Egan Bernal has recovered from a knee injury and is now focused on the Tour of Catalonia and on the dream of competing in the Tour de France again, a competition in which he has not appeared since 2020.
By: Hernán Galindo M.
Photo: Futbolred
Egan Bernal is back on European roads after overcoming the physical problems left by the accident he suffered in January 2022 in Tocancipá, Cundinamarca.
Actually, he tried to compete again in the Old Continent at the end of last year, when he participated in the Tour of Denmark, but on that occasion he could not finish the race. Now, with more recovery time on him, he is competing in the Tour of Catalonia, a competition that serves as preparation for his great goal of the year: to participate in a Tour de France after almost three years.
“I would like to go to the Tour, it is the most important race in the world and it is a goal that I have had since the beginning of the year,” the Cundinamarqués told the EFE agency in the presentation of the teams that participate in the Tour of Catalonia
However, Bernal said that his participation in the Grande Boucle will depend on whether or not he is physically fit by July 1, which is the date the race starts. “Time will tell if I am ready. If I’m not well it’s better not to go. The greatest wish he has is that things be given to him. Participate, even if it’s not to win,” Bernal said.
The last time Egan rode in the Tour de France (which he won in 2019), it was in the 2020 edition. That time he led the overall for several stages. He was in a head-to-head with Tadej Pogacar to win the most difficult cycling race in the world, until his back played a trick on the Colombian and he had to retire. The Slovenian kept the title.
In 2021 Egan did not want to participate in the Tour. He focused all his efforts during the season on preparing to participate in the Giro d’Italia. In the end he dressed in pink: he won the race and became one of the few cyclists in history to have managed to win the two biggest laps in cycling.
Bernal had already decided that in 2022 he would participate in the Tour, but the head-on crash, at 60 kilometers per hour, against a bus that he suffered while training in January of that year sidelined him from competing, and almost took his life. After more than six months of recovery, he returned to compete. He hasn’t gone back to being the brilliant pedal player that charmed the world, but he wants to be again.
Now, in the Tour of Catalonia, he is running his second race of the year (the previous one was the Tour of San Juan, where he injured his knee). Egan Bernal is trying to gain pace to be among the elite of international cycling again, and why not, win a second Tour de France.