Bernal retains Colombian national road title

Egan Bernal has successfully defended his Colombian national road title in Zipaquirá, the town where he grew up.

Two days after seeing Ineos Grenadiers teammate Brandon Rivera scream to an extraordinary ITT victory by almost two minutes, Bernal beat Ivan Sosa (Equipo Kern Pharma) at the end of a brutal 208-kilometre road race. The reigning champion was dropped by his former teammate and Juan Felipe Rodriguez (EF Education-Aevelo) on the 13th and final time up the key Via de Pacho climb (1.5 km at 10.7%, max. 27%), but Bernal then made good use of the descent to put himself back in contention with just a few kilometres remaining.

Bernal's double national championship victory this time last year marked his first since the 2021 Giro d'Italia, and, more notably, his horror crash in early 2022; the 2025 season went on to complete the post-crash renaissance. Despite the metaphorical speed bump that was his broken collarbone at the Clásica Jaén, Bernal soon made his return to a Grand Tour top 10 at the Giro d'Italia, and peaked with victory on stage 16 of the Vuelta a España – doing so in a striking national champ's jersey reminiscent of the iconic Café de Colombia livery.

[race_result id=1176 stage_id=0 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]