The dreams of French coronation and double Welsh have long faded on the Tour de France 2019. A perennial time, they broke on the altar of youth, since it is a prodigy of just 22 years is came to the post post all the bike's cadors of this end of the decade. An age at which future stars usually wrap in the shadows of seasoned leaders.
It's probably the fate that was predicted there is still a season or two at Egan Bernal, who had the perfect profile to stay in the wake of his captain, Geraint Thomas: an undeniable talent, absolute discretion, and a role of luxury lieutenant that already sounded like a pretty promotion for this hard climber to evil.
But to swallow the miles on the 2019 Tour without ever faltering, the Colombian discovered an ogre's appetite. Fifteenth of the Great Loop in 2018, he climbed all the ladder at once, to offer himself on the Champs-Elysees the most beautiful victory of a career still nascent. A successful win without a stage win, but with a certain panache, when he blasted the group of favorites on the slopes of the Iseran, pulling hard the yellow jersey in the evening of a 19th stage dantesque he will have dominated his head and shoulders.
Congratulations @eganbernal 🙌 What a rider !! The first of many 🏆 #capo pic.twitter.com/omwVymQaRn
Geraint Thomas (@ GeraintThomas86) July 27, 2019Rapid progress ...
A boss costume that he had never endorsed in this way, even if his trajectory within the pack was none the less dazzling. Only three years ago, it was a jewel that shone on the Italian roads, under the rather confidential jersey of Androni Giocattoli. One of those great hopes that aroused the curiosity of the teams at the UCI World Tour, the "first division" of world cycling. And it is the all-powerful Sky Team - now Ineos - who took the lead in 2017, relying on its financial strength to convince the rider and his entourage to make the leap.
The choice of the British team will quickly pay. In the cocoon, Bernal makes his scales at great speed. V. Winner of the Tour de l'Avenir - the Tour de France hopes - in 2017, he is aligned against all odds at the start of the Great Loop 2018. And it is in the skin of a model teammate he attends the triumph of its leader, Geraint Thomas.
Then everything accelerates in 2019. Brilliant winner Paris-Nice in March, he is propelled headliner of the Giro d'Italia before having to make a line on the pink jersey, invoking a fracture of the clavicle to a week of departure . His program is turned upside down, the Tour de France is becoming a luxury alternative. Quickly back on the bike, he adapts his preparation and quickly confirms that he is close to his peak form, winning at the end of the Tour de Suisse, in mid-June.
... and early consecration
At the dawn of the Grand Départ of the Tour de France 2019, Saturday, July 6, Egan Bernal is both the greatest rival and the trump card of a Geraint Thomas who dreams of repeating. A dual role that even the team's manager, Dave Brailsford, likes to maintain. "Geraint [Thomas, Ed] and Chris [Froome, Ed] were coming to the end of their best period, and I was looking for a new Chris Froome," he said after a week of racing, and while Thomas yet he was still the designated leader of his selection. As if, in his heart, the Welsh had understood that his compatriot was not necessarily the best able to triumph on the roads of the Tour.
The truth of the bitumen was enough to sweep away the doubts: 3,480 kilometers further, the Welsh has indeed dropped the flag in front of the ardor of his young teammate, now the only leader of a formation that has won all the same seven of the last eight Towers, and with four different runners.
Flavor of yesteryear
So, certainly, this Tour 2019 is the first to see the British team triumph with a rider of another nationality. But even if he is not from the seraglio like the Wiggins, Froome and Thomas Thomas, Bernal can just be an opportunity for Ineos. For the first time in 10 years and the last triumph of Contador, a rider with a profile of pure climber (1.74 m, 60 kg) is about to become the headliner of the world cycling, and that while the public shows more and more openly his aversion to the profiles of rollers who "climb the watts", without worrying about the show.
As a good biker he was in the junior categories, Bernal does not hesitate to go on the attack as soon as the road rises. Better, it is naturally programmed for that, since it made its first turns of wheels in the vicinity of Zipaquira, in the heights (2,600 m of altitude) of his native Colombia. A breath of fresh air in this modern cycling whose leaders swear by the power meters. Combined with the fact that he will be able to benefit from the support of a structure willing to put the means to provide him with a first-rate team, all indications are that at 22, he can dream of a long reign on the roads. .