The Tour Colombia 2024 kicked off yesterday with the presentation of the teams in Tunja, capital of Boyacáand an event in which the eyes of the attendees were focused on two of its greatest figures: Nairo Quintana and Egan Bernal.
The two riders know what it means to be in the race, to run it, to fight for victory and for this season they are the two top favorites to win.
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Bernal, the recovered
Egan Bernal, for his part, arrives with a 'motor in his legs'. He has competed in the test three times: 2018, 2019 and 2020, he is one of the runners who has not missed it and has been in the three previous editions.
He was the champion in 2018, leaving Quintana in second place. A year later he finished fourth, just 54 seconds behind López and in 2020 he also held the same position, but this time 45 seconds behind the champion. Sergio Higuita.
César Melgarejo / EL TIEMPO
The Ineos team rider has not won a stage, but he has been second twice, in Cyprus (Manizales) in 2018 and in Saint Rose of Viterbo in 2020. And in El Verjón, in 2020, he occupied third place in that memorable final that crowned Higuita.
In favor, Bernal, 27 years old, has his sensational performance in the long-distance event of the past cycling nationals. He finished fourth, but it showed that he has largely recovered his level before the accident in January 2022.
He began to close the gap on the leaders 661 km from the finish line and when the difference exceeded four minutes.
He shook off the lost time and, alongside Sergio Higuita, arrived just four seconds behind the champion. Alejandro Osorio, who defeated them in the final ascent to the Plaza de Bolívar de Tunja.
César Melgarejo / EL TIEMPO
That performance has him with high morale and it shows that he must be the rider best prepared to tell this Tour Colombia. His training also says the same.
Against it he seems to have the 'secret' that surrounds Nairo, the uncertainty of what the boyacense's presentation may be, the behavior of his team, which this time will not be the Ineosbut the Colombian National Team led by Carlos Mario Jaramillo which, clearly, will work for you.
We must take into account other men like Richard Carapaz, whom he knows perfectly, as he was his teammate at Ineos. Bernal is a great candidate, number one to win the test.
Nairo, for revenge
Quintana comes to compete in his first official stage race, after the disqualification of the Tour de France for the use of the substance tramadol at the end of July 2022.
It will be a particular experience, because although he has competed in the road test of the Cycling Nationals, in which he won bronze last year, and the time trial and road test this year, integrating a batch into multi-day tests is all a novelty for him after a year and a half without doing it.
The team's Boyacense runner Movistar He has been on the Tour Colombia twice. The first was in 2018, when he finished second, escorting Bernal. Only eight seconds separated him from the title.
Quintana was also fifth in the general classification in the 2019 edition, in which he finished one minute and four seconds behind the champion, Miguel Ángel López.
Egan Bernal and Nairo Quintana.
In the count of stages, the runner has won a fraction, which ended at the top of Palmas in 2019, after 173 kilometers.
Nairo Quintana has finished in second place in a day, it was in the arrival at Salento in 2018. And that same year he was third in the day that ended in The Tambo.
In his favor, this time, he has the desire to be an active cyclist again, to join a group. He starts his career in his apartment, in front of his family and his followers.
They come in hard with the title or the podium, meaning that, for the moment, the winning cyclist has returned. You know the route like the back of your hand, you will have your entire team at your service.
However, it is one thing to train and another to compete, and that seems to be his 'weakness', not to mention that it is not known how he is physically, since he did not show himself in the past Nationals. The other rivals do come with a competitive pace, they have not stopped like him for a year and a half in the shadows, but Quintana has the category to overcome those adversities.
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Lisandro Rengifo
Editorial of EL TIEMPO
@lisandroabel
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