The Giro was just a warm-up; Egan Bernal prepared fanatically for his big goal in the Vuelta a España

Bernal's story is well known by now. The climber had the world at his feet for years, winning the Tour de France in 2019 in his second year as a pro with INEOS, adding the Giro d'Italia in 2021, leaving only the Vuelta on his list of achievements to complete the unique trilogy. Until January 2022, when he crashed into the back of a stationary bus at 70 km/h on his time trial bike. Suddenly, not only Bernal's career but even his life was in jeopardy.

It ultimately took Bernal two years to get back to his previous level, even though he made his comeback at the end of 2022 and competed in two Grand Tours in 2023, the Tour and the Vuelta. He was still just part of the peloton until he finished on the podium in O Gran Camiño in early 2024. And then again in the Tour of Catalonia. Impressive, but before Bernal could take the final step towards peak form, he underwent back surgery after the 2024 Tour. He had been suffering from back problems in the years before his crash, but now they were gone.

Bernal started this season feeling reborn. And with every race he rode, his confidence grew that the pain was a thing of the past. After winning the Colombian national titles in the time trial and on the road, he rejoiced that he hadn't felt his back, something he emphasized after a crash and broken collarbone in the Clasica Jaén. He rode alone in Catalonia toward the Giro d'Italia, where he attacked for two weeks and kept saying, "The pain in my back is gone."

His reserves were depleted in the third week of the Giro, perhaps because he had been a little too eager in his desire to attack. And the workload leading up to the Giro had not been easy either. In March, he was in Europe and rode in Catalonia, but in April, he prepared for the Tour of Italy in Colombia. In two months, he rode 6,251.1 kilometers and an unprecedented 111,727 (!) meters of elevation gain. His legs were spinning in the Giro, where Bernal began to believe again that he could compete for the win.

While he was still reserved before the Giro, Bernal was already talking ambitiously about overall victory in the Vuelta a España. “I've said it many times: I don't know if I'll achieve it or not, but the truth is that I wake up every day with the thought of being the best again, of being at the front. That's what I train for, that's why I keep cycling. Otherwise, I think I would have stopped long ago. The Vuelta is the only race I have left to win, but people motivate me and tell me to go for it.”

Bernal has said several times in recent years that he no longer dreams of the Giro or the Tour; it is mainly the Vuelta a España that keeps him on his bike every day. And the preparation was manic. After the Giro, he took a week of complete rest and went on vacation with his girlfriend. Then they flew back to Colombia, where Bernal stayed until late August. “First, I rode a lot of kilometers, and then, little by little, I got into that more intense rhythm,” he explained.

“As the years go by, Colombia feels more and more like a second skin, wrote Bernal about his decision to return to South America. ‘Real life,’ he also said in a video through the South American mountains. So what does that look like in numbers? Well, Bernal started again on June 11 and rode 2,017.7 kilometers and 28,512 meters of elevation gain in just over two weeks in June. That's a lot of kilometers, without any major Strava records and with the intensity as mentioned above.

That was skillfully added in July. While the whole world was watching the Tour de France, Bernal got on his bike in Colombia and created his grand Tour: 3,013.8 kilometers in July, with 52,635 meters of elevation gain. The last two rides of last month were already from his apartment in Monaco, and from August 5 to 9, he got some much-needed race rhythm in Burgos. Bernal grew in the week and finished sixth on the final day. That was also his place in the final standings.

It should all lead to an explosion in the Vuelta, a new step in the right direction. His 27 Strava KOMs since the end of the Giro suggest that we will see an excellent Bernal.