Bernal wins first race since 2022 horror crash

Egan Bernal, a former Tour de France champion, has won his first race since 2022 when he suffered a fatal crash.

Bernal, 28, of the British Ineos Grenadiers team, won the national individual time-trial championships in his native Colombia, beating Walter Vargas by seven seconds and Ineos team-mate Brandon Smith Rivera by 29 seconds.

Following a training accident on a time-trial bike near Bogota, Colombia’s capital, in January 2022, Bernal was forced to fight for his life. After suffering back, leg, knee, and chest injuries, he required spinal surgery and other procedures.

He said at the time, while recovering: “Having had a 95% chance of becoming a paraplegic and nearly losing my life doing what I love to do most, today I want to thank God”.

In a year in which several riders experienced training accidents on time-trial bikes on public roads, Bernal collided with a stationary bus at speeds of more than 50 km/h.

At just 22, Bernal, one of the Ineos’ top riders for overall classification victories, won the 2019 Tour de France, indicating that the seven-time champions, who were formerly known as Team Sky, were on their way to a new era of dominance.