Egan Bernal

Egan Arley Bernal Gómez (born 13 January 1997) is a Colombian cyclist, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Team Ineos.[6] He won the 2019 Tour de France, being the first Latin American winner of the race.

Egan Bernal
Bernal in 2019
Personal information
Full nameEgan Arley Bernal Gómez
Born (1997-01-13) 13 January 1997
Bogotá, Colombia[1]
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2]
Weight60 kg (132 lb; 9 st 6 lb)[3]
Team information
Current teamTeam Ineos
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Rider typeClimber
Professional teams
2016–2017Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec
2018–Team Sky[4][5]
Major wins
Grand Tours
Tour de France
General classification (2019)
Young rider classification (2019)

Stage races

Paris–Nice (2019)
Tour de Suisse (2019)
Tour of California (2018)

One-day races and Classics

National Time Trial Championships (2018)
Gran Piemonte (2019)
This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Bernal and the second or maternal family name is Gómez.

Early life

Bernal was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He is the oldest child of Germán (an employee at the Salt Cathedral) and Flor (a flower factory worker), and raised in the nearby town of Zipaquirá. His father had been a keen amateur cyclist, and he started riding on a second hand bicycle at age five. At nine, against his father's wishes, he entered and easily won a race in his home town, the prize for which included a training scholarship.[1][7]

He initially focused on and excelled at mountain biking, winning races in Brazil, Costa Rica, and the United States, and getting both silver (2014) and bronze (2015) in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships junior cross country events.[8]

Professional road racing

Alongside mountain biking, Bernal had begun to gain success in junior road racing both in Colombia and Italy, winning the Clasica Juventudes Cajica[9] and the Sognando Il Giro delle Fiandre[10] in 2015.

2016–2017

Bernal was signed by Gianni Savio to the Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec team on a four year contract, partly on the evidence of a VO2 max reading of 88.8ml/kg/min provided by his agent, Paolo Alberati.[11] He began racing among seniors straight away, bypassing the usual U23 career route.[11] In 2016, he obtained top 20 results in the La Méditerranéenne, the GP Industria & Artigianato, Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and Giro del Trentino, before winning the (then) lower level Tour of Bihor and coming fourth in both the Tour de Slovenie and the Tour de l'Avenir.[12]

2017 saw top ten finishes for Bernal in the Vuelta a San Juan and the Tour de Langkawi.[13] He later finished third overall in the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, second in the Giro dell'Appennino, and ninth in the Tour of the Alps.[13] His first professional wins came in the Sibiu Cycling Tour, with two stage victories as well as the overall.[14] He also won two stages and the overall title at the Tour de l'Avenir.[13] Although he was still under contract to Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec and a contract buyout payment reported to be €350,000 was necessary,[15] Bernal signed a five year deal with Team Sky from the 2018 season.[4] He completed his time in Savio's team with fifth in the Giro della Toscana and top twenty places in Giro dell'Emilia, Milano–Torino and his first monument, Il Lombardia.[13]

2018
Bernal wearing the leader's jersey at the 2018 Tour of California

Bernal made his debut for Team Sky in the Tour Down Under as team co-leader,[16] in which he won the young rider classification and finished sixth in the overall standings. In February 2018, Bernal won the Colombian National Time Trial Championships. He went on to win the first edition of the Tour Colombia (then called Colombia Oro y Paz), through an attack on the final 20-kilometre (12-mile) climb on the last day.[17]

Bernal's next race was the Volta a Catalunya, in which he was second on general classification when he fell on a wet descent in the final stage, fracturing his clavicle and scapula.[18][19]

The following month, Bernal competed in the Tour de Romandie, winning stage three of the race, an individual time trial[20] and finishing second overall behind Primož Roglič. In May, Bernal achieved his first UCI World Tour win in the Tour of California, finishing over a minute ahead of Tejay van Garderen, and winning two stages.[21][22]

In July, he rode the Tour de France as a domestique for team leaders Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas. He was the youngest participant in the race, and was still able to drop many contenders in the mountains.[23]

2019
Bernal at the 2019 Tour de France

Bernal started his 2019 season in Colombia. He rode in the national championships and in his home stage race, the Tour Colombia. Bernal, however, was unable to defend his title in the race, finishing fourth overall. Bernal later went to Europe to compete in Paris–Nice. The Colombian impressed in the crosswinds, the individual time trial, and in the mountains, claiming the overall victory ahead of Nairo Quintana.

Bernal next finished third in the Volta a Catalunya, and was scheduled to lead Team Ineos at the Giro d'Italia until he broke a collarbone in a training injury in Andorra.[24] He returned to racing for the Tour de Suisse, in which he won the overall classification and the queen stage.

Tour de France victory

Bernal was elevated to be co-leader of the team with defending champion Thomas for the Tour de France, because of the absence through injury of Froome. After the stage 2 team time trial he had a top ten position in the general classification, which he retained, despite an unimpressive individual time trial performance, into the three decisive alpine stages. An attack on the last climb of stage 18 saw him move into second place overall, ahead of Thomas, and he took the yellow jersey as race leader on stage 19 after an attack on the Col de l'Iseran. The stage was shortened because of landslides and a severe hail storm with 38 km remaining. Although the stage positions were considered null, times were taken at the top of the Iseran, putting Bernal in the lead with margins of forty five seconds over previous leader Julian Alaphilippe and one minute and eleven seconds over Thomas. He defended his lead on stage 20, another mountain stage, and confirmed his victory with the largely ceremonial ride onto the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

He thus became the first Colombian or South American rider, and second from the Americas,[N 1] to win the Tour de France, and also won the best young rider competition. He is the youngest General Classification winner since 1909[25] and the third youngest ever at 22 years, 196 days.[26] “It’s incredible, I don’t know what to say,” Bernal said. “I’ve won the Tour but I don’t manage to believe it. I need a couple of days to assimilate all this. It’s for my family and I just want to hug them. It’s a feeling of happiness that I don’t know how to describe it.” The young champion cyclist went on to say the victory was also for his home country of Colombia. “This is not only my triumph,” Bernal said. “It’s the triumph of a whole country.”[27]

Career achievements

Mountain bike
2014
2nd MTB World Junior Cross-Country Championships
3rd MTB Pan-American Championships Junior Cross-Country
2015
1st MTB Pan-American Championships Junior Cross-Country
3rd MTB World Junior Cross-Country Championships

Road
2016
1st Overall Tour of Bihor
1st Young rider classification
1st Stage 1
1st Young rider classification Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali
1st Young rider classification Giro del Trentino
4th Overall Tour of Slovenia
1st Young rider classification
4th Overall Tour de l'Avenir
2017
1st Overall Sibiu Cycling Tour
1st Points classification
1st Young rider classification
1st Stages 2 & 3
1st Overall Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc
1st Points classification
1st Young rider classification
1st Stages 2 & 4 (ITT)
1st Overall Tour de l'Avenir
1st Stages 7 & 8
2nd Giro dell'Appennino
3rd Memorial Marco Pantani
4th Overall Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali
1st Young rider classification
5th Overall Giro della Toscana
1st Young rider classification
5th GP Industria & Artigianato di Larciano
7th Overall Tour de Langkawi
9th Overall Tour of the Alps
1st Young rider classification
9th Overall Vuelta a San Juan
1st Young rider classification
2018
1st Time trial, National Road Championships
1st Overall Tour of California
1st Young rider classification
1st Stages 2 & 6
1st Overall Colombia Oro y Paz
1st Mountains classification
1st Young rider classification
2nd Overall Tour de Romandie
1st Young rider classification
1st Stage 3 (ITT)
6th Overall Tour Down Under
1st Young rider classification
10th Milano–Torino
2019
1st Overall Tour de France
1st Young rider classification
1st Overall Tour de Suisse
1st Young rider classification
1st Stage 7
1st Overall Paris–Nice
1st Young rider classification
1st Gran Piemonte
2nd Giro della Toscana
3rd Overall Volta a Catalunya
3rd Time trial, National Road Championships
3rd Giro di Lombardia
4th Overall Tour Colombia
6th Milano–Torino
9th Giro dell'Emilia
2020
1st Overall Route d'Occitanie
1st Points classification
1st Young rider classification
1st Stage 3
2nd Overall Tour de l'Ain
National Road Championships
2nd Road race
3rd Time trial
4th Overall Tour Colombia

Stage race results timeline
Grand Tour general classification
Grand Tour 2017 2018 2019 2020
Giro d'Italia — — —
Tour de France — 15 1
Vuelta a España — — —
Major stage race general classification
Race 2017 2018 2019 2020
Paris–Nice — — 1 —
Tirreno–Adriatico 16 — —
Volta a Catalunya — DNF 3
Tour of the Basque Country — — —
Tour de Romandie — 2 —
Critérium du Dauphiné — — —
Tour de Suisse — — 1
Legend
— Did not compete
DNF Did not finish
gollark: ++magic py bot.guilds
gollark: Huh.
gollark: ++magic py len(bot.guilds)
gollark: Or so.
gollark: 10, actually.

References
  1. "Egan Bernal, un campeón desde antes de nacer". Elespectador.com (in Spanish). 26 August 2017. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  2. "Egan Bernal – Team INEOS". Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  3. "Egan Bernal". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  4. "Egan Bernal signs for Team Sky". Cyclingnews.com. Immediate Media Company. 27 August 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  5. "Team Sky". Cyclingnews.com. Immediate Media Company. Archived from the original on 5 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  6. "Team Ineos". UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  7. Ostanek, Daniel. "Meet Egan Bernal Colombia's Newest Cycling Sensation". Cyclingtips.com. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  8. "Egan Bernal Biography".
  9. "CLASICA JUVENTUDES CAJICA 2015 | clasificaciones del ciclismo colombiano". www.clasificacionesdelciclismocolombiano.com.
  10. ""Sognando Il Giro delle Fiandre" parla colombiano". Il Tirreno. 4 October 2015.
  11. Ostanek, Daniel. "Meet Egan Bernal: Colombia's newest cycling sensation". CyclingTips. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  12. "Egan Bernal – 2016". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  13. "Egan Bernal – 2017". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  14. "Ciclism: Columbianul Egan Bernal Gomez a câștigat Turul Sibiului; Eduard Grosu, învingător în ultima etapă" [Cycling: Colombian Egan Bernal Gomez won the Tour of Sibiu; Eduard Grosu, winner in the last stage]. Agerpres (in Romanian). Agenția Națională de Presă Agerpres. 9 July 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  15. Burrows, Josh. "How cycling's greatest talent Egan Bernal defied father's bitter resistance". The Times. Times Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  16. "Bernal and Halvorsen lead Team Sky at Tour Down Under". Cyclingnews.com. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  17. "Bernal and Sky pull off Oro y Paz heist to seal overall victory". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  18. "Bernal crashes out of Volta a Catalunya". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  19. "Bernal diagnosed with shoulder fractures after Catalunya crash". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  20. Robertshaw, Henry (27 April 2018). "Team Sky's Egan Bernal blasts to victory ahead of Roglič and Porte in Tour de Romandie mountain time trial". Cycling Weekly.com. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  21. "2018 Tour of California". ProCyclingStats. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  22. "Egan Bernal wins Stage 6 of the Tour of California". LA Times.com. Associated Press. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 26 July 2018.
  23. Benson, Daniel (4 August 2018). "Savio: Bernal had a wonderful Tour de France". Cyclingnews.com. Immediate Media Company. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  24. Benson, Daniel (4 May 2019). "Egan Bernal out of Giro d'Italia after collarbone break". Cyclingnews.com. Future plc. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  25. "At 22, Egan Bernal All but Secures Tour de France Win". The New York Times. Associated Press. 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  26. "Egan Bernal becomes first Colombian to win the Tour de France". The Guardian. 28 July 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  27. Boren, Cindy (28 July 2019). "Egan Bernal wins Tour de France as his native Colombia celebrates". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 August 2019. “I feel this is not only my triumph, but the triumph of a whole country,” Bernal said Saturday (via NBC). “ . . . It’s a great honor to think that I’m the one achieving this. My dad couldn’t talk at first, but when he managed, he congratulated me. He was about to cry. For us, it’s a dream. We used to watch the Tour on TV and we thought it was something unreachable. . . .
  1. After Greg LeMond as the apparent wins by Floyd Landis and Lance Armstrong were subsequently overturned.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.