Egan Bernal continues to recover from the knee injury caused by a fall in the Vuelta a San Juan. The Ineos cyclist has already done five hours on the road and In ten days he will travel to Europe to continue with his calendar for the year.
The runner believes that his knee is fine and that he will soon return to competitions, “already training again, super happy and the knee improved, from one day to the next. He improved from heaven to earth and we are already training super judicious. I really needed the truth.” he said in an interview with Juan Sebastián Charry through Instagram.
And he explained what happened after several days of care and recovery, “one day at night it was hurting and the next day I said: ‘I’m going to try and see what happens’, I tried to do rollers. I started riding, the first half hour with a little bit of pain and it was like ‘I’m going to get off because it still hurts’, and half an hour passed and the pain disappeared, it was as if the knee needed to let go or heat”.
According to Egan, they never found out what happened or what was causing the pain, “after about three MRIs, a thousand visits to medical doctors, I was even with the doctor who operated on my knee in the accident, who is a very good doctor.” He operated on my knee and femur when I recently had an accident, obviously I had a lot of faith in him and the man was like the one who half got the joke, he thought it had been tendonitis as a result of the fall that occurred in Argentina. Apart from the fact that the knee that hurt me was the other one from the accident, the one from the accident was better, with that I tell you everything”.
The runner confessed that he really needs to train, “I really like this pod and after a few days without being able to ride it was like ‘I’m already too tired of not riding’, and the truth is that I did do a lot of exercises to strengthen, but I didn’t is the same. He tried to ride with both legs and couldn’t, the pain made me go down, at a certain point I said ‘And if I ride on one leg what?’, then I did rollers with one legI think that maybe a little bit of all that helped, I hope, “he said.
When will you compete in Europe again?
Egan still does not know what his next competition will be, but he acknowledged the support he has had from Ineos after the fall in San Juan, “Rod (Ellingworth) told me, ‘if you have to stop for a week or two weeks, make sure that the season it’s long’, and yes, there are still many practice sessions for the Tour, Vuelta, Lombardy and the team trusts me in the fact that I believe I am very responsible and professional and I do my best. The team has given me full support, now continue training, that the knee continues to respond and continue working and training a lot. I will be here in Colombia for 10 days and I will travel to Europe and see what races there are depending on the form that I have lost. I can go there and measure myself to gain confidence”.
Regarding how he felt in San Juan, he said that it was hard to compete again, “by feeling I’m fine, but there is always a doubt. I arrived in Argentina and Brandon and Dani were walking a lot and they lowered my rod and they were going full throttle. I would go ahead and the ‘hijuemadres’ would pass me, then I said, I’m wrong, the doubt entered me. Training is one thing and racing is another. However, I had the feeling that I am fine.”
And he recounted the consequences of the blow to the knee, “in the mountain stage my knee hurt. I couldn’t be with (Miguel Ángel) López because he is on another level, but my knee hurt a lot, I ended up in a lot of pain and I couldn’t even get on the bus alone. The same gave me confidence, after everything that has happened I am here. I was going to be fourth and with the whole season ahead of me”.
