"More than anything, I am happy with my progress." Egan Bernal simply but wholeheartedly shared his thoughts on his first WorldTour podium in Volta a Catalunya. The Ineos Grenadiers rider finished Sunday in third place overall, behind all-time winner Tadej Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) and the resurgent Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step).

It was Bernal's best performance in a World Tour race since his life-threatening accident in early 2022 and his first GC podium since winning the Giro d'Italia outright in 2021. It is also his first week-long World Tour stage race since winning the Tour de Suisse in 2019.

Much water has flowed under the bridge since then, but in one of the toughest editions, the Volta a Catalunya, Bernal achieved top-10 finishes in the two early Pyrenean stages and improved on that consistency with a second place at the Alto de Queralto, quickly moving up six spots in the overall standings and He moved up six places in the overall standings.

The Ineos Grenadiers racer and former Tour de France winner also had a very technical and hilly final Montjuïc stage (the stage on which he had the misfortune of crashing when he first turned pro in 2018, just as he was on track for his last top-3 finish), He showed a similarly tenacious performance.

This time, Bernal passed without difficulty, coping well with the waves of violent attacks that repeatedly hit him, and was able to come home behind Miguel Angel Lopez and Adam Yates to keep his third place, the same result he had obtained in Catalunya in 2019.

"I'm very calm and above all I'm happy with my progress," Bernal told the Cadena Ser radio station after the finish in Montjuïc, after hundreds of Colombian fans chanted his name over and over on the other side of the barriers as they headed to the team bus.

"It's not easy, physically or mentally, to be on top of the world of cycling and then not be able to even finish a race," he said.

"It was very hard, but I had the support of everyone - my family, friends, and team - to get me back on the good road.

Bernal brushed off questions about how it felt to be racing with fellow Tour winner Pogačar when the Slovenian star was at the peak of his form. Rather, he insisted, he had set his own goals and achieved them.

"My goal was to be on the podium. So I wasn't thinking about following him," Bernal said of Pogachar's multiple attacks.

"I'm happy to be on the podium and maybe my time will come when the forces are a little more even.

As an example, he cited the Tour de France, saying, "There are big battles there, a lot of people are at a very high level, and things will be a little more clear there."