Egan Bernal will return to European racing at next week’s Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali stage race in Italy with the Colombian aiming to get his 2023 season back on track after a knee injury kept him off the bike in February.
GS Emilia, the organisers of Coppi e Bartali, confirmed that Bernal will be part of the Ineos Grenadiers line-up, with nine WorldTour teams in the 23-team peloton. The race begins in Riccione on Tuesday, March 21 and ends on Saturday, March 25 with a final 18.6km time trial around Carpi near Bologna.
Last year Ineos finished first and second in the race, with Eddie Dunbar preceding Ben Tulett in the final classification. Jonas Vingegaard won the Coppi e Bartali race in 2021, with major WorldTour teams using it as a vital testing ground for the talented young riders.
Other riders expected to race Coppi e Bartali include Bernal’s teammate Elia Viviani and possibly neo-pro Leo Hayter, British sprinter Matt Walls (Bora-Hansgrohe), James Knox and Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal-QuickStep), Attila Valter and Thomas Gloag (Jumbo-Visma).
Astana Qazaqstan Team, EF Education-EasyPost, Trek-Segafredo and Jayco-AlUla will also ride.
Domenico Pozzovivo is expected to make his debut with Israel-Premier Tech after the UCI approved his signing. However, Antonio Tiberi is not expected to be part of the Trek-Segafredo team despite his 20-day suspension for killing a cat with an air rifle recently coming to an end.
Bernal made his season debut at the Vuelta a San Juan but did not finish the race and was forced to miss the Colombian National Championships due to pain in his left knee.
Ineos Grenadiers team manager Rod Ellingworth confirmed to Cyclingnews last week that Bernal would return to racing in late March, either at the Volta a Catalunya and the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. The Italian race appears to be the preferred option for Bernal via a more gradual return to racing.
Bernal stayed in Colombian and underwent treatment at home rather than ride the Vuelta a Andalucia and Paris-Nice. He recently suggested on Instagram that he spent two weeks away from serious road training but has been back in full training for several days.
He missed most of the 2022 season due to the life-threatening training crash last January, which left him with a fractured vertebra, right femur and patella, and a long rehabilitation period. He returned to racing at the Tour of Denmark last August and spent the winter preparing for a…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…