Tour d’Italie – Egan Bernal (ineos greniders) “hopes” always win another big tour

Bravely accidentally damaged three years ago, Egan Bernal, winner of the Tour de France in 2019 and the Tour of Italy in 2021, said Thursday that he still hoped to win a new big tour, on the eve of the departure of the 108th edition of the Giro.

“This is a good question. I don’t know. But I am preparing for. Every morning, I wake up with the desire to give my maximum. I don’t know if I’m going to get there but I believe it. It’s my hope“Said the 28 -year -old Colombian at a press conference in Tirana, the capital of Albania, which is hosting the big departure this year.”I appreciate cycling more than time when I saved, it is already something very important“He added.

The runner of Ineos is one of the five former winners from the Giro this year, with two other South Americans, Nairo Quintana and Richard Carapaz, the Australian Jai Hindley and the Slovenian Primoz Roglic. When he won in 2021, Bernal reigned on stages races, but a terrible accident in early 2022 cut him off in his momentum when he struck a coach with a stop during a training in Colombia.

Victim of fractures with a vertebra, right femur, ball joint, of a picking of the lung and a head trauma, he said he was happy to be still alive. More than three years later, he will take the start of his ninth big tour on Friday in a co-leader role of the Ineos team alongside the Dutch Thymen Arensman.

In early February, Bernal won his first victories since his victorious Giro in 2021 by becoming champion of Colombia on road and time trial. After then broke a collarbone during the Clasica Jaen, he took the final place of the Tour de Catalonia at the end of March.

“After Catalonia, I returned to Colombia to rest for a week and resume preparation for the Giro. I live in Bogota in a house at 2,600 meters above sea level, I think it’s more than sitting. This offers me ideal conditions for training. My preparation went very well, I can’t wait to start“He said.