All indicators were positive, but will Egan Bernal's momentum in the Vuelta fade even sooner than it did in the Giro?

Bernal won the Tour de France in 2019 and the Giro d'Italia in 2021, so the Vuelta a España has been his main goal since last year. The massive crash in 2022 threw him far back, as did his ambition to add all three Grand Tours to his list of achievements. Bernal slowly recovered in recent years, getting better and better, but in the Giro in May this year, it was still not good enough.

Winning the Vuelta remains Bernal's goal, however. He put an incredible amount of work into his preparation at altitude in Colombia, and that seemed to be paying off. “There are doubts about how long I can keep it up,” he also said, when he was still in an excellent position after the first week of the Vuelta, just outside the top ten, but only a minute and a half off the podium.

Bernal didn't even achieve his good position after one week of the Vuelta in his usually beloved uphill finishes, but rather in the explosive finals during the opening weekend. “It was a positive sign that he was so close in the punchy finals. That wasn't even the plan,” said sports director Christian Knees after three days to IDLProCycling.com. “Egan was really in the front and was explosive.”

Bernal finished fourth on day two—the day Jonas Vingegaard won—and eighth on day three. “He looks good, but we're taking it day by day and will see what happens in the coming days,” Knees said. The 44-year-old German and former pro also said, “He's getting all the support he needs, so everything is going in the right direction at the moment.”

At INEOS Grenadiers and Bernal, the hope was that after the Giro, things would be even better in the Vuelta. Because, as the Colombian himself noted after a few days, his body is completely pain-free since his last back surgery in 2024. “The most important change is still my back, because after my surgery, the pain is gone, and I can make efforts like I did in the opening weekend. I was always in pain.”

“Egan is in very good shape, and it was great to see him finish seventh in the Giro. Since that crash in 2022, he has been on the road to recovery, and I think he will be even better in this Vuelta than he was in the Giro. We have every confidence in that,” added Knees. “I would like to do even better than in the Giro. I wasn't in my best shape in the last week there,” Bernal said.

Although all signs were pointing to a positive outcome, we are seeing a similar scenario in the Vuelta as in the Giro. Bernal lost a little time in each of the first stages of the second week, but on the Angliru in Stage 13, he lost 4 minutes and 32 seconds. He nevertheless kept his twelfth place in the GC, but he is now already eight minutes behind leader Jonas Vingegaard.

Bernal's energy is thus running out again, even before the really tough stages have arrived. “I want to be consistent in the Vuelta, especially in the third week,” he said ambitiously, but he will have to slowly shift his focus. Perhaps the increased explosiveness from the first week will come in handy in a strong breakaway group in this Vuelta?

Bernal is no longer satisfied with those few good results from the first week. “Those were two-minute efforts, and it wasn't the plan to compete with the best. I mainly didn't want to lose time. They were positive indications, but we all know that the mountains are still to come and that I will have to perform well on the longer climbs,” he said predictively.

The crystal ball didn't let Bernal down, but his legs did. The search for the form to win another Grand Tour will continue. A new trainer seemed like a good new step. But Bernal also said about that: “I always had a good coach in Xabier Artetxe. He helped me a lot in the months and years after my crash. I was very close to him.”

And so we continue to fight, was the conclusion on Instagram.

Bram van der Ploeg ( Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])