Egan Bernal has said he is "very sad" after crashing during a training ride and breaking his collarbone, ruling him out of the Giro d'Italia 2019.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reports the Colombian's sadness that he will not take up team leadership responsibilities for Team Ineos at the first Grand Tour of the season, after a Paris-Nice victory and a strong Volta a Catalunya followed his impressive debut Tour de France last year.
More details of the crash have also been revealed, with the Italian newspaper saying he fell on a slippery roundabout whilst out on a training ride in Andorra, having recently returned to Europe from his native Colombia.
>>> Giro d’Italia 2019 route: stage-by-stage analysis, elevation and maps
Bernal will apparently have an operation on Sunday May 5 in an Andorran hospital, and can therefore forget about making his debut Giro appearance in Bologna on May 11.
"I really wanted to start in the Giro," Bernal said. "The preparation was good and I had a lot of confidence.
"I lived in Italy for a few years. There are several mountain stages that I know very well," the 22-year-old added.
In a turbulent couple of days for Team Ineos, reports also emerged that Gianni Moscon would not ride the Giro, where he was expected to share leadership responsibilities with Egan Bernal.
La Gazzetta dello Sport report that the Italian has not been picked due to his poor form, and the team may now decide to hold him back to ride the Tour de France in July, a race he was kicked out of on stage 15 last year after punching a fellow rider in the peloton.
The 25-year-old has suffered a number of setbacks in his early 2019 season, crashing twice during the UAE Tour and then quitting Tirreno-Adriatico after two days.
Moscon had hoped to re-find his form in the Spring classics but raced a pretty anonymous campaign as he tried to build his condition towards racing the Giro.
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