A very bad day for cycling

[cameraman]

In the third stage of the Giro d'Italia Wouter Weylandt, a Belgian rider for Leopard Trek, was killed in a crash on the descent of the Passo del Bocco. It is a narrow and twisting high speed descent and he went down in a single bike crash. They were carrying out CPR on the road as the support vehicles passed by. The tv coverage caught the early efforts and it was quite clear he was in deep trouble.

Tomorrow would have been the one year anniversary of his win in this stage of the Giro last year. He leaves behind his girlfriend who is expecting the couple's first child in September.

364 days ago.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii35/Cynops/Wouter.jpg

[Kiwifan]

Not good eh? Way too young esp with a little one on the way. :cry:

[Napoleon]

I saw this on the news and what amazed me is the last time this happened was a lot longer ago then I would have guessed (I forget the date).

[cameraman]

Today's stage is a memorial procession. Teams riding in ttt order, Leopard Trek will cross the line at the lead of the peloton. Tomorrow they will race again.

[cameraman]

It has been a tough year for cycling. There was another serious crash yesterday in the Tour de Suisse. Somehow Juan Mauricio Soler crashed on a straight, flat section of road and is now in an induced coma with a skull fracture, brain bleed and several broken limbs. He was in second place in the general classification after a win in the second stage.

There are always crashes in these races, you can't put 120 bicycles in an insanely tight pack at speed with the occasional crash. For some reason this year the crashes have been far more severe with life threatening results. They are not the typical broken collarbone of the past.

[cameraman]

It seems Soler fell victim to a narrowing of the road on approach to a traffic island. He hit a curb and was launched into a very stout fence post and a spectator. The post did not give at all. He has been in an induced coma and they are just bringing him out of it. At today's news conference they announced that there were now confident that he would survive...

He managed to fracture his skull which caused severe cerebral edema, fracture his scapula, collarbone, ankle and 4 ribs & puncture his lung & lacerate his kidney.

[cameraman]

Seems that he hasn't come out of the coma. They had him in an induced coma to try to minimize the damage from the edema. They tried to bring him out of the coma a week or so ago and he isn't responding.:shakehead