{"id":481493,"date":"2026-02-15T11:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481493\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T11:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:27:09","slug":"narvaez-still-months-away-after-heavy-crash-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481493\/","title":{"rendered":"Narv\u00e1ez still months away after heavy crash in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez<\/a> won\u2019t be back in the peloton any time soon after his hard crash in Australia in January. The Ecuadorian rider of UAE Team Emirates-XRG suffered vertebra fractures that were described as \u201cstable compression fractures\u201d,<\/a> and a return to racing may not come until May.In an interview with Marca<\/a>, team manager Joxean Matx\u00edn mainly spoke about Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s flying form, but he was also asked about Narv\u00e1ez\u2019s status. The most recent medical update dates back to January, when team doctor Adrian Rotunno completed the initial report.<\/p>\n

\u201cNarv\u00e1ez was taken to hospital for a precautionary assessment of the spine and nervous system. He sustained multiple stable compression fractures in the thoracic vertebrae, which do not require surgery at this time,\u201d the team said after the fourth stage in Australia.<\/p>\n

Continue reading under videos<\/p>\n

Narv\u00e1ez targets Giro d\u2019Italia with UAE Team Emirates-XRG<\/p>\n

The damage was significant, but the ever-optimistic Matx\u00edn preferred to focus on what comes next. In the short term, however, it was not the most encouraging update: \u201cI think \u2014 within the limits of my optimism \u2014 he should be able to make the start of the Giro d\u2019Italia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giro begins on 8 May in Bulgaria, and Narv\u00e1ez is still on the provisional start list. UAE are planning to head to Bulgaria with Jay Vine, Adam Yates, Jo\u00e3o Almeida and Jan Christen, once again bringing a very strong core for the general classification.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"jhonatan-narvaez\"\/Can Narv\u00e1ez also make the Ardennes Classics alongside the Giro?<\/p>\n

Narv\u00e1ez is expected to help provide balance in the UAE line-up alongside Igor Arrieta, Antonio Morgado and Florian Vermeersch, but first he faces a long rehabilitation. \u201cIt was, and still is, a terrible situation in terms of the outlook. Jhonatan can\u2019t take part in the cobbled Classics, and that was the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the Giro d\u2019Italia will be Narv\u00e1ez\u2019s first race back remains to be seen. Matx\u00edn did express hope that the Ecuadorian might return earlier: \u201cLet\u2019s first focus on whether he can make the Giro \u2014 that would already be perfect. But maybe he\u2019ll also make the Ardennes Classics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez won\u2019t be back in the peloton any time soon after his hard crash in Australia in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,219358,197295,85,19805],"class_list":["post-481493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-jhonatan-narvaez","tag-joxean-fernandez-matxin","tag-sports","tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}