The look on Egan Bernal's face was a mixture of delight and a little surprise at the mist-enshrouded summit of Limone Piemonte in the Vuelta a España, where the Colombian found himself able to follow the top favourites for the stage win to claim a notable fourth place behind stage winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Uphill mass sprints for the line are not one of Bernal's best specialities, but his good positioning and promising form, as well as strong teamwork, all combined to leave him ideally placed for the final battle.
The winner of the Tour de France back in 2019 and the Giro d'Italia in 2021, Bernal's long road to recovery after his terrible early-season crash in 2022 already saw him claim a major landmark with seventh in the Giro d'Italia.
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It remains to be seen what he can now achieve in his second Grand Tour of 2025, but being up there with the main group of favourites certainly bodes well - and forming part of the quartet that claimed a narrow lead over the rest, albeit just two seconds, even more so.
“I actually didn’t think of fighting for the win. I started the stage with a different mindset," Bernal told Colombian TV reporters afterwards. "Yet I found myself at the front, and decided to try my luck."
Bernal's team clearly were looking for some kind of stage win success, with Victor Langellotto, who hails from nearby Monaco, telling reporters earlier in the Vuelta he wanted to try for the win at Limone Piemonte.
The Monaco-born pro was unable to repeat his uphill victory from the Tour de Pologne, but the work had considerable benefits for Bernal.
"It’s good for my morale to be up there, " Bernal said afterwards. "There was quite a bit of stress in the bunch, as is usual in the first week of a Grand Tour.
"Luckily, I felt very protected all day long thanks to teammates like Ben [Turner], Pippo [Filippo Ganna], Kwiato' [Michał Kwiatkowski]… I came out alright from the stage thanks to them.”
Assuming the GC remains relatively stable over the next two transition stages, Bernal is excellently placed for the team time trial on Wednesday. Visma-Lease a Bike will likely prove formidable rivals, but with time trialists of the calibre of Ganna, Magnus Sheffield, and Bernal himself in the Ineos line-up, the British squad could well give them a run for their money. And after Bernal's surprising but very promising result in Limone Piemonte, morale will likely be all the higher, too.
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