A sad day for professional Cycling :(

Grimley · 9 May 2011 at 19:36

I normally follow the Tour de France, but there was nothing else on the telly & I wanted to know how mark Cavendish was getting on in the Giro 'd Italia, I saw this crash this afternoon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cycling/13333589.stm

Poor bloke.
He was lying on the ground, blood pouring from his head. I knew immediately he had a serious injury - didn't think he going to die as a result though, even with a proper cyclists crash helmet on.

RIP Mate. No professional Cyclist deserves to die like this.

semi-pro waster · 9 May 2011 at 19:41

Poor chap, sounds like a tremendously unlucky instance as it's thankfully not common for even high speed crashes to be fatal.

touch · 9 May 2011 at 21:16

I saw this live on eurosport as well. Can't blame the director, as it was live tv, but there was some fairly graphic footage that i would rather not have seen

RIP Wouter

Edinho · 9 May 2011 at 23:00

I just hope that they don't start calling for stupid safety measures. It is dangerous and it was an accident. To start banning fast technical decents would kill the big tours.

petriodet · 9 May 2011 at 23:16

that is so sad only 26 and a pregnant girlfriend.
what actually happened ? did something on his bike fail or was it human error?

Kanifee · 9 May 2011 at 23:32

Wow, what sort of speed was he doing, was there something unusual about the tumble or the way he hit the floor? a fracture to the front of the skull while wearing a certified and no doubt expensive helmet from a cycle crash seems very unusual.

R.I.P, no one deserves to go doing there passion.

jamesblade · 9 May 2011 at 23:44

Kanifee said:
R.I.P, no one deserves to go doing there passion.

RIP for sure but i reckon a lot of people would rather die doing something they are passionate about ?

Jonny ///M · 10 May 2011 at 00:08

A sad day indeed, feel for his girlfriend and the baby now though

It's a shame but it's part of the sport and I hear about it quite often due to my job. Shouldn't let it put people off either.

R.I.P

[DOD]Asprilla · 10 May 2011 at 10:20

Kanifee said:
a fracture to the front of the skull while wearing a certified and no doubt expensive helmet from a cycle crash seems very unusual.

Not really. Helmets certified to US, UK and Euro standards are essentially designed to protect you when falling from a stationary bicycle. If you want protection from falling at speed or a vehicle impact then you want something more akin to a motorcycle helmet.

If you are doing 60, 70 or 80kph then a cycle helmet isn't going to help much.

It's a very sad and I feel for his family, but it's a dangerous sport and accidents happen.

Kristoph · 10 May 2011 at 19:42

I don't think it was only the head injury that killed him, fairly certain his entire upper half of his body was facing the opposite direction to his lower half.

RIP.

The Mad Rapper · 10 May 2011 at 20:22

From what I've read elsewhere, he was descending and got dropped off the back of a group. He tried to get back on but was struggling, so he turned around to see where the group behind were. As he did so, his pedal clipped the safety barrier and he was catapulted across the road into the cliff face.

Speed · 10 May 2011 at 21:04

Kristoph said:
I don't think it was only the head injury that killed him, fairly certain his entire upper half of his body was facing the opposite direction to his lower half.

RIP.

I think that was just the way the video made it look, it isn't exactly great quality. He was led on his back when the doctor was attending to him as far as I can see.

It is indeed a sad day, my thoughts are with his family!