Egan Bernal was told after his 2022 training crash that he had a 95% chance of ending up paraplegic. More than four years later, the 2019 Tour de France winner intends to be back racing in 2027.

Bernal addressed his future on Instagram on 8 October, after reports from journalist Daniel Benson suggested he was weighing retirement at the end of the season.

“First of all, I have a contract with the team through 2029 and, for now, my intention is to start next season,” Bernal wrote.

The 29-year-old had cut his 2026 campaign short after a Tour de France in which he could not match the leaders, finishing 20th in Paris. The decision followed a season that peaked in the spring, with second place at the Tour of the Alps and fifth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, before a tenth-place finish at the Giro d’Italia.

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Netcompany-Ineos still see a Tour winner

Dario Cioni, who oversees performance and academy programmes at Netcompany-Ineos, told Domestique Cycling that Bernal’s early finish to the year was a reset rather than a retreat. Cioni said Bernal had already joined the squad’s October gathering in Copenhagen as the team began laying out its 2027 calendar.

“He’ll be back as normal for 2027,” Cioni said.

The British squad, rebranded Netcompany-Ineos from the 2026 Giro d’Italia under a co-title deal with the Danish technology group, has not won the Tour de France since Bernal’s victory in 2019. Dave Brailsford, back in a front-facing role as team principal, has made a return to the top of the race the long-term project, and Bernal, still under contract until the end of 2029, remains central to how the team plans to get there.

The accident that nearly ended everything

On 24 January 2022, Bernal rode into the back of a stationary bus at roughly 60km/h while out on a time-trial training ride in Gachancipá, in his native Colombia. The impact left him with fractured vertebrae in the thoracic spine, a broken right femur and kneecap, several broken ribs, chest trauma and a punctured lung. Surgeons later operated on the cervical section of his spine, and separately on his hand and mouth.

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In the days after the crash, Bernal said doctors had given him a 95% chance of ending up a paraplegic. He was back racing by August the same year.

The route since has not been linear. Flashes of the former grand tour winner have mixed with long stretches where the Colombian has looked a step off the leaders. His own words on Instagram suggested he is clear-eyed about where that leaves him.

“It’s not just about continuing for the sake of it, but about having the motivation, the physical and mental strength,” Bernal wrote.

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