INTERVIEW
At 22 years and six months, Egan Bernal became Sunday the youngest runner to win the Tour de France since 1909. He also became the first Colombian to win the Great Loop, after several unsuccessful attempts by his elders in his last years, whether Nairo Quintana (2nd in 2013 and 2015) or Rigoberto Uran (2nd in 2017).
"It's such a big event for Colombia, because we've been waiting for this event for a long time, we were waiting for it with Nairo Quintana, but it happened with a prodigy", explained in The Club Tour , Sunday, Gilberto Chocce, a former cyclist and Peruvian journalist, who knows Colombia well. "We did not expect that this year, because he had another leader (Geraint Thomas) in his team, but he's so strong in the mountains ... In Colombia, it's like winning a World Cup in soccer."
For South American cycling, it is a second consecutive triumph on the Great Tours, after the victory of the Ecuadorian Richard Caraparaz on the Giro last May. "I think cycling is a very difficult sport, and in Latin America we have young people who are used to a difficult life, to suffer on a bike is almost everyday life," says Gilberto Chocce.
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Today, Colombians are much more complete runners
However, Bernal, who left Colombia at age 19, embodies a new South American cycling, far from the clichés of pure climbers, like the star and the pioneers Lucho Herrera and Fabio Parra, who ignited the Tour in the 1980s.
"Recently, I saw a documentary by a French director who went to cycling schools in Colombia," said Claude Droussent, author of The Atlas Bike , in The Club Tour , Sunday. "What amazed me is that at 12, 13, 14 years, we put small Colombians on chrono bikes, we learn to do curbs.With Colombia, we are wrong a little bit in France, and we should not be mistaken about Egan Bernal, we are on the imagery of the Colombian climbers, but it's over today.Colombians are much more complete runners, besides, where Ergan Bernal I was most amazed this year, it's not necessarily on the Tour de France, it's when there was a huge border in Paris-Nice, and that Egan Bernal had his place in this border in the middle of the Ineos team. "
On the Tour, Bernal recidivated, avoiding the trap of the wind during the stage arriving towards Albi. He also limited the gaps in the time trial (22nd at 1'36 "by Julian Alaphilippe) and as the Ineos team rider, under contract until 2024, proved in the Alps that he retained its capacity in very high mountain, Colombia will perhaps quickly win other Tours de France ...