Egan Bernal will return to the Tour de France for the first time since 2020 after he was confirmed in the Ineos Grenadiers line-up for this year’s race.
Tom Pidcock, winner at Alpe d’Huez last year, shares top billing in the line-up with the Colombian, while Spain's Carlos Rodríguez has been selected for his first Tour appearance after placing seventh overall at last year’s Vuelta a España.
Daniel Martínez, Jonathan Castroviejo, Omar Fraile, Michal Kwiatkowski and debutant Ben Turner complete the Ineos selection.
Bernal missed most of the 2022 season after suffering life-threatening injuries in a training crash in Bogota. His 2023 campaign was interrupted by a knee injury at January’s Vuelta a San Juan and he also crashed at the Tour of Hungary, but he confirmed his fitness for the Tour by placing 12th overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné.
“Making my return to the Tour has always been a major goal for me. I'm so excited to be able to experience every kilometre of this race again,” Bernal said.
“I’m sure many people have followed everything that has happened to me since my accident in January last year, and the journey I’ve been through to overcome the greatest test of my life. Being a part of this year’s Tour team reassures me that I’m on my way to returning to my best.”
Bernal became the first Colombian winner of the Tour when he carried the yellow jersey to Paris in 2019, but he was forced to abandon the following year’s edition with a back injury.
He skipped the 2021 Tour after winning that year’s Giro d’Italia, while his 2022 season was ruined when he sustained injuries including fractured vertebrae, a fractured femur, a fractured patella and a punctured lung in that January training crash.
“This race is also an opportunity for me to show my gratitude and commitment to the team that continually supported me throughout, to thank each person who has helped me, from the nurses who took care of me in the hospital, the doctors, my friends, family, teammates and Ineos,” said Bernal.
Although Bernal has produced some encouraging displays thus far in 2023, he is unlikely to be able to compete with favourites Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) for final overall victory this July.
Ineos – who won seven out of eight Tours between 2012 and 2019 – are lacking an outright contender for victory this time out. Geraint Thomas, who placed second overall at the Giro d’Italia, will miss the Tour and ride the Vuelta a España, while Tao Geoghegan Hart suffered a broken hip at the Giro.
Earlier in the year, manager Rod Ellingworth suggested that Martínez would lead Ineos’ GC challenge at the Tour but his recent results have been underwhelming and the team might instead turn to the debutant Rodríguez, ninth overall at the Dauphiné in his first race since breaking his collarbone at Strade Bianche.
“We’ve selected an exciting group of riders that bring a mix of skills and experience,” Ellingworth said. “The strength of this team will lie in the way we take on the race, and how we approach each stage with the options we have.”
While Pidcock has indicated a desire to target the overall classification at the Tour in the future, the Briton appears set to hunt stage victories at this year’s race as he looks to build on a notable 2022 debut that saw him win atop Alpe d’Huez en route to 16th place overall.
“I’m really excited to be back at the Tour de France for what promises to be another beautiful three weeks,” Pidcock said.
“To win an iconic stage and wear the white jersey in 2022 are lifelong memories, and this year I want to build on that as I continue to progress my career. We’ve got an exciting group of riders and we’ll be looking to race with intent and be tactically smart, as we execute the plans we’ve developed as a team.”
Ineos Grenadiers for the 2023 Tour de France: Tom Pidcock, Egan Bernal, Carlos Rodríguez, Daniel Martínez, Jonathan Castroviejo, Omar Fraile, Michal Kwiatkowski and Ben Turner.
