Former Tour de France and Giro d'Italia champion Egan Bernal will represent C. The news was confirmed by the country's cycling federation last Wednesday.

Bernal, 27, will compete in this year's Tour de France, which finishes on 21 July, after taking part in the men's Olympic road race in Paris on 3 August. He will share the team with Daniel Felipe Martínez, who recently finished second behind Tadej Pogacar in the Giro d'Italia. Martínez will also represent Colombia in the time trial on 27 July.

Encouragingly, Bernal is back in top form after a serious crash in January, when he collided with a bus during a training session and has since struggled to regain his grand tour winning form. Bernal was one of the young talents in the professional peloton before the arrival of the golden generation of Pogacar, Evenepoel, Van Aert and, slightly older, Jonas Vingegaard.

Along with Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas, Bernal was part of the Ineos team. The Colombian stunned everyone with his climbing ability and helped Thomas win the overall on his Tour de France debut, with four-time winner Froome finishing third. It marked a generational change. Bernal was expected to be the most important rider for years to come, but the crash put an abrupt end to his progress. However, he has recovered and looks set to be competitive in both the Tour and the Olympic Games this year. 

Current Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard's form ahead of the Grand Boucle is still uncertain. The latest news on the Danish champion has been mixed. A few days ago, Team Visma officials said that Vingegaard was at 50 per cent, while on Thursday they claimed that the rider had been able to train intensively on his time trial bike.

His coach Tim Heemskerk told TV2 Sport, "He can do the work on the time trial bike and it is not a problem for him at the moment, so he can do the work on the time trial bike.
He was on the time trial bike on Monday afternoon and it went well. So I think we can keep increasing the intensity," he explained. 

The two-time Tour winner's coach was keen to ease the pressure on the rider and stressed the importance of getting as close to peak form as possible in the remaining days before the start of the French race. Vingegaard's crash in the Tour of the Basque Country leaves everything up in the air. It has taken him much longer than expected to get back on the bike, but fortunately he seems to be recovering.
 All eyes will be on the next three weeks. Hopefully there will be no setbacks so that the Dane can once again challenge Tour favourite Tadej Pogacar for victory.