Colombian Egan Bernal, winner of the 2019 Tour de France, will return to racing on Tuesday at the start of the Tour of Denmark, almost seven months after his serious accident in training, his Ineos team announced on Monday.
“
After a final evaluation over the weekend, the INEOS Grenadiers medical team authorized the Colombian to resume competition
,” said a press release from the British team.
The 25-year-old climber, also winner of the Giro 2021, had hit a training bus head-on on January 24 in Colombia.
Operated several times for a multitude of fractures (femur, patella, vertebrae), he said he had "
had a 95% chance of being paraplegic and almost lost his life
".
"
After what happened to me in January, this is the moment I've been waiting for - to run again with my teammates
", comments the Andean runner quoted in the press release.
"
I can't stress enough how tough the past eight months have been for me, both physically and mentally.
That day and my journey since will be part of me forever, it's something you never forget
, ”says the first Colombian winner of the Great Loop.
Between the end of the season and his long recovery, Egan Bernal had not pinned a bib for almost a year and the arrival of Vuelta, finished in sixth place.
Without his terrible accident, he would have had to return to the Tour de France this year after a dead end in 2021 to focus on the Giro and regain confidence after a 2020 Big Loop left by the back door: a retirement three days after a big failure in the Grand Colombier.
The challenge is immense for Bernal: Christopher Froome never regained the level that had allowed him to win four Tours, after a violent fall with similar consequences (fractures of a femur, an elbow, a hip, of a vertebra) during a time trial reconnaissance at Dauphiné 2019.
Froome was ten years older than the Colombian at the time of his fall.
Still, the five stages of the rather flat Tour of Denmark, from Tuesday to Sunday, will only be a first stage for Egan Bernal.
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