FILE PHOTO: Former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal poses for a photo with the medical team of the Clinica Universidad de la Sabana, after discharging him following several operations to which he was subjected after suffering an accident while training on Colombian roads, in Chia, Colombia February 6, 2022. Courtesy of Sabana University Clinic/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Colombian cyclist Egan Bernal posted a video on social media on Thursday of what he said were his first steps less than three weeks after injuring his spine, legs and chest in a training accident that left him needing neurosurgery.
Bernal, who became the first South American to win the Tour de France in 2019 and added the Giro d’Italia to his list of achievements last year, crashed on Jan. 24 near Colombia’s capital Bogota.
The 25-year-old said he had a 95% chance of becoming a paraplegic following the accident. He left the hospital last week.
SORPRESA!!
Mis primeros pasos 😍#FuerzaEgan pic.twitter.com/0a9DzTtfWy— Egan Arley Bernal (@Eganbernal) February 10, 2022
“Surprise!! My first steps,” Bernal said in the post on Twitter, which accompanied a video of himself wearing a spine and neck brace as he opens a door and walks through it into the sunshine, gesturing that he is okay to the camera.
Bernal was the youngest rider to win the Tour in more than a century and recently extended his contract with the Ineos Grenadiers team to 2026.