Cycling’s most prominent comeback story is back on the road. Egan Bernal, the 2019 Tour de France winner and 2021 Giro d’Italia champion, has ended a quiet spring of injury management and is racing again at the Tour of the Alps as Ineos Grenadiers begins building toward the 2026 Tour de France. The Colombian has not raced since the Faun-Ardèche Classic on February 28, with knee problems quietly disrupting his early season.
What Happened
Bernal finished seventh in the Faun-Ardèche Classic on February 28, then disappeared from the race calendar. His team initially declined to give a public timeline, but Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport later confirmed that knee tendinopathy had limited his training through March and into April. The Tour of the Alps — five mountainous stages between April 20 and 24 — became his confirmed return target, sitting in the perfect window before the Giro d’Italia and a few months out from the Tour de France.
The team has now confirmed Bernal in its Tour de France long-list alongside Carlos Rodríguez, Tom Pidcock and Geraint Thomas. With Ineos’s revival under way — boosted by Dorian Godon’s prologue win at the Tour de Romandie and the new Café de Colombia partnership — Bernal’s return turns the team’s spring narrative from defensive to genuinely interesting.
Why a Tour of the Alps Comeback Makes Sense
Coming back from tendinopathy is not the same as coming back from a freak crash. Tendons recover slowly and respond best to graded loading rather than rest. That is exactly what the Tour of the Alps offers: five high-altitude, climbing-heavy days, but with no time-trial obligation, no sprint-stage stress, and a forgiving GC profile if a rider needs to ease in.
Crucially, the race sits three weeks before the Giro and three months before the Tour. That gives Bernal and the medical staff time to add or hold back load before the next big block. He is not expected to be racing for the win in the Alps — the goal is to log race kilometres, validate the rebuilt training plan, and avoid setbacks.
Where Bernal Sits in the Tour de France Picture
Realistic expectations matter. Bernal is no longer the rider who out-climbed Alaphilippe and Pogačar in the 2019 Pyrenees. The 2022 training-camp crash that fractured 20 of his bones came close to ending his career, and his comeback has been measured by months and millimetres, not weeks.
Even so, his 2024 and 2025 form lines were progressively closer to top-five Grand Tour shape, and several pundits — most notably Rouleur — have tipped him for a Tour top-five if he arrives healthy. With Pogačar likely to repeat as the overwhelming favourite (see our breakdown of Pogačar’s 2026 Tour de France strategy), and a hungry chasing pack led by Vingegaard and the new generation of Red Bull-Bora riders, Bernal’s value is in supporting and protecting Carlos Rodríguez — but with the upside that a clean spring could put him back in the GC mix.
Either way, his return matters for the sport. Bernal remains the public face of Colombian cycling — even as Nairo Quintana enters retirement this season — and his form is one of the great open questions of the 2026 calendar.
What This Means For You — Lessons from a Real Tendon Comeback
Tendinopathy — the umbrella term for chronic tendon overload injuries — is one of the most common training-related issues in amateur cycling. If you’ve nursed a sore knee or Achilles for more than three weeks, the lesson from Bernal’s quiet spring is the same lesson the research keeps confirming:
- Don’t rest your way out. Total rest weakens tendons further. Graded loading — slow, controlled strength work paired with reduced bike load — is the gold standard.
- Audit your bike fit. A poorly positioned saddle is one of the top causes of cyclist knee tendon flare-ups. Our piece on getting a precise bike fit covers the key checks.
- Build a prehab routine. A handful of off-bike strength moves protect the major tendons used in cycling. See our prehab routine for a 15-minute weekly minimum.
- Manage recovery as seriously as training. Sleep, nutrition, and structured rest weeks beat any single training block. Our recovery techniques guide goes deeper.
Key Takeaways
- Egan Bernal returned to racing at the Tour of the Alps after a knee tendinopathy spell sidelined him through March and early April.
- Ineos Grenadiers has confirmed him in their long-list for the 2026 Tour de France alongside Rodríguez, Pidcock and Thomas.
- His comeback is being managed conservatively — race kilometres first, GC ambition only later.
- The wider story is positive for Ineos and for Colombian cycling, with Café de Colombia returning to the WorldTour around him.
