A Swiss bicycle racer who crashed on a fast descent during the Tour de Suisse died on Friday, one day after he and another competitor tumbled into a ravine in the Swiss Alps.
Friday’s stage was canceled after race organizers informed the teams and the other riders of the death of the racer, Gino Mäder. The race, an important prep race for next month’s Tour de France, is scheduled to continue through Sunday.
Mäder, 26, crashed along with an American rider, Magnus Sheffield, on Stage 5 of the weeklong race. Sheffield sustained a concussion in the crash on the Albula Pass, in the Swiss Alps. The descent, down an unprotected mountain road with mountains to its left and a step drop-off just beyond its right edge, came near the end of Thursday’s stage.
Both riders were treated where they came to rest, near a set of drainage pipes down a sharp slope. Sheffield appeared to be able to walk back up the hill with assistance, but Mäder was more seriously injured. After initial treatment, he was evacuated from the scene in a helicopter.
“Gino Mäder lay motionless in the water,” race organizers said in a statement after the crash. “He was immediately resuscitated and then transported to Chur hospital by air ambulance.”
Mäder and Sheffield apparently fell off their bikes and then tumbled down an embankment, according to another rider in the race.
“After a long curve, two bikes were lying on the side of the road, which didn’t look nice,” the cyclist Roland Thalmann told the Swiss broadcaster SRF. “When I looked back, I saw that two riders were quite far down.”
Another rider suggested the crash, and the area where it occurred, should be a warning to race organizers.
“I hope that the final of today’s stage is food for thought for both cycling organizers as well as ourselves as riders,” the reigning world champion Remco Evenepoel said on Twitter after the crash but before news of Mäder’s death became public. “It wasn’t a good decision to let us finish down this dangerous descent. As riders, we should also think about the risks we take going down a mountain.” Evenepoel is in fourth place in the Tour de Suisse.
Mäder’s career highlights were a fifth-place finish in the Vuelta a España and a stage win in the Giro d’Italia in 2021. This season he was fifth in the Paris-Nice race behind the two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar.
Serious injury and deaths of professional cyclists in accidents are not uncommon, although they mostly occur in collisions with cars while training. In races, the danger is greatest on mountain descents, on which riders can reach speeds of 60 miles an hour.
The Italian rider Fabio Casartelli, a teammate of Lance Armstrong, died after a crash on a descent at the 1995 Tour de France.
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