Egan Bernal has topped the Strava leaderboard on some tough Andorran mountains just days after breaking his collarbone.
The Team Ineos rider was forced to abandon his Giro d’Italia leadership after he crashed during a training ride on the eve of the Italian Grand Tour.
Bernal has made a rapid recovery and is back out on the bike in the Andorran mountains, where he took three King of the Mountains and a slew of top 10s.
The 22-year-old Colombian rode just 68.64km in his first time back out on the bike after the crash, spending two hours and 45 minutes in the saddle.
He racked up 1,896m of climbing in the short ride, which took him up the Coll de la Gallina, which featured in stage 20 of the 2018 Vuelta a España.
The climb is 8.15km-long, with an average gradient of eight percent.
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Egan Bernal's Strava stats on his first ride back from injury
Bernal crested the second category climb in 29-44, riding at 16.5km/h for the duration and holding 324 watts.
The ride was strong enough to put Bernal at the top of the Strava leaderboard, almost a minute faster than his Team Ineos team-mate David de la Cruz who climbed it in 30-37.
Bernal also took the KoM on the first category Col de la Garina CS-111 segment – a first category climb which averages nine per cent that was included in stage 19 of last year’s Vuelta.
Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
