Bernal dropped on the climb — robbing an emotional Turner of a golden opportunity: 'A big disappointment'

UAE Team Emirates-XRG had reason to celebrate thanks to Jhonatan Narváez, while Movistar's immense work went unrewarded. But alongside the Spanish team, there was someone else with even more reason to feel hard done by. Ben Turner saw a golden chance at a stage win evaporate because team leader Egan Bernal got into difficulty on the stage's critical climb.

Movistar had set a ferocious tempo on the Cozzo Tunno, forty kilometres from the finish. Virtually every sprinter was shed, and the front group was whittled down to fewer than forty riders. That Egan Bernal was among those who cracked was genuinely unexpected. The Colombian champion at Netcompany INEOS called for the team car.

At that point the team still had two riders in the front group. Thymen Arensman was pursuing his own GC ambitions, so there was no question of him dropping back. Damage limitations fell to Turner. The British puncheur gave everything to pace his leader back to the group, managing to keep Bernal's GC dream alive. But come the sprint for the stage win, he could only manage fourth place. He knew, in that moment, that there had been more on offer.

The emotion was written all over Turner's face. "It feels like a big disappointment, to be honest," he told CyclingPro.net, visibly choking up. "I had good legs. It was good to look after Egan, and I'm glad that he didn't lose time. That's good. I was climbing with some really good guys — there weren't many left. It was nice to have that feeling again. It's good that the form is there, at least."

Should we be worried about a struggling Bernal? Not according to Turner, who is confident his leader will come good. "After a rest day, and after quiet days like those, it's not unusual for it to feel a bit blocked. It was very explosive climbing. There's not much stress — he has a high level, that's clear. Nothing changes for us. We still have a lot of confidence in him."

Yet it must have hit Turner hard when his team leader cracked and he had to go back. He had to give absolutely everything to bring Bernal back into contact. "We had to keep the tempo high on those last two kilometres of climbing. We knew we would get back on. We took some risks on the descent. We're sticking to our plan for the GC. That's good."

Hindsight is a fine thing — but the British puncheur won a stage at last year's Vuelta a España. Could he have won here too, if he hadn't been called into service? "I don't know — it's hard to say whether I had the legs to win. But the legs were good. Maybe it would have been a different result. But we have to look after the team, we have priorities. I'm proud of what we did as a team, and I'm looking forward to the coming days."