After the accidental death of Gino Mäder, the Swiss cycling team Tudor Pro Cycling and the Belgian cycling team Intermarché-Circus-Wanty canceled their participation in the Tour de Suisse. Both teams announced this before the start of the seventh stage from Tübach to Weinfelden.
The Swiss racing team of cycling legend Fabian Cancellara declared its withdrawal “after careful consideration and discussions with both the drivers and the supervisors”. The team, for which the German Miká Heming was not in action at the Tour of Switzerland, also said via Twitter: “Under these difficult circumstances, this is the human way for us to respect the feelings of our drivers and to pay respect to Gino.” .
“After Gino Mäder’s tragic accident and after discussions with our drivers and our employees, the Intermarché-Circus-Wanty team decided to leave the Tour de Suisse. Our priority is the well-being of our drivers,” said the Belgian racing team a little later Twitter with. Mäder’s team Bahrain-Victorious had previously announced the exit.
Mäder had died on Friday. The day before, the Swiss had been seriously injured in an accident on a descent a few kilometers from the finish. He had to be resuscitated after falling into a ravine.
The stage on Friday was canceled, instead the professional cyclists remembered Mäder on a commemorative ride. “Today was the worst day of my life. But tomorrow is a new day and we have to take care of that as an organization,” explained tour director Olivier Senn. The tour will therefore continue in consultation with Mäder’s family and the teams and drivers. The women’s tour will also continue.
Former professional cyclist Fabian Wegmann has defended the organizers of the Tour de Suisse after the fatal fall of professional cyclist Gino Mäder. “As an organizer, you cannot completely secure such a long route and secure every pass with safety fences so that a driver cannot leave the road. That is not feasible in terms of time and money,” he said in an interview with the German Press Agency.
As head of sport, the 42-year-old supports the planning for the routes of the Deutschland Tour. Wegmann was “fixed and ready” when he got the sad news. “It’s a disaster,” he said.
“The organizer has organized this stage quite often. You can’t just say that now only the organizer is responsible. That was a driver’s mistake, after what I noticed,” said Wegmann. The native of Munster, who won the Eschborn-Frankfurt classic twice during his playing days and rode the route himself in Switzerland, suggested: “You may have to make sure in the future that descents are not made so close to the finish line.”
