Egan Bernal’s attainable participation within the Tour of Norway, which begins Friday, will lastly not materialize, his Ineos Grenadiers crew have confirmed.
The 2019 Tour de France winner had been introduced by Tour of Norway organisers as one of many headline individuals within the four-day 2.HC stage race.
Nonetheless, Ineos Grenadiers informed Cyclingnews on Thursday that Bernal had solely ever been on the ‘lengthy checklist’ for Norway as a attainable starter, moderately than a confirmed rider of their six-rider line-up.
The crew additionally defined that as Bernal was not utterly prepared to participate, his participation had been lastly dominated out.
Though the race had by no means been definitively on Bernal’s program, his eventual absence had been made all of the extra noticeable after the organisers ran a press launch a number of days in the past, saying the previous Tour de France winner can be current.
Ineos Grenadiers might be fielding a squad dominated by their younger up-and-coming riders, together with present Australian Nationwide Highway Champion Luke Plapp, who ran third in Norway final yr and who’s returning to racing after a foul crash within the Tour de Hongrie. Additionally current for Ineos are Connor Swift, Josh Tarling, Magnus Sheffield, Leo Hayter – whose brother Ethan received the race outright in 2021 – and Ben Tulett.
Except for Plapp, stand-out names from Norway’s earlier editions additionally current this yr embody native star Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X) and Edu Prades (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), each former winners.
Bernal most up-to-date race outcomes have been the Tour de Hongrie in mid-Might, the place he completed eighth total regardless of a crash on stage 1, and the Tour de Romandie, the place he additionally claimed eighth on GC.
He’s anticipated to move to the Criterium du Dauphine in early June, though a definitive line-up has but to be launched.
In the meantime, the Tour of Norway begins on Friday in Bergen with a brief prologue and finishes Monday with a hilly stage in Stavanger.
