The Colombian Egan Bernal He knows that the 2023 Tour will not be another one for him. This is his first major race since he suffered a severe accident in January 2022, which nearly cost him his life and kept him out of top competition for months.
Perhaps for this reason, before making any other statement, the Ineos team cyclist states as a preamble: “I want to thank you for your life.”
Bernal has not played a good three-week race since his victory in the 2021 Giro d’Italia and this Saturday he will start the Tour de France where he has not been since he left it in the 2020 edition, without his able to defend the title won last year, the only one won by a Colombian.
For the cyclist, when he starts rolling through the streets of the Spanish city of Bilbao this Saturday will not be a day like any other.
“I’m very happy to be back on the Tour. I really want to measure myself again against the best runners in the world”, said one from Zipaquirá, visibly moved to return to the race that brought him to fame.
The Tour will be a return to top competition for him and also the end of a long road in which the recovery has not been easy, but in which he maintains a great will to return to the elite.
“Since the accident, the reason I wake up every day is to be among the best again,” said the cyclist, knowing that this edition will be difficult for him to compete with the big favorites, led by the defending champion, the Dane Jonas Vingegaard, and the winner of the previous two, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.
“The goal is to regain my previous level. Let’s see if I can get it. What is clear to me is that I worked hard every day to achieve this,” he said.
Bernal will join his compatriot Daniel Martínez, the British Thomas Pidcock and Ben Turner, the Polish Michal Kwiatkowski and the Spanish Omar Fraile, Jonathan Castroviejo and Carlos Rodríguez, who despite his youth appears as leader of the paper formation.
“He has done a great job and is a great professional despite his youth,” said the Colombian, who knows that if he succeeds in the first week well, he will have options to shine in the rest of the competition.
“I’m not sure, it will be three weeks after a long time, I’m not ready for this race one hundred percent, I’ll do my best. The first objective is not to lose too much time in the first week , after which every day will decide what to do depending on what you are sitting on and your legs,” he said.
Source: La Verdad
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