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Ineos Grenadiers have opened the door to Egan Bernal competing in this summer’s Tour de France, after the race’s former winner recorded his best result yet since his life-threatening accident two years ago.
Colombian Bernal finished third at the Volta a Catalunya on Sunday, the first time he has climbed onto the podium of a WorldTour race since he crashed into the back of a bus in January 2022 in his native Colombia. His accident left him with a number of broken bones, including a fractured right femur, and doctors originally said he had a 95% chance of dying or being paralysed.
Remarkably, Bernal returned to racing just eight months later, and completed both the Tour de France and Vuelta a España in 2023. At the start of this season, he has made an even greater step up in results, finishing in the top seven of the four stage races he has competed in.
No performance, however, has been as notable as his ride to second place on stage six of Catalunya, which pushed him up third overall, a position he maintained during the final stage in Barcelona. He finished five minutes and three seconds behind overall race winner Tadej Pogačar.
Asked if this is the best version of himself since the crash, the 2021 Giro d’Italia winner said: “It’s difficult to say but now we can say that some of my numbers are the same or better than before my crash, but they’re not sufficient enough to win. Every day, and every year, I am improving, and my power is getting stronger.”
Ineos Grenadiers sports director Zak Dempster said that Bernal’s performances in the first few months of the season are an indication that he can return to his previous levels. “This is a guy who has won the Tour and the Giro, and if you go back to the Egan of before, going for a podium in the Volta a Catalunya was a normal thing,” he said.
“But he had a serious accident. There was a lot of physio, rehab, and it’s complicated getting back to race at this level. To be producing a performance like this is encouraging. He’s getting better and better.
“To speak frankly, he deserves to be with the best in the sport. He’s got the talent, the work ethic, and he’s an example for all riders. We are further away from the accident every day, and now he’s in a place where he’s contending for a WorldTour podium. He deserves it and it’s where he should be.
“He can’t skip any steps and he’s gone about it all in a humble way. He is happy with where he is at, and he’s achieving his objective going into the race for a spot on the podium. But his ambition is a lot more than third in the Volta a Catalunya.”
Only three WorldTour riders have raced more in 2024 than Bernal, and his next race is expected to be the Tour de Romandie at the end of April. Is it now feasible that he can get back to winning top-tier events this season?
“In terms of putting a definitive goal on it, you hope everything is possible,” Dempster said. “I am quite sure he will get back to a very, very high level and be as competitive as he is today. He is getting better and we can start to become more ambitious I am sure.”
It was originally planned that Bernal’s only GrandTour this season would be the Vuelta, but the Tour has now emerged as a genuine possibility. “We have to sit down and take stock, to decide as a performance team what exactly is the best plan for him,” Dempster said.
“He is a critical guy for us so we need to have a good conversation about what is the best plan to have him competitive for us in the biggest races. So we’ll see after this race. Who knows [if he’ll go to the Tour]. We’ll have to see. Everything is possible.”
Bernal similarly refused to rule out competing in the Tour, telling the Spanish press that it “depends on how I am going. I’m approaching this season with motivation to continue to work. I can do good training and it’s allowing me to improve.”
