Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) has played down his chances of fighting for the overall of the Volta a Catalunya in his return to European racing this week.
The Colombian finished third overall in his previous participation in Catalunya in 2019, the same year he won the Tour de France.
But as he continues his comeback from early season injury in the Volta, his first event in Europe this season, Bernal told reporters earlier this week that he was “a long way off fighting [for GC] this week" after abandoning January's Vuelta a San Juan with a knee injury.
“I stopped riding altogether after Argentina, and I’ve only been training for a couple of weeks," Bernal told Eurosport.
“So not matter how much I’d like to be, I’m not going to be going great, I have to be realistic.”
“The idea is to end this race feeling better than I started it, the season is long, there are lots of other races to go for.”
Bernal finished 32nd on stage 1 after an incident-free first day in the race, where he was one of several top names to lose 10 seconds in a late split. But the key tests will come in the mountains, starting with Tuesday’s ascent to Valter.
Although he had been announced by Coppi e Bartali race organisers as taking part in their event this week, Bernal said he had opted for a tougher event like the Volta because he wanted to start at WorldTour level for a better gauge of his feelings and form.
“I like this race, I’ve done it twice so I know it. A week-long event is good to get some racing under my belt and it’ll be good. So let’s see how it goes.”
