Spotted on Strava: Monster training Bernal is a man on a mission, with the truly bizarre ‘Day of Apocalipsis’

It’s been nearly a year since he rocked the cycling world with a wagon ominous message from Colombia. Egan Bernal had a traffic accident and was in bad shape. The Colombian has recovered from the INEOS Grenadiers impressively quickly, but doesn’t look like he’s ready to truly compete again until 2023. Via Strava gives insight into what’s really huge Workload.

Bernal won the Giro d’Italia in 2021 and put it all together for the 2022 Tour de France. Even though it was now an epic battle between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, everyone was still looking forward to a three-way battle with Bernal in January. That changed for Bernal at the end of January this year on the back of a stationary bus popped up. In his own words, he had 95% chance of spinal cord injurybut miraculously everything worked out.

Although Bernal was completely in the crease, he was allowed to do so at the beginning of February He has already left the hospital. In the months since, the climber has kept us updated on his speedy recovery. What started with a few shaky steps quickly turned into the first meters on a bike. Seven months after his terrible accident, he made it Back in Denmark tour. He was already in the lead, then he made the Tour of Germany and completed two more Italian one-day races. Then the theme quickly shifts to 2023, where Bernal wants to show his true self again, preferably at the Tour de France.

Bernal is taking a short break after a difficult year

Bernal, now 25, is a man with a mission. In recent months, he’s been rocking one inspirational text after another on social media. It really started in the first week of November. “I’ve been training at home for a few days and I want to prepare well for 2023 and more craving From last year and the same goal: to fight with the best. Let’s see how far we have to go, and let the Apocalypse begin.” On November 6th on his now known site Horrible training ride which he has shared regularly on Strava in recent years. More on that later…

After his last race on September 15 (Sabatini Cup, 28), Bernal traveled to Colombia. He took it easy there in October. Ride about 100 kilometers, or a little less than that. In October, he recorded a total of 1,140.7 kilometers and 7,590 altimeters. Bernal has been on the bike for 36 hours and we haven’t seen her again on Strava from October 14th. He went to the Andes Mountains in southwestern South America with his girlfriend and came there for a while all for himself. On November 4, he had seen, climbed enough and returned to Strava.

Wonderful November for Bernal

In November, Bernal is out more than at any other time in that month of the year. Last year, Bernal covered 1944 km and 14,447 m elevation in November 2021, this year (read: last month) he actually reached 2,453 km and 20,663 m elevation in the penultimate month of the year. Bernal spent 85 hours and 24 minutes on the bike in November. Now, of course, he’s off early and still has some catching up from last season, but compared to last year, he spent seventeen (!) hours more on the bike in November than he did last year.

What started on November 4 with a 67km ride at 163W has already resulted in a max 201km ride at around 180 to 200W in November. Almost every day the max powers were very high, indicating that Bernal wasn’t just breeding on content. We’ve also seen many videos on Instagram where Bernal has either stood firmly on the pedals, or has taken a step uphill against very stiff resistance. Quiet income? forget that. Bernal is already built into the hot blocks in November. ‘Never stop dreaming.’ There I am, on my favorite climb, giving it my all and thinking big, with the push at 100,” he wrote eloquently in a blog post.

Bernal takes it in December

During the month of November, Bernal got better, which also makes sense. The climb went from 200 to 230 to 270 watts… Bernal on his best days It averaged 371 watts over just under thirteen minutes in April of 2021. So we know roughly where it wants to go. Personal best scores continued to increase in November. The hard power was already over 300 watts on average and the long endurance rides were finished at a much more steady pace. There is no time to look back, we continue to work hard and with passion to find the best new version of myself. For my family, my friends and my country,” he wrote poetically on his social channels.

It was clear that things could go a step further in December. Bernal has already covered 666.1km in four training days this month. That number is mainly due to the brutal exercise on December 6th. Bernal’s first “Apocalypse Day” in 2022, with an insane 270.22km ride and 2575m elevation gain at an astonishing average of 38.5km (!) per hour. Along the way he was supported by a host of cyclists, including teammate Brandon Rivera and former jockey Oscar Sevilla. Bernal pedaled for more than seven hours at an average of 214 watts, with a peak of 738 watts.

Where will December end? You never know with Bernal. We’re watching the best man, so we know exactly in which state the Colombian will start his cycling year.

FifthFor more spotted on Strava, click here.

Bram van der Pluig (Twitter: @employee | Email: [email protected])