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This Tour de France has had difficult days for Colombian cyclists, but at the same time there have been good days, and this Sunday, with the arrival at the Grand Colombier, after 174 kilometers, won by Tadej Pogacar and in which Primoz Roglic was ratified in the leadership, the same happened.
While on the final climb, Egan Bernal and Nairo Quintana fell off 15 minutes from the finish line, ahead Rigoberto Urán and Miguel Ángel López they fought to finish close to the best.
(You may be interested: Nairo puts his face, explains what happened on the Tour)
Every time the kilometers were devoured, Urán and López kept ahead, Bernal and Quintana lost more and more time.
At the finish line, Nairo reached 3 minutes 50 seconds and Bernal 7 minutes 20 seconds. Everything for them. What happened to you?
They both spoke at the end of the day. Nairo blamed the two falls he had two days ago and from which he could not recover, while Egan realized that he had a bad day, that he felt bad and that he had no legs.
Quintana started this year with five wins: stage and general in the Tour de la Provence and the Tour de VAR, He also prevailed in the last stage of the Paris-Nice, which made his team, himself and the Colombians excited.
Nairo came packed, his change from Movistar to Arkea gave him the option to regain confidence and won a general again after his 2017 victory in the Tirreno Adriatico.
Already on the Tour, after the Tour de L’Ain and the Criterium Dauphiné, did not do a good performance. She even retired at the last.
The Tour de France was his ultimate goal. Nairo knew it, but that joy only lasted two weeks. He was not up to the task due, according to him, to the falls, something that prevented him from fighting higher than the general.
Nairo Quintana lost time on stage 15 of the Tour de France.
The truth is that the Colombian cyclist confirmed that he is not the same as the years with the Movistar and that when he faces the best runners of the moment, he does not respond.
The victory in the 2014 Giro d’Italia and the 2016 Vuelta a España, as well as the second places in the 2013 and 2015 Tour de France and the third in 2016 cannot be forgotten, but today he is not the same rider, he is not at the level of the others to fight for the victory in the general of one of the big three.
It may interest you: (Egan does not lie and spoke about his bad moment)
Bernal is a different case. He won the Occitania Route, With a stage included, he was defeated in L’Ain by Roglic and retired in the Dauphiné.
He came to the Tour to defend the title last year and from the first week showed that he was not well. In the finals he was bitten by Roglic and Pogacar seconds, and in the second something similar happened.
Already in the Grand Colombier he failed, gave ground and did not feel well, he corroborated what It happened in the first part of the Tour and in the last days. The back problems he suffered at the Dauphiné? Yes, and also the pain in the legs.
The point is that it is difficult to know the true state of each cyclist. What happens to them, their timing, is unpredictable because the suspension of the races and the resumption of activities harms some and benefits others.
Bernal is on the list of the last. It was seen that their workouts when they gave The permission to go out to train on the road was high, but it is not known if he arrived over-trained, heavily loaded on the Tour and that paid for it.
The truth is that the subject is very different, while Nairo is 30 years old and The options to win the Tour are ending because there are others who are stronger than him, Bernal only has 23 and many more options to win it again.
LYSANDRO RENGIFO
Editor of EL TIEMPO
Twitter: @lisandroabel
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