Knee injury forces Egan Bernal out of Paris-Nice

Egan Bernal will not be racing at Paris-Nice next week as a knee injury he picked up earlier this season continues to trouble him.

The Ineos Grenadiers rider hasn’t raced since pulling out of the Vuelta a San Juan at the end of January as a result of a crash a few days earlier.

Bernal has already had to pull out of the Ruta del Sol due to the injury and his Ineos Grenadiers boss Rod Ellingworth is not sure when he will be back to racing.

“No, we’re not sure when he’s going to race next, yet, but he’s okay,” Ellingworth said when asked if Bernal would be at the French stage race.

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Bernal has had a rough time of it with injuries over recent seasons, beginning with a back problem that plagued him throughout 2020 and into the start of 2021. Last year, he had a training crash that almost ended his life and left him with a long list of injuries to recover from.

After making a return to racing late last year, this season was to be his first full campaign since that crash. Ellingworth said that the hiatus to his schedule this spring was a precaution to ensure he made a proper recovery.

“There are no concerns. Unfortunately, he had a fall in San Juan and he landed on the knee, nothing to do with the accident from last year, but like anything, these things take a little bit of time,” Ellingworth said.

“You can never sort of put any timeframe on it. But he’s doing well. He’s obviously a little bit disappointed he’s not in Europe now racing at the moment, but one thing with Egan is that you’ve got to hold him back because he’s an ambitious guy, like all of these lads. We couldn’t have asked any more of Egan to be honest up to this point.”