Egan Bernal looks back on life-threatening crash's anniversary: "Everything’s in its right place"

On the 24th of January 2022 Egan Bernal's career and life were turned on it's head. One year later, the Colombian is back to racing and showing off just how much progress he has had throughout the last 12 months.

“This stage itself isn’t one for me, but the day is one of reflection, you could put it that way. I’m happy to be here in this position a year after the crash, and I’m enjoying this race, it’s important for me," Bernal told Cyclingnews. He finished 13th on stage 3's explosive finale, the first of the riders who can be considered the major GC contenders.

A good sign, following a winter which he has termed to be good, with form similar to that of 2019 and 2021 where he's won Grand Tours. After returning to the peloton in August to complete a miraculous comeback, pieces have started falling to place even further for the INEOS Grenadiers rider.

“When I won the Tour, I was only 22 years old and now I’m 26, so in any case, something would have changed,” Bernal said. “But for anybody who wins the Tour, it’s not easy to stay calm and manage everything. Still, like I said, four years have passed, four years with lots of changes, and now I’m starting to have a bit more experience, so it’s easier to manage these things.”

On that day Bernal was training with several teammates on his time-trial bike when he collided with a stationed bus which he hadn't seen, at 60Km/h. Bernal suffered fractured vertebrae, right femur, right patella, chest trauma, a punctured lung and several fractured ribs, accounting almost two dozen broken bones.

He had been given a 95% chance of dying or becoming paraplegic by medical teams at first. However after several weeks in intensive care he slowly began to regain his functions, and step-after-step has succeeded in what is one of sport's most incredible recoveries. Returning to professional racing is a colossal achievement on it's own, but Bernal aims to return to the level he had previous to the crash, and fight for the Tour de France this year.

His campaign started close to home in Argentina with the Vuelta a San Juan. Here Bernal will have a mountain stage where he will have the likes of Remco Evenepoel and teammate Daniel Martínez to test himself against, and will hope for perform within the best.

“On these flat stages, we’re trying to work in the finale for Elia [Viviani], to bring him to the front, and then get to the finish in the group. Up to now, on the flat, everything’s in its right place. The first stages have been good, they’ve been normal," he concluded.