The look on Egan Bernal’s face was a mixture of delight and a little surprise at the mist-enshrouded summit of Limone Piemonte in the Vuelta a España, where the Colombian found himself able to follow the top favourites for the stage win to claim a notable fourth place behind stage winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Uphill mass sprints for the line are not one of Bernal’s best specialities, but his good positioning and promising form, as well as strong teamwork, all combined to leave him ideally placed for the final battle.
“I actually didn’t think of fighting for the win. I started the stage with a different mindset,” Bernal told Colombian TV reporters afterwards. “Yet I found myself at the front, and decided to try my luck.”
“It’s good for my morale to be up there, ” Bernal said afterwards. “There was quite a bit of stress in the bunch, as is usual in the first week of a Grand Tour.
“Luckily, I felt very protected all day long thanks to teammates like Ben [Turner], Pippo [Filippo Ganna], Kwiato’ [Michał Kwiatkowski]… I came out alright from the stage thanks to them.”
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…