Merhawi Kudus returns to racing after four months out injured
Eritrean racing Tour of Slovenia after crashing out of GP de la Marseillaise in February
Merhawi Kudus will make a comeback to racing at the Tour of Slovenia after recovering from a serious crash at the GP de la Marseillaise in February.
The injuries from that crash left Kudus on the sidelines for four months, just weeks after joining his new team for this season, Burgos-Burpellet-BH.
A team statement at the time said that Kudus had suffered “several fractures at the level of the costal arches, lumbar vertebrae and sacrum, as well as a pulmonary contusion with hemo-pneumothorax.”
Read more: 'I never gave up' - Merhawi Kudus on bouncing back to the pro ranks after a year in Asia
Kudus was rushed to hospital and spent time in intensive care in Marseille. A few days after the race, he was moved to the Hospital Recoletas in Burgos to be looked after by team doctors, before heading home to Eritrea to continue his recovery. He was back on the bike in March and began a steady build-up back to fitness.
In a message on Twitter, Kudus said: “It's been a challenging 4 months since my massive crash in February, thrilled to announce I'm back racing. Ready to give it my all with BurgosBH boys.”
Kudus joined the Spanish team after a year with the Malaysian Terengganu continental team, who he signed for after being let go by EF Education First-EasyPost at the end of the 2023 season. He admitted to Global Peloton that he came very close to retirement, but was pleased to be rescued.
He had a successful year racing across the Asia Tour in 2024, coming second in the Tours of Türkiye, Japan and Kumano and was snapped up by Burgos on a two year contract.
"I never gave up,” he said. “I was working very hard. I was thinking I can come back. I was working very, very hard to be back, especially to WorldTour. In the end, we try different WorldTour [teams], but unfortunately I could not get it. Once I get the opportunity from Burgos, I don't want to lose and have the same situation [as 2023], so I signed quite early in August already."
Kudus started this season brightly with 7th place at Clássica Camp de Morvedre and had five race days before his crash. He is now hoping to prove himself worthy of a spot in the team’s Vuelta a España squad in just over two months.
A big ambition for the team this season is to secure themselves a top-30 placing in the UCI team rankings, which would allow them to be eligible to race a Grand Tour next year.
The team’s lead DS, Damien Garcia, spoke to Global Peloton earlier in the year: “It's one of the goals of the season to be in the top-30 to do the Grand Tours in the future, next year. And for sure, we build the team looking for the points. We try to have a good balance between young riders and guys a bit more experienced to get the points during the season.”
Burgos-Burpellet-BH currently sit 29th in the rankings, just 232 points ahead of the team in 31st.
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