2023-07-01 06:30:00
At the Tour de Suisse, a professional cyclist died as a result of a terrible fall. Now the Tour de France begins – the most hectic of all races. A driver explains how things work there in the peloton.
The fifth stage of Tour of Switzerland on 15th of June. The Swiss professional cyclist Gino Mäder had covered 200 kilometers. He had climbed 4700 meters uphill with his racing machine, a tough stage. Now we went from the Albula Pass down into the valley to the village of La Punt. There was the goal. The Albula Pass is 2312 meters high. La Punt is at 1660 meters. There was a drop of around 650 meters in altitude on the ten-kilometer route, which corresponds to a gradient of 7.2 percent. Gino Mäder drove into the downhill with the American Magnus Sheffield.
What happened a few minutes later is unclear. Mäder and Sheffield went off the road on a curve and fell into a ravine. Sheffield sustained bruises and a concussion, comparatively minor injuries. Mäder had to be resuscitated by the rescue workers and died a little later in a hospital.
What does this horrific accident tell us regarding the dangers of road cycling? And what regarding the Tour de France, a much longer and more difficult stage race, for which this Saturday (12.55 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Tour de France, on ARD and on Eurosport) in Bilbao the starting signal for the first of 21 stages he follows? Let’s ask the sprinter Max Walscheid, who has competed in the Tour de France three times so far. “If you’re honest,” he says, “you have to say regarding the terrible outcome of the fall that the danger of cycling lies in the fact that something like this can happen much more often. We often see crashes in races that look horrific but end lightly.”
Fatal fall into the gorge: Gino Mäder might not be saved, Magnus Sheffield (right) got off lightly. Image: EPA
Two drivers, an accident, one slightly injured, the other dead. One was lucky, the other not in an extreme sport where dangers lurk not only on descents, when the pros with Tempo 110 and a little helmet on their heads and dash down a bit of plastic on your body. “I think the entire industry just always hopes for a happy outcome,” says Walscheid.
The Tour is the most hectic race
In order to survive road cycling at the highest level unscathed for years, you not only need driving skills and a fatalistic streak, but also a good portion of luck. This applies to all races, because the dangers also lurk in the sprint and in many corners and edges of every course. There’s the material that has to hold up. A tire can burst. If that happens on a descent in a corner, you can be the greatest downhill artist in the world, but that doesn’t help anymore.
This might have been the reason for Mäder’s and Sheffield’s crashes, but there’s no point in speculating. If Sheffield can’t provide any information, the reason will probably never be clarified because there are no television pictures of the accident. “There are a hundred things that might theoretically have happened,” says Walscheid.
How dangerous is the Tour de France compared to other cycling races? The Tour is the most hectic of all races because it focuses the attention of all cycling. Sponsors want to see results. Your man in yellow, a stage win, a sprint stage, a mountain stage, a breakaway at the finish alone. “The Tour teams are now so diverse that everyone has a goal on almost every stage, be it the classification, protecting the captain, or getting the sprinter over the last hill or something in between,” says Walscheid.
In the meantime, the pressure on the tour is so high and the interests are so complex that there is almost constant stress. This leads to a tense, often dangerous driving style. “At the Giro d’Italia,” says Walscheid, “you can sometimes be in last position up to ten kilometers before the sprint and still manage to be able to sprint for victory at the end with a skilful driving style. That’s impossible on the Tour. The battles for position start much earlier.”
176 drivers handlebar to handlebar and the crowd crowded Image: AFP
Position battles are a risk factor. A curve, only space for three sprint trains, but four teams fight for the entrance, then it gets tight.
Driving in the peloton is not without its dangers either. When the field is together, 176 professionals ride in a confined space, often at an adventurous pace, shoulder to shoulder, handlebars to handlebars. “When things get a little quieter,” says Walscheid, “I feel safer in the Tour field than in other races because I know that these 176 riders are the best and know their bikes.” But when is it ever going to happen quieter to? There are drivers who you know don’t pull back, they also drive into gaps that only half exist. When things get tight, stay away from them if possible.
First aid at full speed: Michael Woods is treated following a fall on the last tour. Image: AFP
It becomes particularly dangerous when it comes to sprinting. With ten, sometimes fifteen kilometers to go, things get serious, that’s the basic rule. But not on the tour. The last hundred kilometers of the tour might be very stressful, says Walscheid. “I’ve seen stages where the teams form up at 100 kilometers because the radio says there will be a crosswind at 70 kilometers, there might be a wind edge situation and the field might split, so we have to be up there at the front. Then kilometer seventy is approached as if it were the goal.”
In the last few kilometers, the sprint turns into a martial art, which is extremely strenuous both physically and mentally. The drivers fight for the best position with a heart rate of 200. “In the last few hundred meters,” says Walscheid, “you stop thinking regarding what you’re doing. The finish line is so close that you switch off your thoughts.” Sprinting at 65 km/h is also a question of self-confidence. If you want to win, you have to believe in your strength, otherwise you don’t stand a chance. There are frequent falls in the finish channel, which is why the rulers have declared the last three kilometers to a neutral zone. Anyone involved in a fall there does not lose any time compared to the winner.
There is no retreat in the finish sprint. Image: AP
A fall in the finish channel of the Tour of Poland shocked the scene three years ago. The Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen had pushed his colleague Fabio Jakobsen into the barrier on a slightly sloping and therefore particularly fast finish line. Jakobsen was seriously injured, he was in a coma for several days and barely escaped with his life. “I lost ten teeth. I was sewn up with 130 stitches. I lost some bone in my upper jaw. Also some bones in the lower jaw,” says Jakobsen in the Netflix docuseries “Im Hauptfeld”: “I had a lot of cracks in my skull. Maybe I’m forgetting something, but I think that’s enough.” Three months following his fall, Jakobsen trained once more, last year he won a stage of the Tour de France – in the sprint.
The fights for position in the final meters are even harder and more stressful in the Tour de France. The fastest sprinters in the world are at the start here, everything is at stake here. “Every driver has maneuvers that are not 100 percent comprehensible,” says Walscheid. “And if you’re honest, you have to say that the idea of racing with 176 professionals in this way and letting the fastest sprint for victory at the end is actually madness.”
Gino Mäder paid for the risk in cycling with his life. Image: EPA
Once once more to Mäder’s fatal fall on a descent following 200 kilometers and 4700 meters in altitude. “I’ve never understood why you end a difficult mountain stage with a descent because it puts an enormous strain on the top riders. You know, at the top of the hill, I’m 20 seconds down on the leader. And if I want to win the stage, I have to catch up with him on the descent,” says Walscheid.
After a hard day, not only has your body suffered, but also your concentration. “Of course, the risk is enormous when you reach the top of the mountain and then have to ski a descent on a knife’s edge. This is an extreme test of nerves. We often have this situation, and to be honest, I’m surprised that it’s almost always worked out well so far. After Mäder’s death, all route planners should keep that in mind.” This year’s tour has two stages with descents to the finish, sections 14 and 17.
more on the subject
Road cycling at the highest level is extreme sport. Every race is dangerous. Risk minimization is possible, but only to a manageable extent. You can no longer allow descents to the finish and only flat or slightly uphill home straights. But a bike race at the highest professional level is still a bike race. A tough competition on the limits of what is feasible and tolerable. Speed, stress and risk all culminate in the Tour de France, and this fight by hook or by crook is probably what makes this unique race so fascinating.
What: FAS
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