One year after the dramatic death of the 26-year-old Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder, cycling is still wondering about the issue of rider safety: how much has really been done to ensure greater safety since June 16, 2023? Observing what happens almost every day, far too little.
The June 16, 2023, exactly one year ago, the tragedy of death of Gino Mäder, a Swiss cyclist who ended up in a cliff during the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland on 15 June. A fatal flight for the 26-year-old Baharain runner who died despite immediate rescue and attempts to resuscitate him. A drama that shook the cycling world to its core, in particular opened a debate on athlete safety, still today at the center of analysis and studies to better protect their safety. But since that day other disastrous falls have followed and too little has been done by organisers, unions and UCI.
On 15 June 2023, during the 5th stage of the Tour of Switzerland along the descent of the Albula pass, Gino Mäder lost his life: he was catapulted off the road down a slope for several meters up to end the fall at the bottom of the precipice, in the bed of a stream. A tragedy that has remained immortalized in the eyes and souls of all athletes and some of the protagonists of that terrible day and which opened the doors to one of the most delicate issues of modern cycling: safety.
The tragedy of Gino Mäder which shocked the world of cycling
The effects of Gino Mäder’s flight into the void were immediately clear to everyone, devastating. Resuscitated with cardiac massage by the race doctors, the 26-year-old comes urgently transported unconscious and in critical condition to Chur hospital, where he died within the following 24 hours.
Historic revolution in cycling: yellow cards and disqualifications will be introduced as in football
Faced with the tragedy, the organization of the Tour of Switzerland decides to neutralize the sixth stagerun in his memory by the group united in pain in the last 20 km, with his teammates crossing the finish line together, in a heartbreaking epilogue that heralded the final choice of Team Bahrain Victorious: withdrawal from the race, together with the Swiss team Tudor and Intermarché. The race continued until its natural end, by will of Gino’s family who, torn apart by grief, asked for his name to be honored in the way he first would have wanted: by running.
Cycling initiatives in memory of Gino Mäder
Since that day, professional cycling has never been the same. There are many initiatives around the figure of Gino Mäder, which has become a symbol of the fight for the safety of runners. A heated debate opened immediately after the drama, involving all the protagonists, from the teams to the cyclists themselves, from the unions, to the organizers and to the UCI itself. But more than actual more stringent measures, in recent months the cycling world has honored Mäder almost exclusively in a symbolic way.
Many victories from friends, companions and runners who paid homage to Mäder at the finish line. A statue in his name it was raised thanks to his fan club in Morbio in Ticino, one of the towns crossed by the Tour of Switzerland and where a curve had already been dedicated to him, which has now become a pilgrimage for his many fans. The organizers of the Tour of Switzerland then decided, in agreement with the family, to celebrate the Swiss rider at the highest point of the race, with the most important peak that will forever bear his name: from the 2024 edition, the roof of the Swiss Giro takes the name of “Mountain Grand Prix #rideforgino”where there is a special prize for the best climber.
Safety in cycling after the death of Gino Mäder
However, little or nothing really concrete has been done to defend the safety of cyclists, in a professionalism in which no one brakes anymore and everything is done to maintain and conquer the best positions: uphill, downhill, at the finish line or during the race. route, whether it lasts one day or in stages. Whether it’s dry or wet, nothing makes a difference anymore. Many falls and injuries, often serious ones, have punctuated the last calendar year of a cycling movement that has experienced other dramatic events, heavily involving the main protagonists themselves. Screaming names like van Aert to Across Flanders, or Roglic ended up on the ground and got up again with his body devastated by wounds. Sena forgets the near tragedy Vingegaard to Evenepoel at the Tour of the Basque Country and gradually dozens of other riders.
After the death of Gino Mäder, the only rules introduced by the UCI, often due to the will and decision of the individual organizers of one-day tours and races, have been the abolition of downhill finishes, the increase in sound and visual effects in front of curves or sections of greatest danger, the change of traced with the intention of slowing down the pace. Now we have also moved on to the introduction of “yellow cards” to stop increasingly wicked behavior which entails increasingly serious risks and consequences. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the correct path: the falls follow one another, they multiply, they do not end. Performance anxiety, the need for results, the search for spectacle seem to know no obstacles: not even in the face of the memory of Gino Mäder.
