Egan Bernal was made official this Monday as head of the British squad Ineos-Grenadiers for the Tour de France 2024 that will start next Saturday, June 29 in Florence (Italy). Bernal will share the captaincy of the English squad with Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez and Welshman Geraint Thomas in a clear commitment of the English-based squad to play their best cards in a Grand Boucle that will have as clear favorites the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar and the reigning champion, Danish Jonas Vingegaard.
Bernal, Rodriguez and Thomas will lead an experienced team of riders that includes two former champions (Thomas in 2018 and Bernal in 2019) plus five stage winners in the Tour. The eight riders have 39 Tour de France appearances and collectively know what it takes to succeed in cycling’s most prestigious race worldwide.
The first and only Colombian Tour champion, Egan Arley Bernal Gómez, confirmed this year his miraculous return to the world level that led him to win the yellow race in 2019 and the Giro in 2021. The serious traffic accident he suffered at the beginning of 2022, meant a before and after in the life and professional career of Egan, who in the first half of this 2024 proved to himself and his team that he is ready to fight again for a step of the podium in Nice.
Fifth in the Tour Colombia, third in O Gran Camiño (Spain), seventh in Paris-Nice, third on the podium of the Vuelta a Catalunya (in what has been his best result so far this season), tenth in the Tour de Romandie and fourth in the Tour de Suisse, last stop on his way to the start of what will be his fifth participation in Le Tour, the summary of a 2024 that has meant that Egan is at his best possible level, a miracle with all the letters if you consider that in February 2022 he was almost hopeless to return to professional cycling.
“I’m very happy to have been selected again for the Tour. It’s a great honor to be in the most important race in the world, like every year, we will fight for the best possible result. My ambition is to be really competitive and someone who can make a real difference in the race.
“As a team we want to win and we have some riders who can do really well. It will be important to have different options, especially in the second and third week. If we can get to that point with several riders at the top of the overall, it can become a strategic game. Having several cards to play will always be important in a race like the Tour,” said Egan Bernal in his INEOS team’s official press release.
“We are ready to start in Florence three weeks of one of the toughest competitions in world sport, in front of the largest gathering of fans in the world. The competition will be tougher than ever, but nothing is set in stone in the lead-up to any of the three Grand Tours. We’ve been racing this season as hunters, not prey, and that brings its own advantages. Last month’s Giro was a perfect example of how we love to race as a team: push, fight and take every opportunity. That’s how we plan to race in France over the next few weeks,” said Scott Drawer, INEOS performance director.
INEOS Grenadiers line-up for the Tour de France 2024
Egan Bernal (27), Colombia
Carlos Rodríguez (23), Spain
Geraint Thomas (38), Great Britain
Ben Turner (25), Great Britain
Tom Pidcock (24), Great Britain
Jonathan Castroviejo (37), Spain
Laurens De Plus (28), Belgium
Michal Kwiatkowski (34), Poland