A catastrophic accident during the Tour de Suisse claims the life of Swiss professional rider Gino Mäder. Participants in the race have complained about the layout of the track.
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| GINO MÄDER |
After a catastrophic crash during the Tour de Suisse, professional rider Gino Mäder tragically passed away. The rider went down on Thursday's fifth stage descent from Fiesch to La Punt, just before the finish, and had to be revived. He passed away at 11.30 a.m. on Friday at the Chur hospital, his team Bahrain Victorious reports. Maeder's age at that time was 26.
Our death of Gino Mäder, an amazing driver, has left us saddened. Team manager Milan Erzen said, "Not only was he an extremely talented rider, but he was also a great person off the bike. His talent, dedication, and enthusiasm were an inspiration for all of us." On Friday, organisers postponed the beginning of Stage 6, which would have taken the riders from La Punt to Oberwil-Lieli. The show was eventually discontinued. The last 30 km of the stage will be dedicated to a memorial ride in honour of Gino Mäder, the organisers announced.
The squad led by Mäder withdrew from the warm-up tour for July's Tour de France. The UCI, the international cycling federation, joined the chorus of mourners, saying, "Our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and everyone who had anything to do with Gino." An up-and-coming talent on the elite cycling circuit, he. Following his junior year triumphs on the track, it seemed like Mäder would develop into a formidable all-around rider. Both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de Suisse would crown him a stage winner that year. In the Tour of Spain, he came in at number five.
On Friday, the cause of the devastating collision was still unknown. The accident photos depict a steep hill with a stone-lined creek. According to the tour company, it only took the racing doctor two minutes to reach the site of the mishap. After being pulled from the water and given CPR, Gino Mäder was airlifted to the hospital. The Ineos Grenadiers' Magnus Sheffield eventually joined him on the ground. The American, the organiser claims, just sustained a concussion and some bruising.
Late on Thursday night, following the race, a heated discussion on safety erupted. Drivers, notably world champion Remco Evenepoel, were critical of the course design: It would have been no trouble at all to end on a mountain. The 23-year-old said on Instagram, "It wasn't a good decision to let us ski down that dangerous descent."
The president of the organisation that is intended to speak for professional cyclists before the international federation, Adam Hansen, was also quite harsh. "This type of finish was a concern for the drivers," Hansen tweeted on Thursday. He's addressed it this year, too, in a piece about a survey photo he shared online. He supposedly spoke with several top-level bikers.
Because of this, "no driver wants a dangerous descent just before the finish, but at least a three-kilometer flat section before it." According to the report, 171 experts took part in the poll. It wasn't apparent who voted there or how the people who did were chosen. His plan is to propose a set of regulations to the UCI and the event planners so that they can better comprehend the abilities of the competitors. Hansen, who removed the tweet on Friday, said that his goal had been to tighten security.
German racing team Bora-hansgrohe's sports director Rolf Aldag requested a round table debate on safety after the collision, but before the news of Mäder's death. One must "calmly reflect: What makes sense? Why do we care? What are our next steps? It's mandatory that all players, coaches, and team officials eat together. Aldag told the sports news agency, "We should take our time, fast, tabloid headlines haven't helped anyone." The 54-year-old subsequently dismissed the drivers' complaints about the track and urged caution, saying, "It's normal for anybody engaged in an accident like this to feel a range of emotions. Aldag said that responding to the initial shock was counterproductive, saying, "It damages the credibility of our sport."