Egan Bernal, this year's Tour de France winner, will compete in the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, England later this month. According to the Colombian Cycling Federation's website, this will be his first time competing in a road world championship and his first time racing in Great Britain.
Bernal, who races for Team Ineos, the British WorldTour team, is in Colombia to celebrate his Tour victory in July with a number of activities. The visit was made with outgoing Colombian Cycling Federation president Jorge Ovidio González and new president Jorge Mauricio Vargas, who were entertained by the embassy's deputy representative Greg Houston.
Also with them were Daniela Soler and Germán Darío Gómez, who will represent Colombia in the junior category at the Yorkshire Worlds.
According to the federation, Bernal was shown around the embassy and briefed on various social projects that improve the lives of children in rural Colombia through the provision of bicycles.
Although the 22-year-old is representing his country for the first time at the road world championships in Yorkshire, he has competed in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Norway in 2014, where he won a silver medal for Colombia in the junior men's cross country.
After racing in Yorkshire, Bernal will head to Italy, La Gazzetta dello Sport reports, following much the same program as in 2018, racing the Giro delle Miglia, GP Bruno Begueri, Tre Valli Varesine, and Milan Torino After that, he will finish the season at Il Lombardia.
The World Championships road race on September 29 may not have enough hills for climbers weighing 60 kg, but various reconnaissance efforts by the Belgian and Italian national teams have confirmed that the 284.5 km race is tougher than originally thought and has been confirmed to be "tougher than originally thought.
The 2019 UCI Road World Championships will open with the Paracycling Road Race in Harrogate on September 21 and climax with the elite men's road race on September 29.
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