stronger. And I think that they should be thinking that way too. If someone is stronger, what can be done, nothing.
Q. Was that also the case last year?
A. Last year, in the Tourmalet, for example, Thomas took me, I don't know, the minute and a half he had taken me out on the clock, and there he stays and I was very well, and I was in front of those moments , I think trying to close a gap, and when he stays, I ask him, 'What do I do? Do I expect it or do I continue? ' And he told me, 'No, go on, go on, I'm going dead.'
P. He passed the witness ...
A. And there were other stages that I felt was very strong on the mountain, and that all that was left was a mountain, and always, for anything, I said, 'Thomas, Thomas, what do I do?' I always had that respect for him and it is the same respect that I think in this Tour we will have each other, It is difficult, obviously, to work for one of them, because I say, I am the last winner of the Tour. In another team it would be leader, sure, but things are like that, and it is respected and we have a team working all for the same. We are not going to ruin it for a lollipop.
Q. Did you really think that I could double this year Giro y Tour?
A. We thought so, yes, but we saw right away that it was not the best year. One, because I am 23 years old, and I have never done two big ones, and obviously, if I go to the Giro after winning the Tour, the least that people will expect is to do it very well, and to do it very well is to win it or do podium. And then he would have to go to the Tour to defend the title. And, right now, there is one week less between them than in 19, and one week ... Pucha, I was dead after the Tour. We prefer to be calm, calm. I have many years ahead. The Giro is a race that I like too much. I was living there for two years, and it's in my head to do it, but I understand the team. The best decision is to focus on the Tour. The Giro for the following year.
P. He speaks of 23 years, and says that he is very young, but, Higuita, who is a year younger, says that everything is going so fast that sometimes he feels old in the platoon. Do you feel the same?
R. Sure, sure. The truth is that people and journalists all talk about new cyclists, young people, and I feel that they don't put me there, in that package of young people. I was already picked up from that package, so, for that reason, I also feel very old. I'm not old ... What's up? I'm 23 years old ... But, of course, comes Remco who is 20, Pogacar is also super-young and how many stages he has won, pucha, it's impressive ... These are examples, those two. Higuita, too, that he still feels old but he is younger than me, and they already exclude me from that package ... Already, at 23, I am still aware that I am young, but yes, the truth, Sometimes I feel excluded.
Q. Being a champion has generated new responsibilities?
R. Pufff ... There are many things that sometimes you get tired, maybe. One does not cease to be, or I, at least, feel that I do not cease to be the same person. I am like calm, I like to be left alone. I don't mess with anyone but I don't want them to bother me either. I want to be calm, right? And, clearly, now, going outside is almost impossible. But they are responsibilities that one has to accept. But I am also human, I am also human. Many people see me as Tour champion, but I am still a boy who is 23 years old, everything is new to me. Many times I will make mistakes. But it's normal, it's normal. One is still a person, well, I don't know, like you.
Q. Is it a duty of athletes to be an example for society?
A. I don't know if a duty, but one feels a responsibility. One comes to this race [the Tour Colombia] and wants to make it easy, but, hell, there are many people who come here to watch me run, so I feel that responsibility to be a Tour champion, and I try to do my best. That is good for me and also good for them.
Q. Do you enjoy the bike or is it just a job?
A. No ... I think I enjoy it a lot. I would like to continue enjoying it, really. I won the Tour enjoying the bike. I enjoy adrenaline, being in the race and watching the wind, where it comes from, what team is pulling, what not ... That thought that one has to always have in the race to be ahead. That's why I really like Paris-Nice, you have to always be very involved in the race, and you have to be fighting and fighting, and I like that adrenaline a lot, and it's something I don't want to miss for being the Tour champion now .
Q. Have you ever wondered, with disappointment, ah, but winning the Tour was this? For this I have left my life in France?
R. I had not thought about how it was going to be to win the Tour de France, it was something very unexpected for me ... Of course, I was thinking 'I want to do it well, I want to win, I want to win', but when you win it, it is a bit stunned. 'Yes, I won it.' And once that happened, I didn't know what to expect, so everything has been something new ... I almost can't answer that question because it was something I didn't expect.
Q. But at least, the seven months that have passed since he won the Tour have been something sweet?
R. Ah, yes, yes, sure, sure ... Life has changed me a lot, it has been something very nice and it feels that people already recognize me a bit for being the champion of the Tour de France, and that Let's say it's cool.
Q. Has life changed more for you or your family?
R. For everyone. It has been a very big change for everyone, also for my friends. It has been something that not even they expected. My mom, of course, said what moms say, 'Come on, Igan, you're going to win the Tour', and I said it without waiting for it, but when it arrives it's something that impacts. My family's life has changed a lot in the positive sense.
Q. Do you let others call you Igan, apart from your mother?
A. No ... I don't even notice that. Egan sounds better to me, because Egan reads in Spanish, only here, I don't know, they think they are English, and they call him Igan. But I do not care.
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