Egan Bernal brings Tour de France maillot jaune home - Gallery

Image 1 of 25

Egan Bernal shows his maillot jaune to the crowd(Image credit: Eder Garcés - Fedeciclismo)

Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) was welcomed home with his Tour de France yellow jersey in a huge celebration in his home town of Zipaquirá on Thursday, riding into the town square surrounded by security and greeted by some of the legends of Colombian cycling as well as Colombian cycling federation president Jorge Ovidio González.

He also thanked his family - his parents, brother and girlfriend, saying, "I always had a very good example in my parents, children dream and the truth is a very nice when a child says 'I want to win a Tour de France, I want to be like you'. It all starts from the family, you have to have support but little by little it gets much better. When a child does what he likes, he can continue in one way or another."

"It wasn't difficult to stay motivated after missing the Giro," Bernal said. "Mostly I was sad for my teammates, who had trained so hard to help me at the Giro. That was my first thought. But when I crashed I was in really good form and I said ‘Okay’, I knew I didn’t have much time to prepare for the Tour and I was starting with really good form. For the time I was off the bike I tried to stay focused with my routine. It worked."

"It was incredible to be out on the road in yellow," Bernal said. "The Colombians were everywhere. When I was on the podium in Paris there were almost more Colombians than French people! It is amazing to see a lot of Colombian flags. It is just really important to us. When you are climbing full gas and you can see a lot of Colombians and they are cheering you on in Spanish, it really gives you an extra boost.