Muriel Furrer

[redir]

Just tragic. 18 years old. Just a child really and her whole life ahead of her. Sad day for the racing cycling community and a terrible day for her family and friends.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/racing...-championships

[Big Dan]

Sad news.

[Fat Cat]

Rain soaked courses cannot be made safe. Why were juniors racing on it?

Her tragic death was wholly the result of irresponsible race management.

I'm sure that there are a number of arguments to the contrary. IMO they can GFY

[marciero]

heart breaking.

[echappist]

That's awful...

I first read about this yesterday; didn't realize that things took a turn for the worse.

Originally Posted by Fat Cat

Rain soaked courses cannot be made safe. Why were juniors racing on it?

Her tragic death was wholly the result of irresponsible race management.

I'm sure that there are a number of arguments to the contrary. IMO they can GFY

Hard-man/ hard-woman mentality that pervades the sport.

Just look at the carnage inflicted by the rainy stage in the Basque Country, where they thought it proper to descend on some truly gnarly roads in wet conditions. I often see roads with really bad descents and am amazed that worse incidents don't happen more often.

When I partook in amateur racing, rainy races were almost always a no, followed by races in really windy conditions, where you know people would try something dumb near the double yellow-line just to get an advantage.

[redir]

Originally Posted by Fat Cat

Rain soaked courses cannot be made safe. Why were juniors racing on it?

Her tragic death was wholly the result of irresponsible race management.

I'm sure that there are a number of arguments to the contrary. IMO they can GFY

Yeah it's always been a part of the sport, maybe it shouldn't be.

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by redir

Yeah it's always been a part of the sport, maybe it shouldn't be.

Correct on both points. Perhaps we learn from this in the future sometimes an event will have to be rescheduled or outright cancelled. Skiing does some of this already, as do motorsports.

I came over to Switzerland to watch the races and though I haven’t attended anything yet as of Friday evening this news yesterday came as a shock and today’s tragic announcement was even worse. The news was announced while the men’s U23 race was underway and Swiss TV broadcasters decided, out of respect for the family, to not announce anything during the race. The racers were likely unaware of the announcement until after their race.

Our plan for tomorrow is to head into the city to watch the Elite Women’s race and on Sunday the Men’s race. But this tragedy surely overshadows the whole event. It’s hard to have absolute safety. In fact, it’s impossible. So maybe we have to accept that sometimes races have to be rescheduled, postponed or even cancelled. To see an 18-year old young woman’s life be ended in a bicycle race is hart to fathom. It’s not worth it.

[tv_vt]

So shockingly sad. My heart goes out to her family on their loss.

[Likes2ridefar]

Tennis stops play when the court gets wet to reduce the risk of injury.

[XXtwindad]

Originally Posted by echappist

That's awful...

I first read about this yesterday; didn't realize that things took a turn for the worse.



Hard-man/ hard-woman mentality that pervades the sport.

Just look at the carnage inflicted by the rainy stage in the Basque Country, where they thought it proper to descend on some truly gnarly roads in wet conditions. I often see roads with really bad descents and am amazed that worse incidents don't happen more often.

When I partook in amateur racing, rainy races were almost always a no, followed by races in really windy conditions, where you know people would try something dumb near the double yellow-line just to get an advantage.

This sums things up nicely.

[Permanent socks]

RIP Muriel. It's tragic when we lose a young soul.

Lots of strong opinions from people with no skin in the game. Give me a break.

Paceline hive mind doesn't want racing in the rain, down mountains, in strong winds, no sprints, no TT bikes.

For the record.... a few of my son's teammates amd training partners were racing in both the junior women's race and junior men's race.

A friend was there yesterday. The conditions were hard but they weren't dangerous..

[Likes2ridefar]

I left my skin from the game…

[echappist]

Originally Posted by Permanent socks

RIP Muriel. It's tragic when we lose a young soul.

Lots of strong opinions from people with no skin in the game. Give me a break.

Paceline hive mind doesn't want racing in the rain, down mountains, in strong winds, no sprints, no TT bikes.

For the record.... a few of my son's teammates amd training partners were racing in both the junior women's race and junior men's race.

A friend was there yesterday. The conditions were hard but they weren't dangerous..

You are right, we have no skin (taken to mean no standing/ direct interest) in the game.

But by the same token, neither do you, as the fact you tangentially know someone who partook still leaves you two degrees short of any standing or direct interest.

So you are just another punter like the rest of us, except you are wrong.

You say the conditions weren't dangerous, which on its face is contradicted by the death of a competitor. But that's not all. Conditions can be dangerous, yet with all competitors making it through unscathed. Conditions can also be reasonably safe, yet with unfortunate events conspiring to wreak havoc. In the present case, your position of conditions yesterday being "not dangerous" is contrasted by many others who commented on how that particular descent is the most technical and non-intuitive out of many other possible routes down.

And for the record, stages get neutralized all the time (e.g. positions having no effect on GC). But you do you decrying all soft everyone else has gotten.

[Permanent socks]

I'd rather not engage in this thread about the death of a young racer.

It was inappropriate to write anything other than RIP.

[Baron Blubba]

Originally Posted by redir

Yeah it's always been a part of the sport, maybe it shouldn't be.

Exactly. It should shouldn't be. "Cycling is suffering" and its derivatives are stupid adages that get taken way too far and out of context, preventing common sense, or what ought to be common sense, to prevail over the sport's obsession with hardman posturing stupidity.
People are not chattel. It doesn't matter how much they are getting paid or how much time, money, and effort have gone into the organization of an event -from a local crit to the Tour de France. If conditions are unsafe, the event should be postponed, abbreviated, otherwise altered, or cancelled.

Where do we draw the safety line? That's something that a conversation between riders, management, and organizers can decide.

Watching that one World Tour Pro practically fall off his bike with hypothermia a few months ago after racing for hours in the freezing rain just makes me hate the sport of cycling. I will always love the activity, but I have zero love for the sport.