In the thin, chilly air of Val Thorens ski station, Dave Brailsford might have allowed himself a wry smile as he watched his new Tour de France champion, Egan Bernal, and last year’s model, Geraint Thomas, embrace. Only six months ago, Brailsford was looking for a sponsor for his super team, and fighting to hang on to his big names, after Sky unexpectedly opted to end its relationship with cycling.
Many doubted if Brailsford could keep his all-star team together, and if he could ever replace the big-money sponsorship that had led to accusations of him “buying” success in the Tour, no less than six times between 2012 and 2018. There were those too, who viewed him as damaged goods, in the aftermath of Team Sky’s flawed zero-tolerance policy, the fudged salbutamol investigation into Chris Froome and the damning verdict of a House of Commons select committee into anti-doping.
Yet he now has bagged a seventh Tour. Despite the numerous criticisms, the loss of Chris Froome through injury, the huffing and puffing of the French, “Teflon Dave” has done it again. Brailsford’s ability to “reach into the toilet and pull out chocolate,” as rival manager Jonathan Vaughters once put it, has seen him through with a new sponsor and a new Tour de France champion – his team’s fourth since 2012 – in Bernal.
The 22-year-old Colombian’s win was sealed at altitude in Val Thorens, after Julian Alaphilippe cracked and the Jumbo-Visma team’s best efforts to set up a last-ditch bid by Steven Kruijswijk to claw his way on to the podium finally dislodged the Frenchman.
Bernal remained in a state of disbelief, even when presented with the yellow jersey for the second day running. “I’m really happy but when we arrive at the hotel and I’m alone, maybe then I will believe it,” he said.
“It’s our first Tour, so you can imagine the reaction,” Bernal said when asked what it meant to his home nation. “I think it’s really important for us. I’m really proud to be the first Colombian to win the Tour.”
The final mountain stage, truncated and missing two major climbs due to continuing severe weather and landslides in the Alps, in effect became a team time trial to the 2,365-metre ski station, while the final outcome boiled down to a heavyweight bout between the Tour’s best climbers.
Best of the bunch was the 2014 Tour winner, Vincenzo Nibali — the only professional to interrupt Brailsford’s Tour dynasty. The Sicilian was the last aggressor from a large group that had attacked at the start of the stage, and rode into the final kilometres desperate to rescue an under-achieving Tour with a stage win.
Brief accelerations from Simon Yates, Warren Barguil and Nairo Quintana threatened his lead but Nibali held on to notch his first Tour stage win since 2015. Behind him, Bernal, shepherded dutifully by Thomas, crossed the line, right fist raised in triumph, as the Welshman slapped him on the back.
Alaphilippe’s hopes of a place on the Paris podium came definitively undone with 13km still to race, his fatigue combining with his limitations at altitude to break his hopes of a top-three finish.
“It would have been hard for me to do better,” said Alaphilippe , who slid down the standings to fifth overall. “I was waiting to ‘pop’ at any given moment, and I hung on pretty well. Without my team, I would have finished 15 minutes behind everyone. It’s my temperament to be like this, all or nothing.”
A Colombian Tour champion has been long-awaited, with the country’s first major impact on the European scene being made as long ago as the 1980s through climbers such as Luis Herrera, Fabio Parra and Martín Ramírez. In recent years, the Colombian presence has been even stronger, with Nairo Quintana, winner of the 2014 Giro d’Italia and 2016 Vuelta a España, finishing second to Froome in the 2013 Tour.
Both Quintana and Rigoberto Urán, runner-up to Froome in the 2017 Tour and second overall in the Giro in 2013 and 2014, have A-list status in Colombia. Such is Urán’s status back home that during Brailsford’s search for a sponsor, the 32-year-old finessed a meeting for his former team manager with his nation’s President.
At the start of this year, Brailsford returned fired up and enthused about the possibilities for Latin American cycling after his latest visit to Colombia. Bernal’s victory has kicked open a door that was already slightly ajar and that now opens up new territories for cycling, both in commercial and sporting terms.
Bernal spearheads Brailsford’s youth policy, which also includes riders such as Tao Geoghegan Hart, Tom Pidcock, Pavel Sivakov, Eddie Dunbar and Iván Sosa, also Colombian. Meanwhile, the scramble to sign up other young Colombians is gathering pace, with Sergio Higuita, snapped up recently by Vaughters for his Education First team, tipped for success.
If Brailsford, his staff and his riders are to be praised for their resilience during a Tour dogged by crashes and ill-discipline through Luke Rowe’s disqualification, then there is little doubt that Bernal’s win ushers in a changing of the guard for the British team, with both Thomas and the injured Froome now entering the twilight of their careers.
The outgoing champion maintains, however, that he is not finished yet, which might make next year’s Ineos team a little top heavy.
Asked if he can win another Tour, Thomas said: “I think so. A lot of people probably don’t but that spurs me on. It’s disappointing that I didn’t win my second but it’s not about me today, it’s all about Egan. It was an incredible performance from him.”
