Egan Bernal confident for 2023 season after pulling out of Colombian national road race championship due to injury
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ByEurosport
Published 03/02/2023 at 19:43 GMT
Egan Bernal will not be on the start line for the Colombian national road race championship. He suffered a knee injury that forced him to abandon the Vuelta a San Juan, but is confident it will not have a negative impact on his European season. His focus is on the Tour de France. Stream the Tour de France and more top cycling live and on-demand on discovery+.
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Egan Bernal is confident his season will not be disrupted by a knee injury that has forced him to miss the Colombian national road race championship.
The 2019 Tour de France winner is battling his way back to full fitness following the crash that curtailed his campaign in 2022.
Bernal was happy with his performance at the Vuelta a San Juan, before abandoning the race on account of a crash at the start of the race.
The intention was to be fit for the Colombian national road race championship, but after consulting with his Ineos Grenadiers team, the decision has been made to sit out the road race at the weekend.
Bernal will now shift his focus to the European season, and he will look to get fit and build up form with an eye on the Tour de France in July.
“The knee still continues to bother me and we know what knee injuries are like, so we are going to see how things go and make the best decisions. But as I’ve already said, I’m still thinking about the races in Europe,” Bernal told NoticiasRCN.com, per Cycling News. “I'm fine. The truth is, after the result in San Juan, how I felt surprised me a bit because I didn't expect to be at that level in January.
"We have to calm down a bit. The season is long. We know where we’ve come from and where we are going.”
With the rider confident that his injury is a minor one, he will head over to Europe.
The intention is to take part in training camps and a block of races in order to prove his fitness for a shot at the Tour.
Should he line up for the Grand Depart in Bilbao, Spain on July 1, it will be a remarkable comeback for Bernal.
He suffered serious injuries, including 20 different fractures, in a crash in January of last year, and there were fears for his life after he hit a stationary bus at a speed in the region of 50kph.
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