Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) has played down his chances of fighting for the overall of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果: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 T𝐆our 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 Sa🌺n Juan with a knee inju🦩ry.

“I stopped riding altಌogether after Argentina, and I’ve only been training ♒for a couple of weeks," Bernal told .

“🌳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 fo🎃r.”

Be🌼rnal 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 becaus🌌e he wanted to start at WorldTour level for a better gauge of his feelings aജnd form.

“I like this race, I’ve do൩ne 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.”