Fall deadly Weylandt

Before leaving, at noon, head full of ideas of glory,Pablo Lastras mused aloud: "Cyclists have to regainour dignity. When you organize a race, just think of theshow and morbidity. With us you never have. As if we were gladiators, whose only value is to fight, bleed anddie. Or as if it were a circus and we will appeal. But we are not monkeys, but artists. " A few hours later, showed Lastras, bright, the peak of his art-an attack in the last slope of the day, the climb to the Madonna delle Grazie, just 10 kilometers from the finish, the sea down there, when an abrupt RAIImages of the race to deliver an urgent message: "Physicians who are trying to revive Wouter Weylandt can not contact 118, the telephone emergency helicopter service in Genoa. From here we advise to come quickly on the scene in which the Belgian rider has fallen. "

It was the realization that what had been a few minutes the screen, his face bloodied Weylandt, doctors at his side, massage cardiac resuscitation machine, injection of epinephrine, atropine, was serious, really serious.It was also a call useless. Weylandt, 26, had been dead for more than 20 minutes. "As we said long ago, died suddenly," said Giovanni Tredici, who had just address the first cyclist who died in his 29 years as chief doctor of Money, "at 30 or 40 seconds of the crash as we were with him. We serve you 45 minutes sequencing protocol, but with the conviction that we could not do anything to revive it. He suffered a frontal skull fracture with severe blood loss and with loss of brain mass. He had been shot dry. "

Nevertheless, the helicopter arrived. He landed a few hundred meters from the inaccessible location of the accident and was transported on a stretcher Weyland.Only after completing the stage was officially announced his death.Weylandt, promising, good top speed, several victories, including a Vuelta stage in 2008 in Valladolid, and one in the Giro, just a year ago, the third of 2010 - the classic class, fell only about 20 kilometers from the finish in a decline of over Bocco - where Berzin beat Indurain in the Giro time trial of 1994 - on a straight stretch after a semi-curved to left.

"I was the last of the bunch, told in his team, the Leopard, founded this season. "It had been lagging up and forced to re-enter the group and to enter the sprint." "It hit the guardrail with the left leg, went against the other side and turned to face against a stone wall," said the director, Luca Guercilena, "made a flight of about 20 meters." "In fact, due to hit with the left leg was broken as the" confirmed Tredici, "but I think she hit the pavement face. The blow gave him below the line of the hull, not could protect him. I do not think it was very fast, since the area is not very steep. "Weylandt, whose wife, Anne Sophie, is expecting a baby in September, is the fourth rider to die in the Giro. The latest death, that of Emilio Ravasio, occurred in 1986, ten years after that, also in Sicily, down Juan Manuel Santisteban end. However, death is remembered most yesterday was the pack of Italian Fabio Casartelli, who suffered a fall while descending the Portet d'Aspet in the Tour 1995. "I've been beside the fallen body and, like everyone else, I watched from the car," said José Luis Jaimerena, director of Movistar.Bocco The decline is not particularly dangerous, but very technical. "No one in any case, warning that there might be danger," said Lastras. "Yes, but the danger is not so much the area but we were a party of more than 200 in both the general who play like they wanted to be seeking stage before," muses Francisco Ventoso. "And that, in a third stage is too risky because we are all integers, has not yet made a selection. For one last week, well, not so soon."Neither he nor the group that was formed and eventually end up fighting over who wins or the firing managers reported that their partner had died. They learned later. Angel Vicioso won, the Androni, now second overall, seven seconds behind the Briton David Millar (Garmin).

There was no music or celebrations at the finish. Only silence. "And what the riders and the teams decide to do tomorrow's stage will respect the organization," said Angelo Zomegnan, the director general of the race, former journalist, who said: "Cycling is a sport in which riders risk their lives in every yard. "The day after Casartelli's death, the riders of the Tour neutralized the stage and let their fellow Motorola stepped forward and paid tribute to his gesture. A day of emotion and introspection as it surely will live today between Genoa and Livorno, as if only death riders return to the performing monkeys, consideration of people.