Egan Bernal shrugs off Grand Tour for 2022, but is back to high volume training

Less than two and a half months after his life-threatening accident, Egan Bernal is starting to talk about his return to the peloton. In a recovery that has been nothing short of miraculous, the Colombian has been sharing posts on social media regarding how his current training is ongoing. In his first week of training, he has reported 23 hours on the bike, 584 kilometers and 4000 meters of climbing. Although modest, these numbers are impressive taking into account how bad his injuries were.

Asked if he is thinking of riding the Vuelta a España later this year, Bernal was quick to brush off those expectations: "Obviously I'm not ready for that, I shouldn't ask too much of my body either. You can't improvise in a big round. You can't go full out with a little pain."

"It would be a dream to race again this year, but I dare not put a date on it. That would be irresponsible," he concluded. Although the possibilities of him riding a Grand Tour this year are very low, they are not non-existent. Bernal's recovery has so far been quite an astounding feat, and in the past he has undergone recoveries from injuries in record time. At the 2018 Volta a Catalunya, Bernal crashed in the final stage, sustaining clavicular and scapular fractures which required surgery, however less than a month later he was at the forefront of the Tour de Romandie where he battled alongside Primoz Roglic for the overall classification in the Swiss Alps, and only weeks later he went on to win the Tour of California.