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CYCLING

Patched-up Swede wins women’s mountain bike gold

Battle-scarred Jenny Rissveds won the Olympic Games women's mountain bike gold medal on Saturday, just a week after needing 10 stitches in her knee and elbow following a training fall.

Published: 21 August 2016 09:38 CEST
Patched-up Swede wins women's mountain bike gold
Rissveds won the gold just a week after needing 10 stitches in her knee and elbow following a training fall. Photo: TT

World youth champion Rissveds, 22, finished 37 seconds ahead of Poland's Maja Wloszczowska, a silver medallist also in Beijing in 2008, and close to a minute and a half in front of Catherine Pendrel of Canada.

The win was a first gold medal for Sweden in any Olympic cycling event since Bernt Johansson who won the men's road race in 1976 in Montreal.

“I just came here a week ago. I crashed in training, and ended up with six stitches in my knee and four in my elbow and I thought this is not going to work at all,” said the new champion.

“But the day after that I went out on the course and I felt so good. I like this course but I was a little bit scared after that. After a few laps I felt good enough.”

In an indication of the bruising nature of the sport, Wloszczowska missed the London Games with a leg fracture.

“Before London I was one of the favourites for the gold medal, but I broke my leg three weeks before the Games, so I had to focus for another four years,” said the Pole.

“It was not easy but it was all needed to be lucky today.”

CYCLING

Swiss rider dies after fall into ravine on Tour of Switzerland

Swiss rider Gino Maeder has died from the injuries he sustained when he plunged into a ravine during a stage of the Tour of Switzerland, his team Bahrain-Victorious said on Friday.

Published: 16 June 2023 12:54 CEST
Swiss rider dies after fall into ravine on Tour of Switzerland

Maeder, 26, fell during a high-speed descent on the fifth stage between Fiesch and La Punt on Thursday, after an exhausting day marked by three ascents over 2,000 metres altitude.

He had been found “lifeless in the water” of a ravine below the road, “immediately resuscitated then transported to the hospital in Chur by air”, organisers said.

But the next day, “Gino lost his battle to recover from the serious injuries he sustained,” Bahrain-Victorious said in a statement.

“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we must announce the passing of Gino Mäder,” his team wrote in a statement.

“On Friday June 16th, following a very serious fall during the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse, Gino lost his fight to recover from the serious injuries he had suffered. Our entire team is devastated by this tragic accident, and our thoughts and prayers are with Gino’s family and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.”

“Despite the best efforts of the phenomenal staff at Chur hospital, Gino couldn’t make it through this, his final and biggest challenge, and at 11:30am we said goodbye to one of the shining lights of our team,” the team said in a statement.

Maeder had enjoyed a strong start to the season, finishing fifth in the Paris-Nice race.

American rider Magnus Sheffield also fell on the same descent from Albula, during the most difficult stage of the race with multiple climbs. The Ineos-Grenadiers rider was hospitalised with “bruises and concussion,” organisers said.

On Thursday, world champion Remco Evenepoel criticised the decision to compete on such a dangerous road.

“While a summit finish would have been perfectly possible, it wasn’t a good decision to let us finish down this dangerous descent,” the Belgian wrote on Twitter.

“As riders, we should also think about the risks we take going down a mountain.”

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