Terrible news for Egan Bernal and for the world of cycling. The Colombian runner, after colliding with a bus, must undergo surgery. “Egan Bernal was taken to hospital following a training accident by team medical personnel and I was conscious on arrival. He is stable and in the process of further evaluation,” INEOS had reported, in a statement, as soon as the accident occurred. Hours later, the La Sabana Clinic, to which Bernal was transferred after the event, makes the worst diagnosis: “Cervical and thoracic trauma, closed chest trauma, musculoskeletal trauma and lower limb trauma”. “At the moment, he presents hemodynamic stability”, Add, according to AS Colombia.
Multiple trauma, as specified in the medical report itself, involves an operation in the next few hours. Although, at first, it did not seem that the injuries could reach a high level of severity, the pessimism had already grown with the advance of the afternoon. Xiomara Guerrero, former partner of the cyclist, did not deny, from the Colombian hospital before the microphones Blu Radio Colombia, a fractured patella and femur. “It is not something that is ruled out, but we cannot confirm it either”, declared when asked about this. “The team wants to make an official statement to give the correct information and not speculation”, he added. Finally, it has not been the exact diagnosis; but the bad news has been confirmed.
The accident, which took place this morning in a time trial training, occurred along the roads of the Cundinamarca region (Colombia), where the runner was finalizing his set-up for premiere the season in the Tour de la Provence (France), which will be held from February 10 to 13. “Vehicles were traveling in the Tunja – Bogotá direction, when a bus-type vehicle stopped to drop off a passenger and the driver of the bicycle-type vehicle, who was traveling in the same direction and in the same lane, did not observe the maneuver made by the bus-type vehicle colliding on the side of behind it”, describes the report of the authorities. Despite training accompanied, the winner of the Tour and Giro has been the only INEOS cyclist who has been injured. Richard Carapaz, Daniel Martinez, Brandon Rivera, Andrey Amador and the Spaniards Omar Fraile and Carlos Rodríguez, which were part of the group, have not been involved in the collision.
Neighbors and colleagues from INEOS assist Bernal after the impact.
In the available images, shared through social networks by residents of the area, the magnitude of the impact can be seen, with a part of the bus visibly dented. The very people close to the scene of the events, who have immediately helped the cyclist, confirmed this. In addition, it was not the first scare they witnessed. This week, the same training group was surprised by a car that, in the attempt to overtake in a curve, almost causes an accident.
The development of the operation and the recovery time required, then, will dictate Bernal’s next steps. As anticipated, the first date noted in his diary was in the month of February, but there was more. The Colombian broker, who extended his contract with INEOS until 2026 this month, also planned to participate in the UAE Tour (February 20 to 26), giving rise to the first main course of the campaign: his generational duel with Tadej Pogacar. As for grand tours, the Colombian had only announced his presence in the Tour. Now, his calendar, as well as the team’s planning, will be substantially altered.
