Cycling mourns the loss of a true hero

Does the name Wouter Weylandt mean anything to you? Belgian born and from the age of 15 mad about cycling, a sport which would later turn out to be his only job and one true passion. Wouter turned professional in 2004 with Team Quickstep based in Belgium. He found personal success in many of the smaller races but worked for others in more high profile races to get them to the end and secure an overall win.

Much later in his career, when the Tour of Italy started (known as the Giro d’Italia) on May 6th 2011 everyone knew he would be looking to help his team out wherever possible and, if the opportunity arose, go for an individual effort for a single stage win of the 26 stages available. It was unlikely that he would be to contend for an overall win based on the 3 week race, but being a fine sprinter he was always likely to feature heavily in the bunch sprints and the time trials. Stage 1 of 21 saw the event of a Team Time Trial take part. This event demands at least 5 of the 9 riders in each team to cycle as fast as possible and arrive at the finishing line together. Wouter and his team came in at 14th place. Stage 2 saw Wouter play a more advanced role and he managed to get in a position to sprint for the line and turn in a very respectable 9th place after a hard 244kms and following a disputed win by Alesandro Petacchi. Stage 3 and Wouter was working for his team by ferrying water bottles from the car up to his team mates and putting in efforts at the front to catch other riders when needed.

Unfortunately, what was to follow in this ride would lead to the untimely taking of a dedicated team player.

With around 25kms to go until the finish line everyone in the bunch (you may have heard the bunch referred to as a Peleton before) was looking around to see who was moving up to the front and who was dropping off the back. Wouter was dropped by the lead group and was cycling hard to get back. There was a second grupetto behind and as Wouter looked behind to see if it was worth him slowing down to wait for that group, he crashed.

Wouter was on a technical decent with several men near him. Previously riders had expressed their concerns about this part of the route yet had no ruling over route changes. The left pedal of Wouter’s bike hit the side of a wall whilst doing speeds in excess of 70km/h and he was catapulted from the left side of the road to the right where he hit something on the other side of the slope. One of his team-mates reported that “I saw him crash, it was a very hard fall” and a hard fall it was. Medics were on the scene immediately and did all they could do revive the 26 year old. Since 1995 when Fabio Casartelli lost his life to a downhill crash in The Tour de France, no such fatalities have happened on the professional circuit and everyone concerned with the sport is grateful. However, it is not until now that people start to become aware of the risks involved in such a universal sport. I don’t think many people understand the passion of cycling. The passion to get your bike out in the morning and just ride. Just ride, not even knowing where you are going and not even caring. Just riding. It is a truly wonderful sport and these elite athletes put their bodies through hell for the passion, the addiction for which possesses them.

However, occasionally instances like these arise and nobody knows how to deal with them. Thankfully they are so few and far between that they do not become a regular occurrence and the way in which they are dealt with isn’t known until it happens. I was watching the race when this horror happened, in fact I had only just turned on to watch the final 25kms. Usually the last 25km is the most exciting in an event such as a 100km+ race. Not today. As I flicked to the channel and sat down, I stopped. Everything seemed to stop as the images on the screen revealed themselves. I only hope that the camera men had jumped off their bike to report that the rider was alright after his brutal crash to reassure both race organisers and the audience. Not today. As Wouter lay there, still, with the medics running from the cars with a defibrillator and medi-kit the video feed stopped. The cameras all panned away and the commentators were lost for words. What do you say at a moment like that? You assume the worst but have to remain optimistic until further details are revealed. Unfortunately, that realisation set in shortly after the race. After 45 minutes of CPR and several shots of Adrenaline they failed to revive Wouter. This was the time when cycling lost a true hero.

All of our thoughts go to Wouter’s friends and family, especially his girlfriend, Sophie, who is 5 months pregnant with what is their first child. Wouter Weylandt will not be forgotten and this race will be ridden by all in his memory.

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