Defending champion Egan Bernal was at a loss to explain the brutal failure that ruled him out of contention on the Tour de France in the 15th stage on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Colombian was suddenly dropped by the main group of favourites in the ascent to the Col du Grand Colombier, a 17.4-km effort at an average gradient of 7.1 per cent, and he never managed to fight his way back, losing 7:20 on the line.
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Now out of the top 10, the Ineos-Grenadiers team leader conceded he could not even dream of a podium finish in Paris.
“I really don’t think the podium is an option, I don’t even know how far behind I finished,” an exhausted Bernal told reporters after his 174.5-km ordeal in the Jura mountains.
“I just need to go to the team bus, rest, rethink the race and see what the team wants.”
Bernal had been struggling since the beginning of the Tour and Sunday came as a terrible confirmation of his shortcomings.
“I was suffering in the first climb already, I think I lost three years of my life today, I was going full gas hoping for a miracle that didn’t come,” he said.
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