Giro d'Italia – The Death of Wouter Weylandt

Wouter Weylandt, 1984-2011
Photo from Team Leopard-Trek and cyclingarchives.com

First of all, nobody really knows exactly what happened. Weylandt was back in a large pack of riders on a tricky descent. I was watching the race this morning and had no idea something had happened until alerted by the announcers a couple of minutes after the crash.

Weylandt himself was a talented up and coming sprinter. At only 26, he had a good career in front of him and had some great results in his career thus far including stage wins in both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España.

While he was not a contender for either overall victory or the points jersey, he certainly had the ability to win a stage in this race, possibly even the stage that was being raced today as he was a sprinter with some climbing ability giving him the talent to get over the final climb in the peloton that top sprinters Mark Cavendish and Tyler Farrar did not have.

His absence will be felt more in the peloton. Weylandt was, by all accounts a popular rider with close friendships both on his own team and on other teams. Nobody knows how those teams and cyclists will react or even if they will continue racing in this race (though I suspect most will ride tomorrow's neutralized tribute stage at least). Among those most affected are Weylandt's Leopard-Trek teammates, his former teammates on the Quick-Step team, and Garvin-Cervelo sprinter Tyler Farrar, Weylandt's best friend in the cycling peloton.

As far as the race goes, this changes very little. Racing will begin again on Wednesday after a processional ride in memory of Weylandt tomorrow. From there, the peloton will get back at it, though I suspect we will see little attacking on mountain descents until the final days of the race.

Tomorrow's stage though, will be all about Weylandt. Tomorrow is the anniversary of his win in Stage 3 of last year's Giro d'Italia and it will be a somber procession before the race gets going again after that.

In the future, safety will be re-evaluated, though I'm not sure what could have been done in this situation. From all accounts from doctors and riders, there is little anyone could have done here and doctors were on the scene within 30 seconds of the crash.

For more on Weylandt's death, check out Velonation, Podium Cafe and Velonews.