A note from the French desk

This weekend, Egan Arley Bernal wrapped up the overall win in the Tour of California, having taken both of the mountain stages with a degree of ease. He’d previously finished a close second to Primoz Roglic in Romandie, and was looking nailed on for a podium when crashing in the final stage of Catalunya. Suffice to say, the first half of the 21 year old’s first year at Team Sky has lived up to our lofty expectations.

That sort of success only serves to get fans more excited and there’s been chatter here at the café and elsewhere about what the rest of his season would look like. A quiet mid-season, then warming up towards a tilt at the Vuelta was the consensus. Brailsford wouldn’t push him into a helper role at the Tour. Well, according to Marca, we’re all wrong. The plan is apparently for him to take the start in the Dauphine and the Tour.

The future, it seems, is arriving a month earlier than we expected it. Rather than being expected to win in the Vuelta, he’ll be able to help Froome in France, according to his agent. No confirmation yet from Sky, but there’s a degree of confidence in the article that’s hard to ignore.

What say you? Is this evidence of Sky’s cavalier attitude to talent and Franocentricity, or a sensible development plan with Bernal’s best interests at heart.