Egan Bernal

Early career

After a successful 2017, winning two stages and the overall title at the Tour de l'Avenir, Bernal signed for Team Sky for the next season.

2018

Bernal wearing the leader's jersey at the 2018 Tour of California

Bernal made his debut for Team Sky in the Tour Down Under as team leader,^[3] where he won the young rider classification and finished in 6th place in the overall standings.

In February 2018, Bernal won the Colombian National Time Trial Championships. He then celebrated his first victory with Team Sky by winning the overall standings at the first edition of the Colombia Oro y Paz, with Nairo Quintana placing second. Bernal secured the overall victory after attacking on the final climb of 20km on the last day before finishing second. Bernal won despite the fact that his fellow Colombian teammate Sergio Henao was originally designated as team leader.^[4] Stating on his victory, Bernal said;

"It's an important victory for many reasons. It's one of my first races with the team, it's the first race I've won with the team, and then because it's in Colombia. It's the first 2.1 race in Colombia and I've won it, so it's something special."

After the race, Team Sky's directeur sportif Nicolas Portal commented on his development saying;

We have some guys where they're in the team to win, and some guys we want to develop. Probably in other teams he could be a leader in every single race but we want to give him the opportunity to work with the best, see what he can do, then when he's going to be the big, big leader he will know exactly what to expect."

Bernal's next race was the Volta a Catalunya. On stage four, a mountain top finish at La Molina, Bernal and Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) were the only two riders able to respond when Movistar Team trio Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana and Marc Soler forced the selection in the final seven kilometres of the stage. Bernal tried to attack the trio and eventually distanced Soler but then Quintana and Valverde worked him over, with Valverde eventually out-sprinting Bernal to win the stage. Bernal crashed out of the race whilst placed second overall, and leading the young rider's classification, on the final stage in Barcelona after José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar) fell in front of him on a wet descent.^[5] Bernal suffered clavicular and scapular fractures in the crash.^[6]

The following month, Bernal competed in the Tour de Romandie, again as the team leader. Bernal won stage three of the race, which was an individual time trial, finishing four seconds ahead of eventual race winner Primož Roglič.^[7] He finished second overall in the race, winning the young rider classification.

In May, Bernal achieved his biggest win yet, when he finished first overall in the Tour of California, finishing over a minute ahead of second placed rider Tejay van Garderen.^[8] On stage two, Bernal attacked on a climb two kilometers from the finish, which allowed him to win the stage by over twenty seconds.^[9] He also took the overall lead, but soon lost it to van Garderen after losing time on stage four, a time trial. On stage six, the queen stage, Bernal attacked on the final climb, distancing all of the other riders. He won the stage with a 1:28 gap over Adam Yates.^[10] He took the overall lead back after the stage, and successfully defended it on the final stage.

In July 2018, he was named in the start list for the 2018 Tour de France.^[11] Bernal rode as a domestique for team leaders Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas. He was the youngest participant in the race, but was able to drop many contenders in the mountains.^[12]

Mountain bike

Road

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour general classification results timeline
Grand Tour	2017	2018
Giro d'Italia	—	—
Tour de France	—	15
Vuelta a España	—	—
Major stage race general classification results timeline
Race	2017	2018
Paris–Nice	—	—
Tirreno–Adriatico	16	—
Volta a Catalunya	—	DNF
Tour of the Basque Country	—	—
Tour de Romandie	—	2
Critérium du Dauphiné	—	—
Tour de Suisse	—	—