CYCLING: GIRO D'ITALIA: WOUTER WEYLANDT, the Belgian cyclist who died on Monday in a fatal accident in the Giro d'Italia, had complained that racing was becoming too "nervous and dangerous" for his liking shortly before his fatal accident, his agent has revealed.
Jef van den Bosch, who had raced in the same team as Weylandt before becoming his manager, told the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad: “It’s weird how things go. Yesterday he sent me a message. (He said) that he felt racing was becoming too dangerous, that the riders were racing in an incredibly nervous way and that it spooked him. Now it’s too late.”
There are persistent complaints about rider safety from within the peloton and the issue became more urgent earlier this season due to the dispute between the teams and the governing body, the UCI, over the use of two-way radios within races. As further details emerged of Weylandt’s accident it appeared that little could have been done that would have changed the outcome.
“Wouter was dropped and tried to come back to the group,” the Portuguese rider Manuel Cardoso said. “He (Weylandt) then looked behind to see if it would be better to wait for other dropped riders (about 20).
“While looking behind, he hit with his left pedal or the left side of his handlebars on a small wall and was catapulted to the other side of the road when he hit again something. It must have been terrible.”
As an autopsy was carried out on the Belgian’s body, it emerged that his death must have been instantaneous.
Yesterday Weylandt’s team-mates in the Leopard Trek squad bade an emotional farewell to him after the peloton had ridden in a brisk procession for the 216km stage down the Tuscan coast to Livorno.
It was, said the Team Sky rider Peter Kennaugh, who is in his first Giro, six hours’ riding which “gave you enough time to realise how lucky you are and how much to appreciate life”.
The eight Leopard Trek riders finished the stage a few yards in front of their colleagues, accompanied by the American sprinter Tyler Farrar, Weylandt’s training partner and best friend within the peloton, and a member of the Garmin-Cervelo team.
Some of them were in tears as they put their arms around each other, joining in a chain across the road as they pedalled over the finish line. One member of the crowd waved a sign saying “No 108 is present”, a reference to Weylandt’s race number.
The Leopard Trek team members are set to continue in the race when it proceeds to Orvieto today over several sections of the notorious unpaved strade bianche. Farrar, however, was understood to be leaving the race.
Fans have left flowers at the spot on the descent from Passo del Bocco where Weylandt had fallen, and the race organisers again cancelled the race ceremonials yesterday. The stage’s prize money is to be given to the 27-year-old’s family.
Guardian Service
