‘It makes me cross, but it pushes me on’ – 2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal says Tadej Pogačar’s superiority creates double sense of frustration and motivation

2019 Tour de France winner Egan Bernal has recognised that when it comes to competing against Tadej Pogačar, the Slovenian’s crushing superiority can be frustrating for his rivals, but acknowledged that it also has a positive side.

After his appalling training accident in January 2022, the Ineos Grenadiers star has accelerated his return to Grand Tour contention this year, taking seventh in the Giro d’Italia and a stage win in the Vuelta a España. He also finished eighth in Il Lombardia, his first top ten in a Monument since he finished third in the same race back in 2019.

However, Bernal told the Despierta Win programme in Colombia that when it came to trying to beat Pogačar, the four-times Tour de France champion was so superior that at times it could be tough, psychologically, to handle.

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“He’s on another level. When you race against him, very often he makes you see that you’re going badly [in comparison], it makes me cross: there you are giving it everything and just like that – he blasts away from you.”

At the same time, Bernal took the positive element from it, saying, “It’s great to race against him. He pushes the rest of us to improve. It’s great that we’ve had the chance to compete in the ‘Pogačar era.’

Bernal was his usual upbeat self about his own chances, in a year which began with victories in both Colombian National titles – his first wins since 2021 – and continued with a return to the top ten in a Grand Tour in Italy.

2025 concluded with victory on the Vuelta’s stage 16, on a day when disruption by pro-Palestine protestors reduced the length of the route, as well as a notable result in Il Lombardia.

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“I started feeling stronger and more myself,” Bernal told Despierta Win. “After taking seventh in the Giro this year, I went to the Vuelta looking for the podium. That didn’t happen, but I’m still thinking that some day I can get back to winning.”

Bernal said it was hard to say how much his terrible 2022 training accident affected his progress, given he was already racing with a bad back. However, although it caused him problems – notably in the 2020 Tour de France, where he was defending champion – he could then go on to win the 2021 Giro d’Italia.

“Then I was going to go to the Tour again in 2022, and what happened, happened.

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“I didn’t know if I was going to die, but I had pain everywhere,” he said regarding his accident. “I just shouted that I wanted to be put to sleep.”

“That’s when they called my family and told them I needed to be stabilised and there was a high chance of ending up in a wheelchair.[]I had to wait until I was woken to see if I could move my legs.”

After starting out in mountain biking, Bernal’s road career took off when he moved to Italy with the regrettably now-defunct Androni Giocattoli team, handled by the late, great, Italian cycling mentor Gianni Savio.

But looking at the current death of up-and-coming Colombian riders, Bernal said the current absence of a suitable support network in Europe was causing them a lot of problems to make an impact. He also said he believed that success in the sport was cyclical, and that Colombia’s turn to shine would come again.

“It’s down to a lack of investment, I think, of a well-constructed program on the mid-to-long term, ensuring that the guys can race when they get to Europe.”

Referring to another country with considerable geographical distance from the main hub of pro racing, Bernal pointed out that, “Australia has good riders, but they’ve also got a really big race centre in Italy, too, a place where they can take their U23 riders, which we don’t have. I think it’s down to that.

“Historically, we’ve had some very good riders, we had an era when Colombia was really strong, then the Slovenians took over.

Some day it’ll be another country’s turn, then at some point it’ll be ours again.”