"That’s always a small worry, but it’s not serious" - INEOS confident that Egan Bernal will quickly recover from minor knee injury

Egan Bernal has shown tremendously good signs during the Vuelta a San Juan, but a DNS before the final day brought some concerns again as the Colombian was experiencing knee pain. However, INEOS Grenadiers shrug off big concerns.

“Egan fell in the same crash as Quinn Simmons on the first stage. He fell, but it wasn’t so bad at the time, it was a pretty light blow to his left knee," team DS Xabier Zandio told Cyclingnews ahead of the final stage of the Argentinian race. "For the first day, he had a bit of discomfort, but it didn’t affect him on the bike. On the mountain stage, he felt a bit of discomfort, and he felt it again on yesterday’s stage, so he pulled out as a precaution.”

The Colombian was out to test his form and recovery over the past year here in Argentina, but took a tumble on the opening day. Despite that he looked sharp in the race's sole summit finish at Alto Colorado, climbing to fourth on the day, putting time on Remco Evenepoel for example.

“It’s never good to have pain in your knee, so that’s always a small worry, but it’s not serious,” Zandio continued. “He’s been assessed and it’s not very worrying, so he should be able to recover in a few days."

Bernal hence did not complete the race where he was set to finish on the Top5, but the return to a competitive level and fight for the top places in a race is very encouraging. Bernal will remain in South America in the coming weeks where he may race the national championships before travelling to Europe.

"For him, it’s important to race at home but we’ll see during the week whether he races or not. We’re optimistic. It’s still possible that he rides the National Championships, but that’s not what we’re thinking about, we’re thinking more about the future. We’re thinking about the races in Europe and the season in general. And this isn’t something that’s going to change his plans going forward for the rest of the season," the team added.

As for the overall picture however, it was a very good race, with Filippo Ganna also displaying impressive form by taking second in the overall classification only behind Miguel Ángel López.

“The level of the climbers here was very high so to be up there with them was a very good sign for the future. López was superior to everyone else, but I think this race was a much bigger objective for him in his season too," Zandio continued.

Bernal has on his schedule the Vuelta a Andalucia, Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya now for the upcoming months where he will have plenty of testing in the mountains.

“He’s still very optimistic. He’s motivated and focused and keen to return to competition. He was very focused on the mountain stage to see where he was relative to his rivals, and he was very happy with that. I think that’s been the important thing from this week, to pass that important test. That was positive, so he’s happy," Zandio concluded.