For the first time in three years, Egen Bernal has been named team leader of the Colombian national team, Selection Colombia, for the Tour Colombia 2.1 stage race to be held February 6-11.

The six-day stage race, which includes a stage to Egan Bernal's hometown of Zipaquila and a stage that finishes atop the Alto del Vino before a final stage in Bogota, has not been held since 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent lack of funding It had not been held since 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent lack of funding.

Bernal won the first edition in 2018, when the race was called Colombia Pas y Oro, and has been training at home in recent weeks.

"Racing at home fills me with confidence and ideally I would head to Europe and do my best in the races I have scheduled," Bernal said in late November, but it remains to be seen if he will compete in the 2024 Tour de France.

Bernal celebrated his 27th birthday on Saturday, and hundreds of cyclists sang happy birthday to him before a special group ride.

Also on the Colombian national team, in addition to Bernal's teammate Brandon Rivera of Ineos Grenadiers, were Jonathan Restrepo and German Dario Gomez (both with Porti Cometa), Jesús David Peña ( Jayco Alura), and Juan Diego Alba of the Movistar Best PC Continental team.

The players will compete in the Colombian National Championships on February 2 and will gather in Pipa for the start of Tour Colombia 2.1.

The opening stage will use the course of the 1995 World Championships, with the finish in Duitama. The third stage will visit the Boyaca province and will consist of nine laps of a 12.5 km circuit around Tunja. Stage 4 will visit the province of Kundinamarca, with a stage finish in Zipaquira, where Bernal was greeted as the 2019 Tour de France champion. [The stage will reach a summit finish in Alto del Vino at an elevation of 2,800 meters. The final stage will finish in the center of the capital, Bogota.

Mark Cavendish will lead the Astana Cazacustan team after their high-altitude training camp, while Rigoberto Uran will lead the Astana Cazacustan team with Richard Calapaz, Esteban Chavez, and Andrei Amador from the EF Education Easy Post team, Jefferson Cepeda, along with Andrea Piccolo from Italy.

Nairo Quintana is expected to lead the Movistar team along with Ivan Sosa and Fernando Gaviria.