On Saturday, minutes after the 2023 Tour de France finished its final mountain stage in Markstein, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) emotionally explained why he enjoyed the last kilometer so much.

"I'm very happy to have done that," he said. 'The cycling fans are the best in the world and it makes me feel good when I see young kids on the street who know us and are shouting our name. So I love the sport and I'm very happy to be here."

On Sunday, the 2019 Tour de France winner will enter the Champs-Elysées in 36th place overall, more than 2 hours and 30 minutes behind Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), the 2023 winner in waiting.

But as Bernal said earlier this week, getting to Paris is an important victory in itself, given the circumstances of this July race, his first Grand Tour since his training accident in January 2022.

"When I started the Tour, I didn't expect anything. I didn't expect anything to happen. But I think coming here was the best decision I could have made for my future."

"I'm happy to have finished. This is the biggest and hardest race in the world and just the fact that I finished is a victory."

"I was aware that I didn't have the ideal preparation, but this was the only race I could do to move forward," Bernal said in an interview with L'Équipe published on Sunday.

"The team gave me a chance, even though they knew I wouldn't necessarily be competitive.

"I am aware of that, but mentally I needed to come back to the tool.

Bernal has crashed twice in this year's Tour, and because his body has been affected so much by the January 2022 wreck, he says, "Every time I crash, I have pain and every time I crash, I'm afraid of getting worse."

"It's hard to settle for being behind Gruppetto from being the Tour champion. But I never ask myself if I can win the Tour again someday.

"I'm not in that frame of mind anymore. Once you realize that what really matters is life, that's no longer a priority."