Egan Bernal’s victory this Sunday in the Tour de France sounded like a thunderclap on the cycling planet. Splashing the Big Loop with her talent, Colombian from 22 years became the first “beetle” to win in Paris, and the youngest runner to bring back the yellow jersey on the Champs Élysées, and all this while most young people of his age still compete in the races reserved for hopes.
Former mountain biker, he carved out a place for himself among the greats with disconcerting ease, almost embarrassed to be there. He acquired on these July roads a very particular notoriety and status., because very suddenly. Barely three years ago, as Christopher Froome reigns supreme on the Tour, that Geraint Thomas barely tried the three-week races, that Simon Yates has not yet won the Vuelta and that Thibaut Pinot is sailing from galley to galley, the young Egan Bernal takes his first steps on the road, far from the madness of the Tour de France, far from the World Tour, away from the cameras. No one could have imagined then that in three years, he would have become the best round-the-world racer, and maybe even the best runner of his generation, simply.
One thing is certain, his career starts strong, and is not about to stop. We can already imagine the departure from Nice next year, when 23 years he will come to compete for his 2nd victory on the Tour, surrounded by Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, already overwhelmed by this wonder from another world…
