No, this was his last year. But that's peanuts compared to winning the yellow which he's VERY close to winning. I've never seen such a well rounded storing rider from Colombia. Very strong in Mountains but also equipped with handling flat terrain. He doesn't get worked up. In fact, he shows very little emotion. Also, he won the poka dot king of the mountains jersey in his 1st TdF try (2013)which to most racing enthusiasts matter more than the best young rider. He is expected to race for Vuelta de Espana in August. Although, it's expected Valverde of being team captain.
Besides Bernal winning, this was one of the best tours this century, probably because there was not an overwhelming favorite. Not only Alaphilipe was a very exciting competitor, but until the last two stages up to 5 riders had a realistic chance of winning it all. I also feel bad for Pinot who had a superb race until he had to withdraw
amazing ride... what a great TdF this has been. It helps that he' s on Team Ineos which is the Real Madrid of cycling. Will be interesting to see how they handle it next year with Froome, Thomas and Bernal ....and they picked up the Ecuadorian Carapaz as well....no one can stop them.. Bernal at 22 is a phenom.... amazing amazing
#ElAlargue Historia del ciclismo en ColombiaCrónica del El Alargue a la historia del ciclismo colombianoEscuchelo aqui: https://t.co/idTXr5TI3a pic.twitter.com/O04uNrEJDY— Alargue Caracol (@AlargueCaracol) July 27, 2019
I go back to the days of Lucho Herrera and his climb up the Alpe d'Huez in 84' and his constant battle with Bernard Hinault up the mountains. I would get up at 6am and listen to it on the radio. So exciting back then to just have a Colombian in the race let alone the last 5 years we've experienced an explosion of Colombian riders who are competing every year for GC spots. Bernal is not the most explosive rider but he's so calm across all categories. Very mature rider.
Greates Colombian moment in @LeTour ... 4 aces ...#TourDeFrancia #TourdeFrancia2019 #TourDeFrance pic.twitter.com/23QPoTscXq— Juan 🇬🇧🇨🇴 (@Nepomuuceno) July 28, 2019
it took Thomas until stage 19 to finally realize he'll have to ride for Bernal and not the other way around.
The NBC commentators were having a similar argument and I'd say, they have a good point. If Thomas had won the Time Trial, or at least got in or very near to the Yellow Jersey, Ineos would have worked for Thomas and to defend the yellow, then Egan would have been second or even out of the podium. But, since Alaphilipe surprised everyone, Ineos strategy changed substantially; now Ineos had to use their strength to gradually hurt the Frenchman, but he was surprisingly strong in the Pyrinees. However, you could see that Julian took a hit on stage 15 and that he'd vulnerable on the last week of the race. Also, it is not clear what would have happened if stage 19th would have not been cut short, but at that point it was evident that Bernal had better mountain legs than Thomas.
That JA story made this TdF really fun to watch. The guy has tons of heart. Let's not forget that Pinot is a better climber than even Bernal. So that theory of GT having claim to the top spot if he had placed best in TT would also have to have held thru against an expert climber like Pinot in those latter stages and only Bernal would have been able to hold on to his wheel. I think Pinot had the best chance of all to be honest. On another note, I was so disappointed with Movistar and what they brought to this TdF. They were the only team that could compete and with the likes of Landa, Valverde, Armador and Quintana they were never really in this race. In fact, all they did was compete against each other! Glad to see Nairo is moving on from Movistar. Ineos will clearly dominate for years to come.
The tour was very unforgiving with the French. You maybe right that Pinot had a good chance too before he retired (and he had a very solid team in the mountain stages), but he was also behind both Ineos riders, so who knows how things would have unfolded. Well, Movistar won the team classification and they placed 3 riders among the top 10, so it was not a horrible tour, but yeah, the coach really need to rethink their strategy and bring only 2 leaders instead of 3 to the tour, specially now that the teams are made of only 8 riders. I have mixed feelings about Nairo leaving them, because it may or may not work. Yeah, he will be the indisputable leader in a team like Arkena (that's where the rumors place him), but it's a team that might not even be in the Tour next year and has a very modest budget when compared with Ineos or Movistar.
Good read, so you can relive the tour: http://inrng.com/2019/07/the-moment-the-tour-de-france-was-won-2019/
Egan is not only a great cyclist, he’s a great person: https://www.semana.com/deportes/articulo/homenaje-a-egan-bernal-en-zipaquira/626835
In case anyone is following, Superman Lopez has been leader on a few stages but Naironman is the leader of la Vuelta. Lopez is third 18 seconds behind. Que alegría para Colombia 🇨🇴 Nairo Quintana nuevo líder de #LaVuelta #LaVuelta19 pic.twitter.com/zIGb3FHK36— Everly Cortés 永远客气 (@everlycortes) September 1, 2019
How not to watch a bike race!A crazy fan causes chaos on stage 1 of the Tour de France. pic.twitter.com/nydkPZWvXm— GlobalCyclingNetwork (@gcntweet) June 26, 2021
"It's incredible"The full interview with the new @MaillotjauneLCL 💛 @mathieuvdpoel.#TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/fMeZkRi7VK— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) June 27, 2021
watched this happen the other day....dopey move on that 'fan'. So disappointed Bernal isn't in this TDF But plenty of other Colombians to root for.