Egan Bernal rode promisingly on yesterday's summit finish at Vuelta a San Juan Internacional, placing 4th on the day and shooting up the general classification, also to 4th. However, he has now been forced out of the race.
While his ride yesterday ended in his first decent result since his career-threatening crash in Colombia twelve months ago, the Ineos Grenadiers rider has suffered a knee injury, resulting in his abandon in Argentina with two stages remaining.
His team said in a brief statement that the 2019 Tour de France winner had suffered an injury during a stage 1 crash. That has now flared up and forced him out of the event just after the start of stage 6.
"Egan Bernal has reluctantly withdrawn from the Vuelta a San Juan due to pain in his left knee sustained in the crash he was involved in on stage one of the race," the team confirmed.
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The development is a blow for Bernal, who needs to make significant progress quickly if he is to regain his place in the sport. However, he rode arguably better than expected yesterday, even though he never looked like winning the stage.
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Miguel Ángel López (Team Medellin-EPM) was strongest on the finish climb of Alto Colorado, riding away from his rivals to win solo. Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) placed 2nd at 30 seconds and Sergio Higuita (Bora-hansgrohe) was 3rd at 38 seconds.
While Bernal did not have the legs to stay with his Italian team mate, Ganna, he finished in 4th at 40 seconds, alongside Einer Augusto Rubio (Movistar Team). On the summit finish, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) attacked solo with 10km to go before being caught, and then dropped, by the select chasing group.
Bernal's ride yesterday, combined with going in the early breakaway on the hilly stage 4, suggest he made a lot of progress during the winter period. He has, for example, already done enough to suggest his comeback will be more successful than that of Chris Froome (Israel Premier Tech), after his 2019 career-threatening crash at Critérium du Dauphiné.
Last January Bernal was at a team training camp in Colombia when he crashed into the back of a bus, which had pulled in by roadside. He was on his TT bike at the time and clearly riding at high speed as the impact almost cost him his life.
He broke about 20 bones and faced multiple surgeries, after which it took him some weeks before he could begin to walk again. He said he had a 95 per cent chance of being paralysed but was last year able to return to racing after a long rebab. His first event was the Tour of Denmark in mid August and he completed 12 race days before the end of the season.
