Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz, and other Ineos Grenadiers riders have narrowly avoided a series of accidents while training in Colombia this week.
A Spanish-speaking contingent of the British team have been training together in Colombia, where they have had to swerve to avoid animals and oncoming traffic.
On Tuesday, the group of riders were involved in a particularly close call as a car sped towards them on the wrong side of the road while they negotiated a gentle descent. The driver was overtaking a van, which itself was trailing a lone cyclist, and only managed to swerve back across the road in the knick of time, with the riders avoiding
A video of the incident was captured by Karol David Torres, who, through his 'Karolo a Rueda' company, acts as a guide and technical support service for those training on Colombian roads.
The current mini training camp is taking place in the Cundinamarca region of Colombia, with Bernal present alongside compatriots Daniel Martínez and Brandon Rivera.
Ecuadorian Olympic champion Carapaz is also at the camp along with Costa Rican domestique Andrey Amador and Spaniards Carlos Rodríguez and Omar Fraile.
Jhonatan Narváez is currently training alone across the border in Ecuador.
The riders were also involved in a couple of smaller scares, notably when a dog threatened to run out into the middle of the road on the same day as the incident with the car.
Riding two abreast, the riders all suddenly stopped pedalling and swerved left when they spotted the dog but fortunately it didn't cross their path. In a separate video, a dog strolled across their path while riding uphill but was easily avoided.
Training camp accidents involving cars are not uncommon, with Giant-Alpecin suffering a devastating mass crash in 2016 and Bora-Hansgrohe were caught up in a similar scenario last year. This winter, the Androni-DroneHopper team had three riders injured in a collision with a car.
The mini training camp comes after the full roster gathered in Mallorca, Spain, at the start of January for a full-team pre-season camp. Bernal is set to start his 2022 campaign at the Tour de la Provence in France on February 10, and will lead the line at the Tour de France, while Carapaz targets the Giro d'Italia, which he won in 2019.
