Swiss rider Gino Mäder, 26, succumbed to his injuries on Friday morning after suffering a heavy fall on Thursday in the vertiginous final descent of the 5e stage of the Tour of Switzerland.
“Despite the efforts of the phenomenal team at Chur Hospital”, where he had been transported on Thursday after being resuscitated, the climber “was unable to meet his last and greatest challenge and at 11:30 a.m. we had to say goodbye to one of the lights of our team, ”wrote the Bahrain-Victorious formation in a press release.
Gino Mäder, then 27e of the general classification, had fallen on Thursday afternoon at km 197 of the queen stage of the Swiss event, between Fiesch and La Punt, in the descent of the Albula pass, after an exhausting day marked by three ascents to the -above 2000 m of altitude and 4710 m of elevation gain.
He had been found “inert in the water” of a ravine below the road, “immediately resuscitated then transported to Chur hospital by air”, had indicated the organizers, specifying that “the seriousness of his injuries had not yet been established”.
Best youngster in the Vuelta
But the next day, “Gino lost his fight to recover from the serious injuries he had suffered,” explained the Bahrain-Victorious. “Our entire team is devastated by this tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with Gino’s family and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.”
The race was “neutralized” on Friday before the start of the 6e stage between Chur and Oberwil-Lieli. “The peloton will start the last 30 kilometers” and will form “a procession in tribute” to the runner, announced the organization of the event.
“His talent, dedication and enthusiasm were an inspiration to us all. He was not only an extremely talented cyclist, but also a great person off the bike,” Bahrain chief executive Milan Erzen said.
The climber, winner of a stage of the Tour of Italy in 2021, was one of the main Swiss hopes in the stage races, and was classified 5e and best young rider of the Tour of Spain 2021.
The descent from Albula also saw the American Magnus Sheffield (Ineos-Grenadiers) fall in the same place, who remained conscious but hospitalized with “bruises and a concussion”, according to the organization.
Behind the stage winner who arrived alone, the Spaniard Juan Ayuso, the following motorcycle had been flashed at more than 100 km / h, according to the official direct from the Tour de Suisse.
Furious Evenepoel
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.
The German Simon Geschke (Covidis) had replied to him, before the announcement of Mäder’s death, that 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.
The fatal fall of Gino Mäder recalls those of the Belgian Wouter Weylandt in 2011, in the descent of the Passo del Bocco, 25 km from the finish of the 3e stage of the Giro, and the Italian Fabio Casartelli in 1995, in the descent of the Portet d’Aspet during the 15e 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.