The death of Swiss rider Gino Mäder on Friday morning, following a heavy fall the day before in the dizzying final descent of the 5th stage of the Tour de Suisse, sent shock waves through the cycling world. Within the race, the peloton observed a minute of silence at the start of the day’s stage, which was neutralized and ran in total silence for the last 30 kilometers, the riders forming a procession a few meters behind the six teammates of the Swiss. The latter crossed the line together, to the applause of the spectators.
Bahrain chief executive Milan Erzen paid tribute to “an extremely talented cyclist, but also a great person off the bike”. Other teams also expressed their sadness. “Overwhelming information and really difficult to conceive,” said Soudal Quick-Step. “Cycling is a big family, today we all mourn a special boy. Your smile will always remain in our hearts, ”said the organization of the Tour of Italy, where the climber had won a stage in 2021.
On the runners’ side, Primoz Roglic said he was “speechless” and Geraint Thomas spoke of “a sad day”. “Rest in peace, I will miss you,” Tadej Pogacar posted on Instagram. Julian Alaphilippe said he was “terribly shocked”, adding: “you were a warrior, a chic Gino type”. “We will always remember you,” reacted his compatriot Stefan Küng, winner of the first stage on Sunday.
Reviews
Voices were nevertheless raised to criticize the dangerousness of the final stage on Thursday, with this impressive descent of the Abulapass, in which following motorcycles were flashed at more than 100 km / h, after five hours of race and three passes over 2,000 meters to climb.
As of Thursday evening, the world champion Remco Evenepoel had deplored on Twitter the choice to complete this trying stage with such a route. “Since a finish at the top would have been perfectly possible, it was not a good decision to let (the runners) finish with this dangerous descent”, had written the Belgian.
“In the last 10 kilometers of a race, it’s looking for trouble”
The German Simon Geschke (Cofidis) had replied to him, in a message published before the announcement of Mäder’s death and since deleted: the descent to La Punt – a classic of the Tour de Suisse – “was not dangerous, with good roads, no tunnels, perfectly visible bends”. “But I agree that in the last 10 kilometers of a race, it’s looking for trouble. But it’s the runners who take risks, in my opinion, not only on the descents, ”he continued.
His fatal fall recalls those of Belgian Wouter Weylandt in 2011, in the descent of Passo del Bocco during the 3rd stage of the Giro, and by the Italian Fabio Casartelli in 1995, in the descent of Portet d’Aspet during the 15th stage of the Tour de France. The International Cycling Union announced new measures at the end of 2020 to secure the routes after the very serious fall of the Dutchman Fabio Jakobsen during the Tour of Poland a few months earlier, but they mainly concerned arrivals in the massive sprint.