The 2024 World Championships are in the history and over the last week in Zurich, there were plenty of memorable moments. Sadly though, not all are memorable in a good way. As such, on the latest episode of Sporza's Wielerclub Wattage, the question was asked: "Will this World Championship go down in history as Lotte Kopecky's Worlds, Tadej Pogacar's Worlds or the World Championship where a young woman lost her life?"
"Unfortunately, that will probably be the World Championship of Tadej and Lotte. Because history teaches us that something like that is always forgotten rather quickly. Except by the family and the teammates, of course. But it will not be different now, I fear," laments 2005 world champion Tom Boonen, referring of course, to the tragic death of Swiss junior Muriel Furrer after a crash in the women's junior road race.
Following the crash and the heart breaking news of Furrer's passing, many on social media have been incredibly critical of the UCI and especially of David Lappartient's comments in the aftermath, where the UCI boss claimed (without any evidence) that 50% of crashes are due to rider error, seemingly passing the buck for yet another fatal crash in recent memory at a UCI organised event. Boonen too has been left far from impressed by the sport's governing body.
"The hypocrisy of the UCI is enormous," he fumes. "In the Tour de France they blame Julien Bernard because he stopped at his family's house to give his child a hug. They called that 'damaging the image of cycling'. But what is this? My daughters are turning 10 and are looking for a sport. But cycling? I'm really not in the mood for that."
The latest update from Swiss Police says there are no witnesses to call upon in regard to Furrer's crash, with some reports that the 18-year-old was left laying unfound in the forest for over an hour. "Wasn't there anyone checking with trackers where everyone was?" Boonen wonders. "And just block off any descent. With straw bales or something else, but make sure you can't get under those barriers."
Ex-pro Jan Bakelants is also concerned and highly critical. "It does make us angry," the Belgian adds. "I find it unbelievable how the sport refuses to look in the mirror and how these kinds of accidents keep happening. It's just too much. In the last 1.5 years alone, we can speak of 3 fatal accidents in UCI-organised races."
"Two weeks ago, at the European Championships in Hasselt, I was in a kind of panel discussion with doctor Xavier Bigard of the UCI," Bakelants explains. "They said: 'We are currently investigating whether there are actually more incidents than before.' But that phase should have been over long ago. And the approach of whether there are more incidents is simply irrelevant. It's about how we can get to 0 incidents, because every incident is one too many."
"What also bothers me is that everyone spends one evening tweeting photos with the message RIP," Bakelants concludes with sadness. "But the next day there is a new stream of news. That way the story fades into the background and that is actually what those kinds of organizations count on to get away with this. It can't go on like this."
🇨🇭Swiss authorities confirm crash site of Muriel Furrer. "The rider fell near Küsnacht, during a descent from the hamlet of Schmalzgrueb in a gentle left bend." Blick media believes the crash occurred at 11:03 and that Furrer was found after the race ended (12:33) 📸 UCI
