The 28-year-old Bernal had begun his year by winning both the road race and time trial Colombian national championships and appeared to be finally approaching the form that had taken him to the 2019 Tour title and the 2021 Giro d’Italia GC victory. He suffered life-threatening injuries in a training crash in 2022 and has been far from his best form since returning to the sport.
In a press statement on his team’s website, Bernal was quoted as saying, “I was really happy to start racing again in Europe, especially with my new Colombian [championship] jersey… The way we raced was great and it was really nice to be part of a strong team. I was feeling really strong and, obviously, I’m sad to have crashed, but at the same time, the way I felt during the race gave me a lot of confidence and motivation to keep working hard, the season (ahead) is very long.”
No information was provided about when he would return to training. The crash was not picked up by live TV cameras, but a video released after the race showed him going down on one of the many gravel sections that marked the race. (In the video, he is the middle rider who vanishes as he rides past a tree.)
Kwiatkowski began his winning move with about 64 km left to ride in the 169.2 km race through the olive-tree landscape of Andalusia. He was accompanied by Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) as the two riders joined the three remaining from the day’s early breakaway. That group was eventually whittled down to three, with the surprising Spaniard Ibon Ruiz (Kern Pharma) staying with Kwiatkowski and McNulty as they maintained a lead of about 50 seconds over a chasing group of some 15 riders, which contained van Aert and another Visma rider, 23-year-old Ben Tulett.
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Eventually, van Aert took charge of the pursuit, leading the group for some 15 km and taking more than 20 seconds out of the trio’s lead. However, once he dropped back, there was little collaboration among the rival riders, and Kwiatkowski, McNulty, and Ruiz built up their lead again.
But with 15 km left in the race, McNulty suffered a puncture, had to change bikes and was not a factor in the race again. Three kilometres later, Kwiatkowski rode away from Ruiz and was never really threatened in the final 12 km, though the young Mexican Isaac del Toro of UAE Team Emirates–XRG took up the chase and managed to catch Ruiz, but not the winner, crossing the line 31 seconds behind. Ruiz took a precious podium place for his 2.Pro team, finishing 46 seconds adrift.
“You always have to believe that sort of thing was possible,” Kwiatkowski said after the race of his winning move. “The pace was super hard from the second [gravel] sector and I didn’t expect that so early on. Later on, it was a small group, and we had a lot of numbers. Everyone was racing perfectly, we knew we could do it. I just went in a move with McNulty. I was proud of how we rode today.”
It was little more than a training race for van Aert and his Visma colleagues, with Tulett finishing 9th at 1:59, and van Aert and Sepp Kuss coming in 39th and 40th, 6:00 behind the winner. However, they were saving themselves for the five-stage Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta, which kicks off on Wednesday. Both van Aert and Kuss will be riding in support of team leader Jonas Vingegaard who will make his debut in a season in which he hopes to regain the Tour title from three-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar.
The UAE Team Emirates–XRG leader is riding in this week’s UAE Tour. Instead, Vingegaard will be facing opposition from Pogačar’s teammate João Almeida, Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe), Lidl-Trek’s Tao Geoghegan Hart, and French veteran Romain Bardet (Team Picnic PostNL) who is riding in one of his last races as he will be retiring from the sport following the Critérium du Dauphiné in June.
This is a critical year for Visma–Lease a Bike who had an unprecedented year in 2023 when the team won all three Grand Tours and finished first, second, and third in the Vuelta. But last year was a disaster after a series of serious crashes and illnesses ruined the seasons of Vingegaard, van Aert, Kuss and several other key riders. A success in its first stage race, especially against riders of the quality of Roglič and Almeida, would be a comforting shot in the arm for the more difficult and more important races to come.
