After a fall and a horrible injury
Bernal is fighting hard to return to the top of the world
7/12/2023 5:38 am
After a terrible accident, Egan Bernal feared for his career – now he’s back in the Tour de France. Will the 2019 winner make it back to the top of the world? No rider has risen to become a Tour winner after suffering such a serious injury since World War II.
If Egan Bernal struggles over the mighty French mountains these days, he is certainly not the winner of previous years – but the Colombian has already achieved his greatest success. “I should be grateful that I’m still alive and sitting in the saddle at the Tour de France,” says Bernal, and his ex-rival Emanuel Buchmann is also happy: “It’s a miracle that he’s back at this level .”
In 2019, the two climbing specialists fought a big fight in the French Alps. While Buchmann finished fourth, Bernal clinched his first tour win at the age of 22 years and 196 days. The cycling world was at his feet, the future was bright – but at the beginning of 2022, Bernal’s career suddenly took a terrible hit.
Bernal enjoys returning to the tour
The pictures from that time still make the viewer shudder today: Here is a badly battered Colombian omnibus that Bernal crashed into unchecked during a training drive; there a bandaged Bernal, largely unable to move in the hospital. The 2021 Giro winner suffered numerous broken bones and spinal injuries and spent several days in intensive care.
For a short time there was even the danger of permanent paralysis, but Bernal fought his way back to life and a year and a half later he was back on the biggest stage in cycling. “This race helps me a lot. This is the tour, there is nothing better to take another step in my recovery,” says the Ineos Grenadiers professional, who presented himself at least properly in the first week.
Bernal is driven by unrestrained ambition
In the overall ranking, Bernal, who is in demand as a helper in his team this year, is already more than half an hour behind – of course the ambitious man from Bogota wants more in the medium term: “I wake up every day and think about getting back to my best level reach and compete with the big names,” says Bernal. “Step by step” it should now go further up. “If I didn’t have this ambition, I wouldn’t continue.”
But how realistic is this goal? At least since the Second World War, no rider has managed to become a Tour winner after suffering comparably serious injuries. And even a well-known precedent gives little hope. Chris Froome also had a serious accident in 2019 during a training drive when he crashed into a house wall at top speed. The four-time Tour winner also broke numerous bones – and since then has only been a shadow of earlier days.
Bernal, at 26 years younger than Froome (38), will still do everything to return to the top of the world. And he’s not the only one who believes it can work. “Why not? If he’s made it this far and stays healthy now, he can get back to his old level,” says Bernal fan Buchmann. It would be a second cycling miracle.