Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal says many thought his horror crash would cost him his life.
The 2019 Tour de France winner opened up on his return to competition after an accident left him with life-threatening injuries. Three years after his biggest career achievement to date, Bernal suffered 20 different fractures – including in his spine, femur and kneecap when he crashed into the back of a parked bus in Colombia’s capital city of Bogota.
The cycling star was then rushed into intensive care, before undergoing multiple operations at Clinica Universidad de La Sabana. After previously revealing he was faced with a 95% chance of being paralysed and almost dying, Bernal made a miraculous recovery.
He made a remarkable return to competition at the Tour of Denmark last August and at the ongoing Vuelta a San Juan event where the Ineos Grenadiers star commences his season, Bernal admitted bike racing was a long way from his thoughts after the crash. “I think today is exactly one year ago [since the crash], but to tell you the truth when I came out of surgery it was really the last thing on my mind,” he said, as reported by Eurosport.
“I spent many hours in the operating theatre. I was even told that some people thought I was dead, and there was also a good chance that I would be in a wheelchair, so I really didn't think I would be able to get back on a bike. The only thing I thought about was just living and being with my family.”
It was not a case of simply waiting for the injuries to heal. Bernal had to go through painstaking rehab to relearn basic motor skills. “The first days you have to learn to walk again, it's super complicated,” he said.
“To be able to eat, just to wash my mouth, to be able to shower. Those were the first things I had to learn. And just to do that, it took me two months. So imagine if just to walk, to wash your mouth, it takes you two months, then how long it's going to take me to get back to a competitive level in a peloton.
"It was hours of work. But I had the support of my family, of the whole team and it was a big team effort.”
After his miraculous recovery, Bernal, who last won a Grand tour in 2021, has dreams of competing in this year’s Tour de France.
“After the 2019 Tour de France I was obsessed with the Tour. If I didn’t win the Tour it would be the end of the world and the reality is not like this, he said.
“I would like to be at the Tour in a good level and give the best from myself and see how far I can go. I would like to do it well and that's the reason why I wake up every morning.”
