Wouter Weylandt (Leopard-Trek) took a horrible digger in today’s Giro stage. He was on the deck, bloody and unconscious, for quite a while; AFP reports he required cardiac massage at the scene and was evacuated to hospital. More as I hear it. Meanwhile, keep your fingers crossed, and be careful out there.
• Update: Weylandt has passed. He was 26. Condolences to his friends, colleagues and family.
Mad Blog Media 
Wow. My condolences. Bike racing usually isn’t fatal.
I was watching streaming video and caught the aftermath — poor kid on the deck, unconscious, traffic piled up and inching around; I thought immediately, “Christ, he looks dead.” The camera cut back to the scene briefly a few moments later and I could see an EMT doing chest compressions. A grim reminder that this sport of ours is a very dangerous pastime.
I saw live on RAI tv. I recognized that he had died. The bleeding from his nose had stopped and he wasn’t breathing. I hoped I was wrong because my reaction was so immediate. My thoughts are with him and his family and unborn child, his friends, supporters and team.
We lost an Albuquerque rider here in the Jemez Mountains (NM-4) about three or so years ago on a tricky descent. He lost control and went off the road into a rock face. I think it was on one of the MS 150s charity rides.
I’ve often wondered as I plummet down a fast twisty road at around 50 mph whether the Grim Reaper is waiting for me along the way on this day. Its scary if you think about it. Our sport can be dangerous when you push the envelope. Would we have it any other way, though, if it took the adrenaline out of it?
My heart goes out to Weylandt’s team and family.
I’ve always been a poor descender (too much imagination, can’t shut it off). And I got worse after a couple of close calls, one of them on Nun’s Corner en route to the Santa Fe Ski Area.
It’s a double, with the second right-hander much tighter than the first, and I totally overcooked it coming down from Ten Thousand Waves, nearly sailing into the guardrail on the far side of the road.
As I finally managed to get the bike under control, I looked up to see a station wagon with trailer mirrors attached barreling up the hill toward me, its driver leaning on the horn, as if that would help somehow.
I felt the breeze from those fucking mirrors on my left arm as I wrestled the bike back into the proper lane. I wasn’t scared or nothin’, but I discovered afterward that somebody shit on my saddle.
Now my timidity on descents is legendary. A pity, really, because I don’t climb worth a shit in my old age. I used to be able to take some time back from the kamikazes on the uphills.
Besides drifting across the double yellow line descending that hypnotic increasing radius right hander nicknamed Nun’s corner more than once, years ago when I was getting my EMT certification in anticipation of becoming a ski patroller at Santa Fe Ski Basin I had to do two three hour stints at the emergency room at St Vincent’s hospital. First thing I would do on arriving would be to look on the chart board to see what was in just then. Much to my surprise I saw one of my Sangre de Cristo Cycling Club teamates Greg Tafoya was in the emergency room. Wanting to see why, I made a bee line to room 3 and there was Greg in his SCCC kit sporting a two inch head laceration obtained after sailing over the guardrail at Nun’s Corner. Find out he came into it riding solo WAY to hot, drifted across the the opposite lane and minimal shoulder and next thing he knew he was pulling himself back up out of the rocks, pinyons and junipers. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. He was very lucky boy that day to escape with a dozen or so stitches. I had the pleasure of shaving his head and putting in two of those stitches.
While talking about the crash yesterday with my family my 7 year old son reminded me that I had told that story before. The one where while in a full aero tuck on mega-straight “The Wall” section of the Ski Basin road trying to break my record of 62 mph my vivid “imagination” imagined what I would become if my front tubular blew out at that speed. I was back the next day trying again. Never could shake that imagery while descending steep mountainous descents ever again in my racing career. This imagery I’m sure also is fought through at the ProTour level. It’s a dangerous sport, and more amazing for that reason and there will always be young men and women pushing themselves through their fear envelopes. Wear your helmet, don’t long back for more than a nanosecond and be safe out there. RIP Wouter.
Sad to hear. Haven’t seen the crash, probably don’t want to. Condolences to his family and friends.
Profile of the stage here.
The ghouls at AOL/Huffington Post have posted video on their main page of Waylandt on the ground. I would not nor could not watch it.
What’s going on, Patrick? I know that when you get a degree, or at least a job, in journalism most of these hacks give up any actually intelligence they ever had, but do they have to give up every last shred of their humanity too?
John, I’m not privy to the thinking (if any) at HuffPo-AOL. But when I was still a newspaperman instead of a rumormonger there would be serious debates in the newsroom about how best to present a tragedy to the readers. It varied from editor to editor, paper to paper, and nobody was ever completely happy with the outcome.
I suspect that today the debate is much briefer, if it’s held at all, due to the insane demands of the 24/7 news cycle. If you aren’t there fustest with the mostest, you’re that nanosecond’s big loser.
And that video of Weylandt on the deck? It was on YouTube at 8:30 a.m. Mountain time, I shit thee not. So it’s not just the pro journos who have abandoned human decency. Whichever amateur scoop-hunter posted the YouTuber didn’t even have the feeble excuse of defending his paycheck and his organization’s bottom line.
I suppose we can take heart that even though there were no doubt a few other witnesses who had the ability, but not the crass cold-heartedness, to record the tragic scene and post it on-line, only one dickhead was asshole enough to actually do it.
I still, though, contend that the shitheads at AOL-Huff Post who posted this are inexcusable hypocrites. Their site even has an entire page devoted to media and media criticism. If a main stream media website were to post something like this, Huff Post would have been the first to flame them.
I suppose I should just leave the media criticism for another day and focus on what’s really important: that what happened to Weylandt today just sucks. Damn, I even heard he has a kid on the way too, is that true?
A sad day indeed. I was watching via Universal Sports and as soon as they showed the poor guy on the ground I thought, “that guy’s dead, move the camera away!” but it seemed like a long time (though it couldn’t have been more than a second or two) to linger on the tragedy. When the overhead shot showed the medic frantically pumping poor Wouter’s chest I feared the worst. When the announcer in Rapallo told the crowd the ceremonies wouldn’t be happening, I KNEW he was gone, despite there being no public confirmation.
I’ve ridden up the climb (from the other side) and it’s a technical, challenging descent for sure. Some might say those roads are too dangerous, but I hope they NEVER get rid of them, as going downhill is just as much a skill as anything else and dope (at least PED’s) doesn’t help…you’re either good or you’re not. There’s no question practice helps but it looks like the poor guy clipped a pedal and launched himself into a hard surface face-first. Crashes can happen anywhere, just remember yesterday where the guy’s bike went flying through the air and he went sliding down the road at 50 kph…all on a wide, straight and flat roadway, in a group of less than 10 riders. If a car or moto would have been passing the group at speed it could have been a deadly incident.
After Fabio Casartelli was killed in ’95, someone set up a charity for his wife and kid. We still have the nice cards they sent to us acknowledging our donations. If someone finds out about one for Weylandt and his unborn child, let us know. Just like with Fabio there should be a day of mourning and the following day the race resumes. If the L-T boyz choose to go home I’d certainly understand it, but I hope they continue in the race.
As to Huffington/AOL, have they taken a page from Murdoch’s “News of the World”…do they need the $$ that much? Shame on them.
The YouTube guy doesn’t deserve ANY comment.
We used to run parts of the Dick Evans Memorial Road Race through some of the old abandoned roads on the Windward Side of Oahu. Shit, it was more like cyclecross than a road race on that segment in the back of Kaneohe and Olomana. I was always amazed that the peloton never ate it on those roads, which demanded good bike handling and keen tactics. Those roads were narrow, steep, twisty, and at times covered halfway across with moss, being they were in rain forest. I recall one year as we all had to veer to avoid a hole big enough to fall through in the road on an abandoned bridge.
The motorized caravan would always pull off and stay on the main roads. As the motorcycle escort for several of those races back in the ’90’s (I raced the Dick Evans just once, unspectacularly, before blowing out my knees and retiring to cycling advocacy), I would accompany the peloton through the jungle. Always amazed me that we all got through upright, and two or three riders, one always named Ray Brust, launched attacks back there that left other people wondering if he had superglue on his tires.
Now, I think they took out that part. The roads are probably even more decrepit. But no one ever wanted to remove that part of the race. At least any of the riders.
We have had a a few bad crashes in the Jemez Mountains on narrow, high speed twisty roads but no fatals lately. My closest call was hitting a rock while waiving to a friend climbing in the other direction. Lost my grip and was pitched forward over the bars at 35 mph watching the road go by. Gingerly pulled my bike seat back under my ass. But some bad crashes. One was a head on crash between a member of the local peloton taking a hairpin fast just as a motorcyclist was overcooking the hairpin going the other way. Both were hauled out by the EMTs. My work buddy Bill hit a deer on a high speed motorcycle run down the mountain and spent weeks in an ICU. Then there was that kid killed trying to bust a rock face with his skull.
We gotta be careful out there and realize that even when we are careful, no one knows where the mule deer are hiding. I’d leave it to the Pro Tour riders to decide when too much is too much as far as the roads are concerned. Its too easy to second guess this stuff.
Definitely post anything on donations.
My sentiments exactly Larry. My only differing opinion would be that the L-T guys should pack it up and go home. In 95 I had the exact opposite feeling, but this time it seems that there is much more at stake. As long as the race promoters put in crazy stages this is a possibility. Granted this may be more of an “accident” than other serious crashes (most sprint finishes especially) but there needs to be a line between safety and stupidity. By packing up and going home the team would show that they are a team. One guy down, and we go home.
And Khal, that sounds like a fun race there!
Dick Evans was a fun race and really brought the racing community together in camaraderie. Named after a very good Hawai’i racer greased by a truck as I recall. 135 miles of Hell in the Heat.
The day I raced it was typically hot and humid, as July/August always is on Oahu. Went home with my black lycra bike shorts completely crusted over white from salt deposits. I just threw myself, grease, salt, sunscreen, grunge, and all, into the pool at my girlfriend’s condo association. Much to the chagrin of other swimmers. Looked like the Exxon Valdez had just broken up…
K, sounds like a great race. I always loved the weirdo events, and still do. Racing the Giro d’Industrial Park never polished the Pearls in my Izumis, if you catch my drift.
I did a few races I considered both stupid and dangerous, and never went back to those. But I was an amateur and could pick and choose. The pros have more skills and fewer options.
Cyclo-cross caught my attention because of the small fields (then, anyway); the mano a mano nature of the competition (not a lot of team tactics); and the slow speeds and relative safety of racing in mud and snow. Do the big get-off into a mud puddle at 12 mph and your worst injury is embarrassment.
The Giro always seems to want to be paid in real blood.
My sympathies and condolences to his family and to his fans.
Was the EMT the only one to stop and assist? I understand why in NASCAR no one pulls over to help, but in a bike race it’s not so hard and if I know CPR surely some racers, moto riding journalist and tifosi do too?
I’m sorry, but this “piling on the Giro” stuff just shows ignorance. Granted, there weren’t forums like this back in ’95 when Casartelli died (in FRANCE, as did Kivilev) but I don’t remember the TdF organizers being blamed for putting in dangerous descents amid claims of wanting to be “paid in real blood”. TdF still races over Portet d’Aspet where Casartelli lost it…but I don’t hear anyone complaining about it. Trust me, there is NOTHING particularly dangerous about the descent where Weylandt’s lost it. I’ve ridden this road, along with most of the famous (and not so famous) climbs and descents in France and Italy. It’s no more dangerous than the descent off the Mortirolo or the descent from the Chamrouse/Col de Luitel in France. What would you have the organizers do? Run the race with laps around the Mugello or LeMans race track, or close down the superhighways and race there, so there’s nothing but wide roads, gradual climbs and descents? The number of pro racers who have lost their lives in the last two decades in race crashes can be counted on one hand. Blaming the organizers might make you feel better, but it just demonstrates how much you don’t understand about risk, reward and SPORT.
I was watching live on an Italian web feed. The crash happened after one of many switchbacks on a miles-long beautiful narrow mountain descent. Forested, so no place to land a Medevac chopper, not that it would have mattered. Wouter apparently made a tiny mistake of a few inches and clipped the fence on the outside. Who among us hasn’t come close to that? Certainly no fault of the organizers; any of us who ever “push the envelope” are flirting with natural selection when we go for a little more adrenaline. If someone wants to avoid any risks, they can stay inside and ride a trainer. I’d rather take my chances than waste another minute of my life on a !@#$%^&*+ trainer.
I don’t fault the cameraman for trying to get a shot of a rider who went down, and the video director did the right thing by cutting away as soon as he/she realized how bad it was. What ticked me off was the frantic honking from the team car(s) momentarily held up behind the crash and the medics’ car. Classy.
Velonews interviewed Manuel Cardoso, who said Weylandt looked behind him on the descent. Speculating a bit here, I wonder if he twitched his handlebars a little to the side when he turned, which immediately puts a high speed bicycle or motorcycle into a lean/turn. Could that have caused him to clip the side of the road? Don’t know.
One of the things I teach students in Traffic Skills 101 is to look over their shoulder to check traffic without veering the bike (they typically turn their entire upper bodies and the handlebars, too). They veer a lot. One student got a lot better when I told him to get out of the saddle and do a shoulder scan. At 50 mph on a tight course, you don’t have to veer much to have the proverbial shit hit the fan.
Larry is right about holding fire on the Giro. Bike racing is, and has always been, on challenging mountain roads. Face it, any of us can eat it on a challenging mountain road or for that matter, eat it in a parking lot (in one of my dumbest cycling moments, I daydreamed my way into a parking barrier in a dimly lit parking garage and came out with a shoulder separation). We can get hit by a car ( as was Dick Evans) on a well engineered road. I’ll take my chances with the screaming, hairpin turn festooned downhill from Palo Flechado Pass any day rather than worry about being overtaken by a teen texting whle behind the wheel of an SUV. Its funny, but some people see me descend and think I’m crazy. Generally, I am concentrating incredibly on one of those descents. Can shit go wrong? Yep.
Link to that interview.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/news/crash-witness-%E2%80%98weylandt-was-catapulted-across-the-road%E2%80%99_172140
Good points, Khal.
I usually deal with the “looking behind” problem by using one of them new-fangled mirror gadgets. Not about to be the one to start a rerun of the Helmet Wars by suggesting that for the pro peleton, though.
Gotta agree, Bill.
What would the history of cycling be without “The Look”?. Imagine if Lance Armstrong had just looked in a rear-view mirror at Jan Ullrich.