Shortly after coming to this world, Flor's baby immediately had unconditional support, beyond maternal love. «It's going to be called Egan. In Greek I think it means champion, as cast forward. Put him like this and let me be the godfather, ”said Dr. José Bulla, a friend of the family, a cycling lover and a neighbor of the town, recognized for his imposing Salt Cathedral, built in the bowels of old mines. And that's how fate began to smile at that child who would end up eating clouds, as if the doctor's words were a prophecy.
Long before winning the Tour, before all of Colombia raised him to the Olympus of the great deeds, he had already fulfilled the greatest dream of his childhood. With the money he earned in the European teams Androni Giocatolli and Sky, after crossing the puddle at age 18, he reformed the modest family home for his father, gave a flat to his mother and retired them both. He did not want Flor to work more on flower crops or for Germán to continue with the eternal days of vigilante, salaries with which they barely carried out their two offspring.
«As a child I made visible what I wanted to be, what I wanted to achieve. And his main objective was to improve his family's standard of living, ”recalls Martha Cortés, a pioneer of child cyclomontalism in the South American nation. «The beautiful thing is that it is a family that has lived through the difficult, intermediate and successful times around their son. And everyone remains the same, the most affectionate people.
Egan Arley Bernal Gómez came to the world in Bogotá on January 13, 1997, because they could not attend to his mother in the precarious hospital of Zipaquirá, his only true homeland, located 50 kilometers from the Colombian capital, in the heart of the Andean Eastern Cordillera, at 2,650 meters above sea level.
Egan trained at more than 3,000 meters high. There you eat pure cloud and that widens the lungs
«It's going to be called Egan. In Greek, I think it means champion, as a pitching forward ... », those words of Dr. Bulla, cycling lover, resonate premonitory today. That is why, somehow, little Egan was born to pedal, in a family that loves cycling. He learned in a loan, at age five. He climbed into the saddle and immediately rolled through the Los Cámbulos suburbs, the neighborhood on a hillside, just outside the town, where they resided.
His father - for whom always to follow the Tour by television was an ideal plan - was a good climber, he had the soul of a beetle, but the economic straits did not allow him to become a professional cyclist. Perhaps because of these frustrations, he applauded the hobby that his son inherited but preferred that he not have illusions and take other directions. He was afraid he would end up crashing into the same wall of disappointments that slowed his own career. Without financial help, without a little push, it was almost impossible to go far. But Egan had more luck than the parent.
He was just a kid and they gave him a first push. "I met him when he was seven years old," Martha Cortes tells Chronicle , on a halt to his daily mountain bike tour through the mountains of Zipaquira. «I was competing in Colombia and I saw that children were not included in cyclomontalism, it was only for adults. I found it unfair and through my school, Las Villas de Zipaquirá, I began to encourage families to practice their children.
He gathered a group of students and shortly afterwards Egan and other schoolchildren from public schools knocked on his door. "They asked us if they could go riding with us and I accepted them immediately," replied this petite, endearing woman with lively eyes and easy smile. «I gathered at 30 and every day, at the end of school, around three in the afternoon, we went through the forest until six. On holidays or vacations, we shot at Pacho, at Sopó, about 40 kilometers away ».
When Pacho was chosen, the young snake began down the long slope along dirt roads. They arrived hungry for breakfast, then took them to a pool because they did not intend to forge champions but happy children, and they returned happy to their homes. «What I was looking for is to fall in love with sport, to see it as a fun game. 90% had few resources, with old, damaged mountain bikes, parents helped as much as possible and I got in the bike stores to give us a pump to inflate the wheels.
The next step was to organize children's championships. Little Egan soon got used to climbing to the top of the podium. "In the early years he was the disciplined, the judicious, a little introverted, never the annoying," says Martha. «Then, in adolescence, while the boys are, in general, in other things, with the disturbed hormones, Egan called attention for his character and his innate talent. He went to what he was going, he knew his direction, he was focused, mature, serious, persistent.
After years leading children and careers alone, Cyclist Martha convinced the Zipaquirá City Council to hire Fabio Rodríguez, a local glory, to train the little ones. He had won an edition of the classic Los Valles Mineros in Asturias, for climbers, had three participations in the Tour of Spain as a gregarious Tony Rominger, and had spent several years dedicated to Mountain Bike. Fabio opened the door for road cycling. It was the second push Egan received. He had turned 10 years old.
«The first obstacle for them to run route and mountain is the price of bicycles; if they had one thing, they didn't have the other, that's why they only did cyclomontalism. Even today, 70% of my students don't have it for both of us, ”says the veteran runner. "Egan was from a family with low resources, he could not buy it, but at age 14 he was lent a not very good one to make the route, and he started."
"I'm not doing badly in studies, but I only think about cycling, all day"
Julian, 10 years oldBy then Fabio had been teaching the kids the secrets of road cycling that he had known for four years, he no longer talked about playing, he also wanted them to think big, instill that one day they could make the leap to professional. He taught technique, resistance, speed. But the Mountain Bike remained the priority.
«Here they are born and live at 2,650 meters high and I always take them to a hill that is more than 3,000 meters, so high that the clouds live there all year and we see them above when we climb. They only disappear if there is a very rough summer, ” says the master of dozens of cyclomontañistas who aspire to succeed in the great Laps, especially with the example of Egan. "What Zipaquira sportsman eats is pure cloud, pure oxygen, and that expands lung capacity."
Julian also eats clouds and runs under the baton of Fabio Rodríguez. And he doesn't want anything different in life than to follow the trail of Egan Bernal. At 10 he looks like a worm, as thin as the champion was at his age, and does not stop a single day of pedaling.
On July 27, his face went viral. It followed the penultimate stage of the Tour on the giant screens that the Zipaquirá City Council installed next to the old railway station, crowded with thousands of countrymen. As soon as he saw that the yellow jersey, his idol Egan, had just secured the highest place on the podium, he burst into tears and his image shedding tears of joy went around the world. «I was so excited when we saw him win and he held hands with his friend (Geraint Thomas) and they entered the goal together. That made me cry. Egan is an idol for me, ”he recalls smiling. «I want to be professional and wear the yellow shirt when I grow up. I'm not doing badly in studies, I'm the seventh in my class, and I like math. But I only think about cycling, all day, nothing more than cycling, ”he says for sure.
Although the road to reach that goal is long and tortuous, Julián Esteban Gómez Torres, an only child, has the advantage of living with a certain relief. Although he never buys the best bicycles on the market, he does not lack any of the two specialties (mountain and road) thanks to his maternal grandfather, Guillermo Torres, his mentor and godfather. Late lover of the bicycle, at 50 he embraced cycling with such fervor that he has won more than a fortnight of veteran trophies and dreams of seeing his grandson triumphing in the French capital.
That is why, among other things, he made a roller bike himself and installed it in the yard of his house so that Julian trains 45 minutes on days he cannot ride outdoors. Determined to make him a champion, he asked Egan what supplement he could give him to gain weight and gain physical strength. «To me, I'm in Europe, they don't give me anything. Let him make a balanced diet and nothing else, ”he replied.
The boy, who climbs steep ramps and considers the descent to be strong - «Low without brakes, I am never afraid and ahead of those who pass me on the climb» -, boasts a scar on his right thigh. He hit the handlebar when he fell in a mountain bike intercollegiate championship. "I already have the cyclist's mark," he climbs his pants and shows her with a smile, thinking of Egan's three clavicle tears. For something one starts.
In the first break, with 14 years, Egan trained for the Pan-Americans. There were three weeks left. He recovered with the strength that characterizes him and participated. But he did not win. The following year he suffered the same injury again, shortly before the same championship, and also did not want to miss. That time the first crossed the finish line.
Five years ago from that last mishap, Pablo Mazuera, the son of a wealthy family, sound engineer had entered his life. It became the third push, which would be final. He was commissioned with a video for the Colombian Cycling Federation with his company, Mezuena Producciones, and after delivering the work he decided to support children from poor homes with mountain bike potential. He asked Fabio Rodríguez to choose among his students in Zipaquirá five children with limited resources and enormous potential . He sent Egan and four more. "I started to help them in a very simple way, uniforms with small sponsors, and I took them to the competitions in my SUV," tells Chronicle . «Those boys loved cycling. If the coach put them 10 km., They made 12. They had passion. They were good examples in mountaineering but Fabio told them that the route was the future because there was the money and they had many needs.
Although Pablo preferred that Egan not make the leap to a very competitive universe, he ended up promoting his entry. The meeting with a former classmate, owner of a large company, meant having major sponsorships. «We took off with that impulse. Before, in full competitions, bicycles often failed. The old women weighed 16 kilos and were bad; with the new, of seven kilos, those young people flew ».
After spending so many years at the wheel of Egan, Pablo knows him as the palm of his hand and is convinced that there is a winner for a while. «Since I was little I wanted to support his family and be a protagonist. He was marked in his name to be champion ».
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