Egan Bernal has ended his season with immediate effect to return to his native Colombia for knee surgery, according to reports.
In August the Colombian rider took a huge step in his comeback from injury competing in the Tour of Denmark and Deutschland Tour.
He was then due to start the 2022 Memorial Marco Pantani. That race was scheduled to take place last weekend but it was called off due to extreme weather conditions.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reported this morning that the Ineos Grenadiers rider will now end his season to return to Colombia for a scheduled knee operation to continue to build for the 2023 season.
In January while training at home in Colombia, the 25-year-old sustained multiple horrific injuries in a crash with a bus that saw him require seven individual operations to treat the 20 broken bones and collapsed lung that he suffered.
Initial reports of the training ride crash stated that Bernal’s injuries could have resulted in the rider being paralysed. However just two months later the Ineos Grenadiers star climbed back into the saddle of his road bike and shared pictures celebrating the news on social media.
In July prior to making a return to racing at the Tour of Denmark, Bernal took part in an altitude training camp in Andorra with several Ineos Grenadiers teammates. Alongside the 2021 Giro d’Italia winner, Pavel Sivakov, Laurens De Plus, Ethan Hayter and Carlos Rodriguez took part in the camp as the team built towards the recent Vuelta a España.
Bernal was not part of the squad that rode the Spanish Grand Tour as he instead looked to regain racing experience at a series of smaller races.
The Colombian superstar won the Giro d’Italia in 2021, takign two stage wins in the process to add to an already exceptional palmares that includes the Tour de France in 2019.
Before his training crash at the start of 2022 the Colombian signed a new five-year deal with Ineos that will see him ride for the British outfit until the end of the 2026 season.
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