Two weeks after his accidental death during the Tour de Suisse, Gino Mäder is still on everyone’s mind. A fortiori with the approach of the Tour de France 2023, whose big start is given in Bilbao (Spain), Saturday 1er July. During the traditional presentation of the teams, Thursday June 29, his team (Bahrain-Victorious) and the spectators observed a minute of silence in memory of the 26-year-old Swiss runner, whose face was projected on a screen installed at the foot of the Guggenheim Museum.
On June 15, in the last descent of the 5e stage of the Swiss loop, after climbing the Albula pass, Gino Mäder and Magnus Sheffield, then launched at high speed, had left the road and found themselves in a ravine. If the American from Ineos-Grenadiers escaped with bruises and a concussion, the Swiss succumbed the next day to his injuries.
“This tragedy has affected all runnersrecalled the Frenchman David Gaudu (4e of the Tour de France 2022), during his appearance in front of the international media on Thursday. I was on a training course in the mountains the following days. When I was going down, I necessarily thought about that. » The death of Gino Mäder has brought to light a well-known problem in the peloton: safety.
Several days before the big start, the International Cycling Union (UCI) had announced the holding of a press conference in order to communicate on “a major development for safety in professional road cycling”.
Friday, June 30, at the Bilbao Exhibition Center, the body ultimately did not make any startling revelations. She presented the creation of an independent entity called “SafeR”, whose objective is to analyze the risks and present recommendations to the UCI and the organisers. Its outlines are still blurred.
“We are still in discussion on what the legal status of the entity will be”, admitted David Lappartient, the president of the International Cycling Union. This should see the light of day on 1er January 2024 and will not be fully operational until 2025. Its funding, too, has not yet been precisely defined, even if “every cycling family will have to contribute”.
“ It’s not about distorting the sport.”
The UCI meeting had been planned for a long time, said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. However, all eyes quickly turned to the circuit route, after the death of Gino Mäder. For good reason, several arrivals take place after a long descent, like the one on which the Swiss cyclist left the road: that of the 14e stage, between Annemasse and Morzine-Les Portes du Soleil, in Haute-Savoie, on July 15; then that of the 17e stage, between Saint-Gervais-Mont-Blanc (Haute-Savoie) and Courchevel (Savoie), on July 19.
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