EL MUCHACHO MISTERIOSO

Giro d’Italia’s favourite Egan Bernal has had a rocky ride with injury since his stellar 2019 Tour de France win. But as Chris Marshall-Bell finds out, a return to his isolated roots may be about to pay dividends

- Chris Marshall-Bell

When Egan Bernal became the youngest Tour de France winner in over a century, there was a near-universal declaration of him being the Grand Tour star of his generation who would now rule the sport. Less voiced was the concern in some quarters about how an early twenty-something from a cycling-mad nation would deal with the pressure, fame and money.

The answer, almost two summers on, is that the attention did negatively affect him. “Winning the Tour was an emotional hit, an ego hit, a populistic hit, a very strong hit. In Colombia, we call it a culatazo, a really strong and hard blow,” Pablo Mazuera, Bernal’s mentor who discovered his racing talents aged 12, tells Cycling Weekly. “To have this responsibility, to be so young, it must have been very complicated to even just train, mentally and physically.”

As the quiet, reserved farm boy flung open the window to his private life – even appearing on Colombia’s most popular late-night chat show – his ability to maintain his high standard on the bike was hindered by a developing back problem that became so persistent and debilitating that it resulted in him having to abandon his defense of the Tour last year.

Another trusted figure, Gianni Savio, who signed him for AndroniGiocattoli-Sidermic in 2016, tells CW: “That day before he abandoned, I saw from his facial expression that he was suffering too much. That wasn’t the Egan I recognised.”

And that, in our society where stars are made in an instant and rapidly replaced in the public eye, was supposedly that. Bernal, now 24, had been overtaken by Tadej PogaÄar as the young sensation. Everyone downgraded their lofty expectations.