"Gino Mäder was just too good for this world" - Matej Mohoric admits contemplating retirement after teammates tragic death

After Gino Mäder's tragic passing following a crash at the Tour de Suisse earlier this year, the cycling world was sent into mourning. For the teammates of Mäder, it was incredibly difficult to continue riding as Matej Mohoric has detailed.

“When something like that happens then you of course consider quitting. You question why you are doing this and if it is really worth it,” Mohoric told Velo. “A young man lost his life like that. He was a really good person. We were very close with him, and I probably spent more days with Gino together in the room than with my brothers and sisters. So, it’s not easy to lose a friend like this and you need to speak to others you need to decide for yourself if you still wish to do this or not."

“Also because your family, they need to watch you racing. It was a racing accident, but I don’t think racing is any more dangerous than training or living in general," Mohoric continues. "Things can happen when you least expect them. I also believe in God, and that gives me at least some weight off my shoulders. I believe that maybe Gino was just too good for this world, and it might have been his destiny that he left us, but we’ll never know. You need to think and speak about this stuff. Because if you don’t, then it can stay inside you and if you don’t solve this, then it can be hard and it can come up when you’re least expecting it.”

After Mader's sudden death, his teammates were given counselling by their team to help come to terms with what transpired. “They did their best and they pushed us to discuss things and to be open and to ask for help if somebody needs it,” Mohoric recalls. “I definitely think that created a bond amongst us. Gino was very open-minded, and we were all very close to him. He was not an introvert he was a very nice guy and that’s why it’s probably touched us even more.”

As Bahrain - Victorious honoured the memory of their much-missed teammate with the 'Ride for Gino' campaign, Mohoric took a stage win at the Tour de France, giving an emotional post-stage interview for the ages afterwards. “You could feel that it was different,” Mohorič said. “The best example was when I got in the breakaway on stage 9 to Puy de Dome. Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn’t even have tried to insist and do the climb to the best of my abilities to try and fight for the stage because I would consider myself to have no chance to win the stage but I wanted to honour Gino."

"He was also a climber, so I went to my limit there and I was not too far off of a chance to win that stage. It just shows how determined we were to do well and to do our jobs. It’s not preset that you want to keep doing this when something like this happens,” he concludes.