Bernal: I will try to help Geraint Thomas at the Tour de France
(Cyclingnews.com)

Egan Bernal`s assured victory at the Tour de Suisse has marked him out among the favourites for next month`s Tour de France but the Colombian has said that he is prepared to ride in the service of defending champion Geraint Thomas if the Welshman proves stronger than him. `I don`t know. I don`t choose to say that I`m the favourite. In any case, I will go with G [Thomas] - he will be our leader,` Bernal said in a flash interview after sealing overall victory at the Tour de Suisse on Sunday. `I will try to help him. If he`s better than me, for sure I will help him. I don`t have any problems to help him; I`m just 22 years old so I think that I have a lot of Tours in front of me.` Team Ineos will be without four-time Tour winner Chris Froome in July after he sustained a broken femur in a training crash on last week`s Critérium du Dauphiné, while Thomas` own Tour preparation suffered a setback when he was forced to abandon the Tour de Suisse after crash in the finale of stage 4.ADVERTISEMENT Bernal, who placed 15th overall on his Tour debut in 2018, was initially slated to lead Ineos at the Giro d`Italia, but he was ruled out of the corsa rosa after breaking his collarbone in a training crash of his own a week before the race. The Colombian showed few lingering effects of that setback at the Tour de Suisse, where he stepped seamlessly into the role of team leader following Thomas` abandon. He moved into the yellow jersey on stage 6 to Flumserberg, won the following day at San Gottardo and then defended his lead in Saturday`s individual time trial. `I think that things changed when Thomas crashed because he was our leader when we came here,` Bernal said on Sunday. `So after his crash I became the leader and it changed a lot for me.` You can read more at Cyclingnews.com