Bernal to skip World Championships: federation

BOGOTA, Colombia: Tour de France winner Egan Bernal will skip next week’s Road World Championships in England, the cycling federation in his native Colombia said on Tuesday, without indicating the reason.

“The talented cyclist of Team Ineos decided to turn down the call-up” for the race in the Yorkshire town of Harrogate, the Colombian Cycling Federation said in a statement. The 285-kilometre course for the world championships road race on September 29 is not particularly hilly and did not seem ideally suited to mountain climbers like Bernal.

One of Bernal’s main rivals, Poland’s Michal Kwiatkowski, pulled out this week. Bernal, 22, won a dramatic Tour de France in July, becoming the first Colombian to win cycling’s blue riband event.