You most probably heard it somewhere else already, the young Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt of Team Leopard-Trek died this afternoon after a very bad crash in the descent of one of the mountains of the 3rd stage of the Giro d'Italia 2011.
Words are missing to describe what I felt when I discovered the bad news on the official Giro d'Italia website.
A very sad day for cycling ...
The news arrived around 4.20PM this afternoon: a rider badly crashed in the descent of the Passo del Bocco at about 25 kilometers from the finish. Apparently he ran into the wall on the side of the road in one of the turns before he fell on the road.
It rapidly turned out that Wouter Weylandt's situation was not good. The rider remained unconscious on the road and seemed to have lost lots of blood. The medical team of the Giro was with him and applied CPR to try to keep the Belgian rider alive.
This all turned out to be too late and a bit more than an hour after his crash, the doctor of the Tour of Italy announced the rider, who was only 26 years old, died on the road.
I'm probably not the only one who would have preferred to see him, smiling as always, for still many years to come :-(.
Wouter Weylandt (Team Leopard-Trek), 27/09/1984 - 09/05/2011
The Giro doctor, Giovani Tredici, declared: we tried to reanimate him during 40 minutes, without success. He had a cranial fracture and several wounds on his face.
Weylandt leaved behind him his wife and his future child who is due to be born in September. I hope his wife, his family and his friends will find comfort with each other and with the people surrounding them and that we will never forget this rider who left us too early.
The Belgian rider who became a pro with Quick Step in 2004 and who joined his current team, Team Leopard-Trek, at the interseason had his most important victories in the 17th stage of the Vuelta in 2008 and last year during the third stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010 in Middelburg.
His former team, Quick Step summarised it with those beautiful words in a news item on their website: We will always remember him getting his hands in the air getting crazy of happiness, like in Middelburg exactly one year ago. That's the image we will keep in our hearts, forever.
The Team Leopard-Trek riders will decide tonight whether they'll continue in this Giro d'Italia 2011 or not and Angelo Zomegnan announced he would leave the choice to the riders on how tomorrow's stage will go on. This 4th stage might thus be neutralised. In any case one minute of silence will be observed to honour Wouter Weylandt before the start, and the finish and official ceremony will be done without music and without the festive activities around it.
In those conditions I decided not to write a summary of this stage which was won by Angel Vicioso (Androni Giocattoli) and which saw the pink jersey changing shoulders and be taken over by David Millar (Team Garmin-Cervélo). door Thomas Vergouwen
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2 comments | 9516 views
this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2011
by Bernard over 
by Stuart over 
by Kiera over
J'ai été terriblement touché et choqué par cette tragédie, c'est tellement triste. C'est affreux de mourir de cette façon j'imagine la douleur de ses proches... Et dire que Wouter allait être papa en septembre... Je ne sais pas quoi dire, cela me touche encore plus que pour Kivilev.
Bon courage là où tu es Wouter, le monde du cyclisme et du sport ne t'oubliera pas!
Bonsoir,
La "neutralisation" de l'étape d'aujourd'hui entre Quarto dei Mille et Livorno me semblait le moindre des hommages à rendre au coureur d'outre-Quiévrain. J'ai beaucoup apprécié qu'Eurosport Deutschland ait diffusé les 102 derniers kilomètres de ce "cortège funèbre" de même que les commentaires, empreints de respect et de dignité, de Gerhard Leinauer et Karsten Migels. Parmi les émotions les plus intenses, que la formation Leopard Trek ait accueilli Tyler Farrar (Garmin Cervélo), qui considérait le défunt comme un "frère". Demain, l'Américain quittera le Giro. Même si je ne connaissais pas bien le natif de Gand, le décès de celui-ci m'a profondément attristé. Mes pensées s'adressent à Anne-Sophie, la compagne du malheureux, ainsi qu'à ses proches et ami(-e)s. Ce qui est particulièrement terrible: une seconde d'inattention dans la descente du Passo del Bocco a coûté la vie à Wouter Weylandt. Presque un an, jour pour jour, après sa victoire, dans le troisième tronçon de l'édition 2010, entre Amsterdam et Middelbourg. J'espère que désormais il pédale ou repose en paix.
René HAMM