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Egan Bernal breathes heavily. Suffer, fight, but it’s useless. Their facial expressions? Desperate, he shakes his head. Their appearance? Empty. The 23-year-old bicycle prodigy from Colombia suffers the biggest defeat of his career on the climb to the Grand Colombier of all places – the name contrasts with the real picture. More than seven minutes after the best, Bernal reaches the top of the pass. Then the defending Tour champion will be released from his torments. Exhausted, he gets off his bicycle, one could also say: from his throne. “I was blocked, my legs just weren’t working. There are no excuses, others are better, ”Bernal says shortly after.
New child prodigy from Slovenia
Another child prodigy wins the victory. His name is Tadej Pogacar and he comes from Slovenia. The milk-boy-faced scum is already haunting its second stage. It’s an anticipated birthday gift again. Why? Simple: the day after the end of the tour, that is, in a week, Pogacar will be 22 years old.
In the general classification, the young man consolidated his second place. First and his compatriot Primoz Roglic, solid as a rock, are 40 seconds away. That sounds like a little bit, but it isn’t. Because: Pogacar has no notable helpers on his UAE team. Roglic is completely different. The 30-year-old ex-ski jumper is wrapped in cotton by his Jumbo-Visma gear. By the time Bernal’s car was started, four of Roglics’ teammates stepped on the gas.
Back to Bernal. “The Tour’s Favorite Puzzles,” was the BLICK headline a week and a half ago. At the time he was 13 seconds behind in the overall standings, but he seemed unusually vulnerable. Are your back problems worse than reported after all? Or is the breakdown of the Crown (Bernal was not allowed to go to Europe for a long time) is negatively noted? The fact is that the team Ineos de Bernal (formerly Sky) will win the incredible series of tours. We remember: Bradley Wiggins (2012), Chris Froome (2013, 2015-2017), Geraint Thomas (2018) and Bernal (2019) ensured a permanent party in the rich British team.
Switzerland no effect
Tour hero Marc Hirschi (22) is nowhere to be seen this time, like Stefan Küng (26) and Michael Schär (33) leaving an early start. Sébastien Reichenbach (31), on the other hand, can keep up for a long time, but it shows why he only managed two professional victories in his career. He lacks the explosiveness for daily wins and the consistency of a first-class driver.
