Ineos Grenadier cyclist Egan Bernal has been taken to hospital after crashing into a bus on a training ride with his teammates.
Bernal, who had been out on a training ride with his Ineos Grenadier teammates in Bogotá, Colombia, crashed into a back of a bus and was rushed to hospital. His team released a statement saying that he was stable and was accompanied by his team doctors to the hospital. He was concious on arrival.
Later, the hospital released it’s own statement:
“The Clinica Universidad de La Sabana can publicly inform that Egan Bernal was admitted to the emergency unit this morning via an ambulance.
At that moment, he was examined across the board by specialists. In light of the findings, he must undergo surgery in the coming hours due to multiple injuries: vertebral and thoracic trauma, blunt trauma of the thorax, musculoskeletal trauma, and trauma to the lower limbs. For the moment he is haemodynamically stable. We hope for the best in his clinical outcome.”
Reports say that the Egan Bernal crash happened after the cyclist rode into the back of a bus which was parked on the side of the road. An Ineos Grenadiers spokesperson confirmed that Bernal had not seen the bus, which appeared to be parked halfway into the lane.
Social media pictures showed Bernal on his back behind a visibly dented backend of the parked bus.
A statement from the Colombian transport department seemed to confirm the same.
“Today, Ineos were training with our athlete Egan Bernal, and they came across a bus parked on the verge on the right-hand side. Unfortunately, our cyclist did not see it and collided with it”
Egan was due to start racing in a few weeks with his first event being the Tour de la Provence on the 10th of February. He was also slated to lead the Ineos Grenadiers in their GC ambitions at the Tour De France, having been the first Colombian to win it in 2019. However, that is looking increasingly unlikely given the severity of the injuries described in the hospital statement.
Here’s hoping Bernal can make a better recovery than Froomy who struggled to get back to his peak form after his horrific crash on a practice ride during the Dauphine.
