Teams withdraw from Tour of Switzerland after Maeder tragedy
Two entire teams as well as several individual cyclists withdrew from the Tour of Switzerland on Saturday following the death of Swiss rider Gino Maeder.
Maeder, who rode for Team Bahrain Victorious, fell into a ravine in the downhill finale of Thursday's fifth stage.
He died from his injuries on Friday. He was 26.
Maeder's team immediately pulled out and they were joined on Saturday by Swiss outfit Tudor and Belgian rivals Intermarche prior to the seventh stage.
In all 36 riders did not take part in the stage -- an 184-kilometre ride from Tubach to Weinfelden -- and those who did observed a minute's silence.
A dove was released as a further moving tribute.
The withdrawals came despite organisers saying they had decided to proceed with the remainder of the race after consulting both the teams and the rider's family.
Tudor, though, tweeted it could not carry on.
"After careful consideration and talking to both riders and staff, the team decided not to continue racing this year's Tour de Suisse," Tudor tweeted.
"Under these difficult circumstances we feel it is the human way to respect the feelings of our riders and pay respect to Gino," it added.
Intermarche followed suit.
"After consultations with our riders and staff, we have decided to withdraw from the Tour of Switzerland," Intermarche posted on social media.
"Our priority is to respect the mental health of our riders."
Following the news of his death, the cyclists took part in a 20km ride in his honour to replace the sixth stage.
Organisers decided against cancelling the tour altogether.
However, they said that Saturday's stage would be raced normally although the overall standings were to be frozen 25km from the finishing line.
- 'Really tough' -
"We respect the decision of each team and the individual riders which aligns with what we had predicted," organisers told AFP.
"There will be a race over the original planned route but the times for the overall standings will be taken at the 25km to the finish mark (prior to the final climb of the stage)."
World road race champion Remco Evenepoel said that those racing on Saturday were planning more to go through the motions than compete for victory.
"The remaining race favourites agreed to refrain from attacking today," he said.
"Today will be really tough for us in the peloton to focus, to start the stage," he said.
"However, we respect the decision of his family, and his team to resume the race."
Evenepoel helped organise an unofficially neutralised section amongst the favourites before he himself rode away to victory in the finale.
"We decided together it would be appropriate that way," said Evenepoel who is favourite to win the race which culminates with a 26km individual time-trial on Sunday.
Maeder's death sparked many tributes led by two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar, who posted on Instagram: "Rest in peace (heart emoji) I will miss you."
Pogacar's fellow Slovenian and recently-crowned Giro d'Italia winner Primoz Roglic tweeted: "Speechless."
(E.Beaufort--LPdF)
