Cycling fans keep asking themselves: ‘What is Egan Bernal made of?’ The Colombian cyclist, still the current champion of the Giro d’Italia, has surprised his own and others with his amazing recovery after the serious traffic accident he suffered on January 24, on the roads of Cundinamarca.
104 days after the crash with a bus that was stopped on the road to Gachancipa, Bernal has just given what is one of the strongest tests in his process: stand on pedals.
As can be seen in a video shared by his partner, María Fernanda Motas, Egan Bernal is training with his team, the British squad Ineos, on the Italian tracks while the 2022 Giro is taking place.
In the footage in question, Egan is seen standing on pedals. An image that had not been seen since the accident. In fact, given the unpublished of the moment, Motas herself wrote:
“The cutest thing we’ll see today… Egan Arley standing on pedals for the first time.”
(Don’t stop reading: Luis Díaz: harsh criticism of Salah for ‘denying’ him this ‘pasegol’ in Liverpool).
Egan Bernal, this Sunday.
When will Egan compete again?What the doctors say
At the end of April, doctor Gustavo Uriza, the spinal surgeon and the one who treated him from the moment of the accident when he crashed into a bus that was stopped next to the Bogotá-Tunja highway, revealed in an academic event the progress in the recovery of the cyclist and even dared to give a date for his return to competition.
“A first for us. We did control scans of Egan’s spine. I want to tell you that the odontoid fracture is completely consolidated and how it was done with a transodontoid screw, then there is no involvement of the craniocervical junction; that is, it is healed from the fracture”, the doctor said in a virtual conference of the National Academy of Medicine.
And he added: “Of the dislocation T5 T6, the CT shows consolidation of the fracture, bone callus in front where it was dislocated, I put a box to give it space between the two vertebrae. There he has a big bone callus. And the joints of the vertebrae above and below the fracture are preserved, function well, and all the rib fractures, the costal ones, are healed with bone callus”.
The doctor, who explained step by step from when he was informed about the cyclist’s accident by the staff of the University Clinic of La Sabana, pointed out that from day 120 of the accident (May 24) he can return to racing.
“I think Egan can torque, step up on the pedals and start racing fit. His coaches in Europe must already give the go-ahead, but from me the news is that ”commented the doctor at that time.
(Besides: Sebastián Montoya: the impressive accident that took him out of the Imola GP).
What the Ineos says
After Uriza’s statements, EL TIEMPO contacted Darío Cioni, one of the members of the technical staff of the Ineos group, who confirmed that he has no confirmation of the Colombian’s possible return to the roads. “Technically we are not aware that Egan Bernal is going to compete at the end of May,” said the DT.
Cioni has not yet commented on the video of Egan on pedals.
What Egan Bernal wants
The cyclist, for his part, knows that he must go step by step, without doing crazy things. When asked about how he would see himself in a year, at the event with Uriza, he was clear in saying that his fitness is unpredictable and that what he imagines is running a big one: “Yes, I see myself running, at least one of the three great ones (Giro d’Italia, Tour de France or Vuelta a España). Sure, I look totally recovered and I hope I don’t have pain. It’s complicated, because you have to work hard to strengthen your body,” he said.
Egan noted that the ideal would be to return to being a competitive cyclist, but what his future performance will be is unpredictable: “I don’t know if I’m going to get back to the level I was before to be able to win one of those big races. At least, I think and I want to try to be a gregarious, help and be able to be at that level “counted.
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