Jonny Bellis targets National Championships for return to racing

Team Saxo Bank rider Jonny Bellis is set to return to racing at the British National Championships in June, nine months after the life-threatening scooter accident in Italy last year that left the up-and-coming star in an induced coma.

According to a report on the website of the Danish newspaper Politiken, team owner Bjarne Riis said that Bellis had undergone hospital tests back in Britain that had proved satisfactory, adding that “he will be able to compete again within a few months.”

Riis confirmed that Bellis is now training for several hours each day, without pushing himself too hard, and said it was “fantastic” to see how far he had come in his rehabilitation, given the fact that the crash, which happened when he was returning to his home in Tuscany after an evening at Mark Cavendish’s house, had almost claimed his life.

Now, the plan is for Bellis to step up his training, with Riis saying: “Unless there is something wrong, which absolutely does not seem to be the case in the reports I have received, he will soon be able to intensify training under Bradley McGee's leadership. As things stand right now, the plan is that he will make his comeback in the National Championships in late June.

Riis concluded: “Then will he be ready to slot into the team in line with the plans we have started to draw up.”