Teams & Riders The official Egan Bernal is the new Egan Bernal thread

[CyclistAbi]

Could be but Bernal doesn't like that to me.

 

[SHAD0W93]

I think that would be a mistake. I think Ineos can limit his race days to preserve his back because they're so stacked with talent.

He doesn’t like Ineos so doesn’t like him on Ineos is the thing.

 

[Colombianfan]

I feel like the TDF is looking like the best build up for the LaVuelta and not the Giro. I mean Roglic would dominate the Giro/Vuelta combo but i feel Bernal needed a few more races before the Vuelta. I know his back is not 100% when he races but that is my take on it.

 

[Colombianfan]

He shown towards the end of the race the back is fairly good now. Also i would love to see him go for another Giro but if Ineos can get him in top climbing shape i still see him as the only challenge to Pogacher and Roglic.

Another TDF would be the icing and then i would love to see him get some cherries and do Giro/Vuelta for 10 years. Be unique and do the Giro year after year would be great to see. Maybe Pogacher lines up one year and he calls an injury and does the TDF again. There is no reason Bernal could not grab 7/8GT's doing the Giro/Vuelta alot. But for now he should go for the TDF.

 

[Colombianfan]

Also never bet against ineos they will not be liking the fact they have lost the last 2 TDF and in convincing fashion they will have some stuff in the works for sure some new training methods. And Bernal is a huge talent he will be fine

 

[Fergoose]

Credit to Ineos and Bernal. I think they have both worked on his mindset to allow him to give effort in adverse conditions after the 2020 TdF abandon. The effort he put in for Yates yesterday was admirable by Bernal, to sacrifice his top 5 to give Yates a crack at the podium. Very much impressed with the young man.

I remain sceptical about the extent of his back (rather than his mind) being the issue in 2020 though. If his chronic back issue was so severe would Ineos really have the Giro champion bury himself in his second GT of the year to do domestique work for a teammate? Probably not. Surely that may jeopardise his chances of winning a GT in 2022?

Still also questionmarks over his durability to me. Both his GT wins have been when a key mountain stage has been curtailed and he does seem prone to have an 'off day' if there is a lot of action throughout the three weeks. I very much enjoy his riding style though, so fingers crossed 2020 remains in the past.

 

[southwards]

Bernal is clearly poor in form, his preparation was far from ideal with Covid, Crashes, etc, and I don't see anything of concern at this Vuelta. I saw some pretty admirable actions: daring attacks, working for Yates, not having a breakdown when losing time...

About the stages shortened, I have no doubt he would have won that Iseran-Tignes stages with an even higher time gap, a great descender that he is (look how disappointed he was when receiving the news), and the Giau stage at this year Giro was only the cherry on the cake ending a week of pure domination. People like to diminish other riders's sucesses.

 

[Oldermanish]

Also never bet against ineos they will not be liking the fact they have lost the last 2 TDF and in convincing fashion they will have some stuff in the works for sure some new training methods. And Bernal is a huge talent he will be fine

Ineos won most of their GT's the same way Armstrong's teams did: owning enough of the talent with a big budget to overwhelm the competition. That and some "training magic"....
Those days are long gone, hopefully. Dave Brailsford is leaving, because he should. One of their trainers could end up serving time?
The wilder, less predictable competition we're seeing now is more the norm.

As for Bernal; he's still a class act and can use another season to hit a peak. I'm hoping, anyway.

 

[topt]

Credit to Ineos and Bernal. I think they have both worked on his mindset to allow him to give effort in adverse conditions after the 2020 TdF abandon. The effort he put in for Yates yesterday was admirable by Bernal, to sacrifice his top 5 to give Yates a crack at the podium. Very much impressed with the young man.

I remain sceptical about the extent of his back (rather than his mind) being the issue in 2020 though. If his chronic back issue was so severe would Ineos really have the Giro champion bury himself in his second GT of the year to do domestique work for a teammate? Probably not. Surely that may jeopardise his chances of winning a GT in 2022?

Still also questionmarks over his durability to me. Both his GT wins have been when a key mountain stage has been curtailed and he does seem prone to have an 'off day' if there is a lot of action throughout the three weeks. I very much enjoy his riding style though, so fingers crossed 2020 remains in the past.

I like Bernal but this "his back" debate needs to die; he is the same Bernal that won TDF and against the same field he would win again. Its just that some riders are better than him nothing to do with his back.

 

[Oldermanish]

I like Bernal but this "his back" debate needs to die; he is the same Bernal that won TDF and against the same field he would win again. Its just that some riders are better than him nothing to do with his back.

He can be happy calling this a recovery year. Recovery from crashes, injury, missed races and C-19. Good luck to him in years to come!

 

[hfer07]

Folks keep forgetting that Egan dealt with Covid after Il Giro victory. He claimed not having any symptoms but rather a few bad days during his recovery. Just bear in mind there are lots of athletes around the globe complaining about reduction in performance or recovery after experiencing Covid or post vaccination side effects.

I'm not making excuses for his Vuelta Performance, but Egan had a very uncommon performance going from almost being unknown in the initial weeks, then performing well to suddenly collapse on the last stages.

Egan still a great work in progress with 2 GT titles already in his palmares, so I'm confident he'll bounce back

 

[Colombianfan]

Ineos won most of their GT's the same way Armstrong's teams did: owning enough of the talent with a big budget to overwhelm the competition. That and some "training magic"....
Those days are long gone, hopefully. Dave Brailsford is leaving, because he should. One of their trainers could end up serving time?
The wilder, less predictable competition we're seeing now is more the norm.

As for Bernal; he's still a class act and can use another season to hit a peak. I'm hoping, anyway.

Did you see the Yellow train the last few years, or Kuss with Roglic every stage? Or the last few metre's attacks roglic used to do that was very Sky esque?. Ineos will still be big players and yes i also have hope for Bernal cannot see why he can't make another step in his progression he just needs another step and hopefully a bigger one then the Slovenians. The TDF will probably be on lock with UAE untill either Bernal gets better or Ineos find a new guy. Ineos are a much more fun to watch team now.

 

[Escarabajo]

I like Bernal but this "his back" debate needs to die; he is the same Bernal that won TDF and against the same field he would win again. Its just that some riders are better than him nothing to do with his back.

I agree that his back debate must die after what we have seen this year. I disadgree completely that this is the same Bernal that won the Tour 2019. 100% No. Some riders are better now yes. But this is not the same rider.

 

[Red Rick]

Takeaways from Bernal from this Vuelta are that him being on top form isn't a guarantee, but that he also knows how to make his good days count.

Sad he basically missed out on a podium cause Ineos drilled it on yesterday. In hindsight I actually fancy that Lopez might drop 1'50 to him.

 

[gregrowlerson]

IMO Bernal's best in this year's Giro was as good as his best in the 2019 Tour.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

INEOS not happy with Bernal, after his subpar ride at the Vuelta, as per L'Équipe . Israel wants to buy out his contract. Nothing definite either way.

Bernal in turn is not happy with DS Matteo Tosatto ...who kept betting on two horses (Bernal and Yates) during the Vuelta, instead of forcing a decision on who to ride for. This apparently had a negative impact on the team.

Egan Bernal en froid avec son équipe Ineos-Grenadiers depuis la Vuelta

Les relations semblent tendues entre le Colombien Egan Bernal, vainqueur du Giro, et son équipe Ineos-Grenadiers suite à des différences de vues lors de la Vuelta. Une rumeur venue d'Italie l'annonce déjà partant.

www.lequipe.fr

 

[SafeBet]

Would be very un-Ineos to let such a talent go, unless the back issue is much worse than we believe.
Bernal is clearly their best asset at the moment.

 

[CyclistAbi]

I could imagine some tension being there. At Ineos the expectations are always high. Hence something likely will happen in the future if they won't come close to winning the Tour. Still looking beyond Bernal i don't see it ATM.

 

[Red Rick]

Strange. I don't see Bernal as the hard to work with type or the lazy type. Yates vs Bernal should normally be a non issue, and it only didn't pan out cause Bernal didn't have legs on stage 20 I think.

Unless Ineos are mismanaging his back, I'm really confused as to why there would be such tension.

 

[BlueRoads]

This sounds like a completely made-up story, even apart from the fact that his agent outright denied it.
Why would Ineos be unhappy with Bernal at the Vuelta, where he performed well considering he already won a GT this year, Covid earlier, the crash in Burgos... At least he performed better than Adam Yates, his time trial was very decent as well. He also won some people over with the style he raced I think. Maybe that's what Ineos could be unhappy with, too much attacking, not enough energy saving. But the performance itself was hardly so bad that you'd want to lose a guy of such class, lol. Also I think Bernal was a perfect team-mate to Yates, so it's not like he was rebellious or anything.
And from Bernal's side: First of all he didn't appear unhappy with Ineos, he didn't show any frustration with the approach but instead did what he could for a good team result and in his interviews he totally supported Yates, which would not have been necessary, he could have been silent on Adam. Then, even if all this was different behind the scenes, why would he go to Israel?? That sounds like a rumour taken from the fact that Israel as a team have money and riders like Martin and Greipel leave the team. Froome doesn't get them anywhere. So sure they'd like Bernal. But for Bernal? Team support surely worse than with guys like Ganna and Martinez, material not the best, his chances to win against Pogacar and Roglic surely wouldn't rise and Bernal does not strike me at all as the type "the main thing is that I'm the unquestioned leader, even if that reduces my chances for success".

So. Maybe some media like l'Equipe are right and I'm wrong, but I can't see this making sense in any way and hence I don't believe it.

 

[Monte Serra]

INEOS not happy with Bernal, after his subpar ride at the Vuelta, as per L'Équipe . Israel wants to buy out his contract. Nothing definite either way..

Egan Bernal en froid avec son équipe Ineos-Grenadiers depuis la Vuelta

Les relations semblent tendues entre le Colombien Egan Bernal, vainqueur du Giro, et son équipe Ineos-Grenadiers suite à des différences de vues lors de la Vuelta. Une rumeur venue d'Italie l'annonce déjà partant.

www.lequipe.fr

Strange. I wouldn't consider his ride subpar at all. His preparation was far from ideal, with presumed aftereffects of covid, no altitude camp and a crash in Burgos. If it wasn't for stage 20, he would probably have ended up on the podium. And I thought his performance in the final time trial was pretty strong, being the first GC rider after Roglič.

After a fairly convincing win in the Giro, one would think that he had some credit with team management.

 

[southwards]

I also think this isa made up story. Perhaps Bernal was annoyed at something in Ineos (I can't blame him...), but to leave the team is far too much. But let's wait, stranger things have happened...

 

[Netserk]

Strange. I wouldn't consider his ride subpar at all. His preparation was far from ideal, with presumed aftereffects of covid, no altitude camp and a crash in Burgos. If it wasn't for stage 20, he would probably have ended up on the podium. And I thought his performance in the final time trial was pretty strong, being the first GC rider after Roglič.

After a fairly convincing win in the Giro, one would think that he had some credit with team management.

Without stage 20 he wouldn't beat López. If he rode the whole Vuelta calculated and conservatively with Yates as support, I think he could have made the podium with the legs he had.

 

[Monte Serra]

Without stage 20 he wouldn't beat López.

I dunno. Bernal finished 1:30 ahead of Mäder in the final TT. So I think he could possibly have made up the 1:50 difference to López. It's certainly not a given, as López has very uneven time trial results, but not unthinkable either.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Strange. I don't see Bernal as the hard to work with type or the lazy type.

Two things about L'Équipe's story.

First, they seem to be making an issue of the point that Bernal's season is over. He won't be riding the Italian classics he normally does. But he's done two GTs this year, three in the last twelve months, which might be enough reason to end the season and go home. and not a signal of a rift with the team.

Second, the basis of the alleged disagreement with Tosatto is not clear. Did Tosatto want one rider, one objective or did Bernal? Rather that it being a case of Bernal blocking the team favouring Yates, the real issue could be they didn't simply choose one or the other of them.

If Tosatto is effed off with Bernal going for panache instead of the white jersey then yeah, maybe you could sell the notion of a rift between the two. But if that is the case then maybe Tosatto should be the one considering a move to Israel Start-Up Nation.