Turner backs Bernal after Giro GC scare: 'He's for sure got the level'

With a relentless pace set by Movistar, the sprinters found themselves distanced one by one on the second category climb, which was hardly a surprise considering the length and gradients. However, a turn up for the books was when the Colombian Champion Egan Bernal was hovering off the back. 

Bernal managed to close the gap initially, but when the elastic snapped a few hundred metres later, it looked like his GC aspirations were in serious jeopardy. 

However, a man-of-the-match performance from Ben Turner put the fire out on Bernal’s burning GC hopes. The British rider, on paper, was one of the riders who would likely feature in a reduced group sprint at the finish in Cosenza, but he put the goals of his teammate first, dropping back to support Bernal and pace him back to the peloton. 

With a little bit of firepower added, when Derek Gee-West suffered a mechanical, the chasers returned to the peloton with 17km remaining, allowing the British team a sigh of relief. 

In the sprint finish that followed, Turner powered his way to 4th place behind stage winner and former teammate Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Speaking to reporters, including Domestique at the finish, Turner’s emotions were raw after a combative performance, but he was proud of his ride. 

“It feels like a big disappointment. [Why?] I don’t know, I had good legs, and yeah, it was good to look after Egan, and I’m really happy he didn't lose time, so it's really good,” said Turner. 

“Also, personally, I had good legs, so it was nice to know I was climbing with some really good guys. There were not quite so many guys left, so it was nice to have that feeling again. It’s good to know the shape is there at least,” added Turner.

Bernal finished safely inside the reduced peloton in 27th, and now sits 4th in GC, four seconds behind Giulio Ciccone. 

When asked what had happened to his team leader, Turner explained the impact of the rest day, and assured that the team still have full faith in Bernal’s shape ahead of the important GC stages to come.

“Yeah, I think after the rest day and the easy stages, it's quite a normal thing to be quite blocked because it was really explosive climbing,” explained Turner. “So I think it's not a big stress, he’s for sure got the level, and that’s clear and doesn’t change anything for us.”

“There’s still a lot of confidence in him, and it was just about managing the effort the last few km, and we knew we would come back, we took a little bit of risks on the downhill, and we committed to the GC plan,” said Turner. 

Pre-Giro, there were positive signs for Bernal as he finished 2nd at the Tour of the Alps, before taking 5th place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. 

Meanwhile, Turner was asked if he had any feelings of what-if, having been in the mix for the stage win despite his early energy expenditure while supporting Bernal. Turner responded that the team’s overall ambitions come before his own. 

“It’s hard to say… but we are here to do a team job. We have priorities, and I’m really proud of the performance as a team, and I think we are riding really well as a group,” said Turner.