Three years and a little over eight months after his last win, and more significantly, three years and two weeks after the training crash that threatened not just his career but his life, Egan Bernal is back on top as the double national champion of Colombia.
He got started in Thursday’s ITT contest where he set the fastest time over 42.2 km to snag a long-awaited 20th pro victory, then backed it up in Sunday’s 237-kilometre road race on a hilly Bucaramanga circuit in the foothills of the Andes which tower just beyond the city, itself at 960 metres elevation. Bernal first won the elite TT national title at his debut appearance in 2018, then landed third in the following two seasons; he’s finished twice on the podium in the road race, but it’s the Bogotá native’s first road title.
The Colombian National Championships are always a huge event and the nation’s riders seem to afford them particular significance, the like of which is maybe only matched in Belgium and France. So while we’re not talking a Grand Tour Queen Stage, these results cannot be sniffed at, especially for the now-28-year-old who has waited a very long time to return to the top step of the podium.
“1347 days and a lot has happened since my last win, today national TT champion,” Bernal wrote on Instagram. “I thought about retiring several times but one day I promised that if I won again, the first one would be dedicated to God for giving me a second chance at life.”
That last win at the 2021 Giro d’Italia – with two stage wins along the way (and the best young rider classification) – marked something of a comeback itself coming almost nine months after his attempt to defend a history-making 2019 Tour de France title evaporated through injury.
His subsequent Vuelta a España debut later in 2021 could not reach the heights of the Italian Grand Tour, but sixth overall made it an enviable season for the still very young Colombian who seemed destined for a number of years at the front of the pack.
But disaster struck the next January with an incident that rocked the cycling world. While training on his time trial bike with a few teammates in Colombia, Bernal crashed into the back of a stationary bus and suffered a staggering list of injuries, including several fractures to his vertebrae, femur, patella and ribs, and a punctured lung; early on, doctors even warned that there was a 95% chance the young man would be left paralysed if he was able to survive his injuries.
It was the 24th January 2022, twelve days after his 25th birthday.
That he was able to return to the peloton at all that season is remarkable, even though the 12 race days logged in 2022, starting at the second-tier Tour of Denmark and finishing with two late season Italian one-days, were aimed more at re-acclimatisation than racing. His race programme returned to familiar territory in 2023, and though he was unable to challenge at either the Tour or Vuelta, Bernal showed promising signs on the Tour de Romandie’s Queen Stage, and he continued to trend in the right direction in 2024. While his co-leadership at the Tour was derailed by illness, notable individual results included seventh at Paris-Nice, third at the Volta a Catalunya and fourth at the Tour de Suisse.
But still no victory.
And all the while, he was missing out on the Grand Tour conversation that had moved on to Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, and then Remco Evenepoel.
While trying to avoid falling into the trap of ‘what ifs’, Bernal’s absence from the GC battles in recent seasons has been a thorn in the sport’s side, though the fact he’s still racing at all has been something to celebrate in itself – indicative of the young man's indefatigable spirit and drive, and perhaps even the bloody-minded stubbornness demanded of professional athletes.
Now with double victory at his home nationals, the big question mark over Bernal's potential has shrunk to its smallest since January 2022, meaning that his arrival in Europe will be more eagerly anticipated than it has been in many years.
Though there have been no official announcements yet, Gazzetta dello Sport's Ciro Scognamiglio reported that Bernal can be expected at the Clásica Jaén on 17th February, then the Ruta del Sol, before heading to Italy and the first WorldTour events of his season at Strade Bianche (3rd at his only prior appearance in 2021) and Tirreno-Adriatico, with the Giro d'Italia rumoured to be a goal for the first time since 2021.
Those first races should hopefully confirm a return, or improvement, on past form, and the closing of a circle that looked for a long time like it might morph into a different shape entirely.
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