Egan Bernal has
abandoned the Critérium du Dauphiné; the Colombian failing to take to
the start line for today’s 153km stage 4 from Ugine to Megève.
Team Ineos, at the time of writing, had offered no official explanation for the abandon but Bernal’s team mate Geraint Thomas told reporters at the stage start that Bernal had a back injury and needed to recover.
The withdrawal of Bernal comes just two weeks before he is due to start the defence of his Tour de France title and follows a challenging period for Team Ineos, which has been dominated by Jumbo Visma in recent races.
While Bernal has secured some fantastic results since racing re-started after the Covid19 lock-down he has looked laboured at times over the past week to 10 days, both at the Dauphiné and at the Tour de l'Ain last weekend.
Advertisement
"He doesn’t
start today, he's had a bad back so I think the best thing for him is to just take it easy,” Thomas said,
adding the Tour de France was happening so soon it was important for Bernal to “get
himself right” for that race.
Related News
“I don't
think it's a major issue but it's just
better to err on the side of caution. He's had two races before this as
well, so he's got the racing that he needs
really.
“It's just
about making sure that everything is 100 per cent there and that there are no
issues."
Asked about
Bernal abandoning, Dauphiné race
leader Primoz Roglic said that it “changes nothing” for him and his Jumbo Visma
team for the remaining two stages of the race this weekend.
“We need
to focus on our work and try to be the best,”
Roglic said. “I'm looking forward to today’s stage I think we will see a
hard race, it's not just everything
on Egan actually, because we
have a lot of really strong guys and it
will definitely be hard racing.
“I'm not sure what will happen today; but definitely be hard racing. There are mountains from the beginning but for us, it’s about trying to have control to always have a good situation for our team. We will try to focus on that."
Topics
