The greatest successes of Egan Bernal
- Overall victory Tour de France 2019
- Overall victory at the Giro d'Italia 2021
- 2 stage wins at the Giro d'Italia 2021
- Overall victory Paris-Nice 2019
- Overall victory Tour de Suisse 2019
- Overall victory Tour of California 2018 + 2 stage wins
- 1st place Gran Piemonte 2019
- Overall victory La Route d'Occitanie 2020
- Overall victory Colombia Oro y Paz 2018
- 2nd place overall in the Tour de Romandie 2018
Teams
- Since 2020 Ineos Grenadiers (contract until 2026)*
- 2019 Team Ineos
- 2018 Team Sky
- 2017 Androni-Sidermec-Bottecchia
- 2016 Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec
Who is this young climber who has outrun everyone in the mountains? Five things worth knowing about Egan Bernal.
The home of Egan Bernal
Bernal comes from Zipaquira, a small town around 40 kilometres from Bogota. The Colombian lived there at an altitude of 2700 metres. Bernal still often visits his old home. His training route leads to Pacho, his mother's birthplace, at an altitude of 3600 metres.
Family
FAMILY: The climbing specialist comes from a modest background. His father German already wanted to become a professional cyclist, but lacked the financial means. His mother Florites worked on a flower plantation.
Beginnings of Egan Bernal
The 60-kilogramme lightweight began his career on a mountain bike, which gave him a lot of technical experience. Bernal won his first bike race at the age of seven, after which he was coached by the former professional cyclist and two-time champion. Vuelta-participant Fabio Rodriguez. At the age of 18, he switched to the Italian team Androni Giocattoli. Just two years later, the British super racing team Sky snapped him up after Bernal won the prestigious Tour de l'Avenir junior race.
Yellow jersey
Bernal was the third Colombian to wear the yellow jersey after Victor Hugo Pena (2003) and Fernando Gaviria (2018) and the first to win the Tour of France in 2019.
Falls
Bernal has already been set back several times by heavy crashes. In March 2018, he suffered fractures to his shoulder blade and collarbone at the Tour of Catalonia, five months later he suffered a slight brain haemorrhage at the race in San Sebastian and knocked out a few teeth. In May 2019, he missed his debut at the Giro d'Italia after suffering a broken collarbone in training. In 2021, he won the Giro at his first attempt, before he was seriously injured in an accident at the beginning of 2022.
Bernal crashed into a stationary bus during training in Colombia at the end of January 2022. He suffered several broken bones, including eleven ribs, two vertebrae, a femur and a kneecap.
Both lungs were also perforated. Bernal himself had put his chances of not being paralysed at just five percent. He was back on the home trainer just three weeks later. He worked his way back and celebrated in August 2022 his comeback at the Tour of Denmark.
*Contract period according to Procyclingstats.com
