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Former Tour de France champion Egan Bernal has won his first race since his life-threatening crash in 2022.<\/b><\/p>\n
Bernal, 28, of the British Ineos Grenadiers team, won the national individual time-trial championships in his native Colombia, beating Walter Vargas by seven seconds and Ineos team-mate Brandon Smith Rivera by 29 seconds.<\/p>\n
Bernal was left fighting for this life following a training crash<\/a> on a time-trial bike near Colombia’s capital Bogota in January 2022. He needed spinal surgery and other procedures after he sustained back, leg, knee and chest injuries.<\/p>\n He said at the time, while recovering: “Having had a 95% chance of becoming a paraplegic and nearly losing my life doing what I love to do most, today I want to thank God.”<\/p>\n Bernal was travelling at speeds of more than 50km\/h when he collided with a stationary bus, in a year during which several riders suffered training accidents on time-trial bikes on public roads.<\/a><\/p>\n One of Ineos’ lead riders for general classification victories and a popular member of the pro-peloton, Bernal won the 2019 Tour de France at just 22, hinting at the beginning of another era of dominance by the seven-time winners formerly known as Team Sky.<\/p>\n However, having abandoned the Tour in 2020 with a back injury, Bernal’s only other Grand Tour victory to date was at the 2021 Giro d’Italia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n