Egan Bernal has said he started La Vuelta more than 2kg heavier than his normal race weight, adding he was so out of shape he considered not riding the race.
He told The Cycling Podcast that the weight gain was a direct result of contracting Covid-19 just after he won the Giro. He was then forced to take much more time off the bike than he had initially planned.
“I was thinking that, with the Covid, it would not be easy to be in this Vuelta,” Bernal said of lengthy consideration he and his team gave to him skipping the race this year.
“A couple of weeks before coming here I was having dinner
with my coach and we were discussing whether it was a good idea to come here or
not because I am 2kg or more over my (usual racing) weight.
Advertisement
“So I’m not in my best shape and that was, for sure,
because of the Covid. After (having) Covid I was training 40 minutes and I was
completely tired. It’s something that had an effect for sure.”
He said he was very hopeful he would not feel the ill
effects of having caught the virus over the next 12 months or so, but nobody
could be sure.
Bernal’s coach, Xabi Artetxe, also told The Cycling Podcast while it was initially planned the Colombian rider would take just one week off the bike after winning the Giro, he had to stop for three weeks because of his illness.
“Then he lost all the form, and it’s been really difficult to build up again for the Vuelta and come here at 100 per cent, like he should come,” Artetxe said.
Related News
“And when he started training in the
beginning, and following the medical recommendations, he had to start really
slow. And he also didn’t feel great when he started training, he was effected
with the post-Covid symptoms.”
He added Bernal was not “in shape”
starting the Vuelta. While everyone hoped he would ride into form during the
event, the level was so high at a Grand Tour that riders had to reach the final
week in great condition and having lost no time.
Artetxe believed Bernal’s shape was at
its best in the third week and he was pleased to see him “fighting”. He had
tried to minimise his losses and whenever he felt good he tried to attack,
which was a very positive sign.
Artetxe added when he looked at Bernal’s numbers on the final climbs of key stages during the last week of the race, it was clear his body was recovered. He had no concerns about any long-term impact from the virus for Bernal.
Lopez & Bernal
In the same episode of The Cycling Podcast (below), Pavel Sivakov of Ineos Grenadiers has shed more light on Saturday's stage 20 when Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) missed a split in the GC group with about 50km to go and soon climbed off his bike in frustration.
Egan Bernal was left stranded with Lopez and the others in the group and Bernal did not chase as team mate Adam Yates was in the front split. Lopez and Bernal, both Colombians, are close friends and after the stage Bernal said he felt sorry for Lopez.
However, Sivakov has now revealed when Lopez was being left behind he was very angry with Bernal for letting the gap open to the group ahead, allowing them to ride away, saying it created a "big drama" in the group.
"He was quite angry at Egan, actually, for letting the wheel go, basically," he said. "It was not Egan's fault at all there that he left the gap go; for him it was perfect, that's what we worked for all day with the boys," he added, in an apparent reference to working for Yates towards trying to win the stage.
Topics
