:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/3JKPCQQSA5B5DG5RCVVNERSSII.jpg "Without Egan Bernal: It is the Colombians who will be in Paris-Nice in competition with Pogacar and Vingaard 1")
Egan Bernal, one of Colombia’s strong cards this season, he will not be present in Paris – Nice due to discomfort in his left knee following a fall in the Vuelta a San Juan. For this reason, the leader of the INEOS Grenadiers could not complete the Argentine race, nor participate in the National Road Championships or the Tour of Andalusia.
Egan Bernal could also miss Paris – Nice, they say in Italy
The Colombian rider has not been able to compete since his withdrawal from the Vuelta in San Juan at the end of January
Although the severity of the Colombian’s knee discomfort is unknown, the team’s sporting director Rod Ellingworth has confirmed Bernal’s withdrawal from the French competition and assured that the INEOS Grenadiers He doesn’t know when the Colombian will participate again.
“Not yet we don’t know when it will work, But it is okay. There’s no problem. Unfortunately he had an accident in San Juan and landed on his knee, nothing to do with the accident last year, but like everything, those things take a bit of time.” said the INEOS Grenadiers manager in statements published by VeloNews.
Egan Bernal remembered his accident: “I went from preparing for the Tour de France to not knowing if I was going to walk again”
The Colombian cyclist has spent much of 2022 working on his recovery. In 2023, he hopes to compete again at the highest level
For the moment, Egan Bernal He continues to prepare in Colombia to hit the road again and that puts his compatriot, Daniel Felipe Martínez, ahead of the British team for the French race. Although INEOS has not confirmed the full squad, for now Frenchman Pavel Sivakov, Briton Ethan Hayter and Spaniard Omar Fraile have been confirmed as the soachuno’s teammates for the competition.
Although many teams have not confirmed their squad for the race which will take place at the beginning of March, for the moment the only representative of the country who will be present is Daniel Felipe Martinez, who would take the place left by Egan Bernal and lead the British team through the eight stages.
Egan Bernal will not be in Paris-Nice: INEOS Grenadiers has confirmed the loss of the Colombian
The Colombian cyclist continues to recover from knee discomfort resulting from a fall in the Vuelta a San Juan
Daniel Felipe Martínez’s start to the season has been very good, in the Back to San Juan the rider was Egan Bernal’s right-hand man, before he made the decision to retire after stage four, and then collaborated with Italian Filippo Ganna to take second place overall. In the National Road Championships, The cyclist from Soacha obtained the silver medal in the big fund of the elite category and was only surpassed by Esteban Chaves.
In the Back in the Algarve, his first European challenge, the Colombian cyclist was strong and in the individual time trial of the last stage he placed fourth, however, the time he obtained allowed him to take the first place in the classification general and to surpass other riders like Filippo Ganna, Ilan Van Wilder, Tobias Foss, Stefan Küng, Joao Almeida, among others.
Colombia’s history on the Paris-Nice podium began in 1998 when Santiago Botero he placed third and was passed by Michael Boogerd and Markus Zberg. The last of ours to achieve a place on the podium was Daniel Felipe Martínez, who in 2022 was in third place and was below Tadej Pogacar and Simon Yates. The country has had three champions throughout the history of Paris – Nice, a vice-champion and three third places.
– 1998 | Santiago Botero – Third place
– 2014 | Carlos “El Bananito” Betancur – Champion
– 2017 | Sergio Luis Henao – Champion
– 2019 | Egan Bernal – Champion
– 2019 | Nairobi Quintana – finalist
– 2020 | Sergio Higuita – Third place
– 2022 | Daniel Felipe Martinez – Third place