Doctors spent the night fighting for Muriel Furrer's life. On Friday afternoon, the Swiss junior dies after her crash at the World Championships. Cycling expert Henri Gammenthaler talks to blue Sport about the drama.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The cycling world mourns the death of Muriel Furrer. The young Swiss rider succumbs to her injuries the day after her serious crash at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich.
- Cycling expert Henri Gammenthaler mourns Furrer and talks about the dangerous accident site.
- He would like to see the World Championships stopped after the tragic accident. However, the organizers have announced that the race will continue.
"I have tears in my eyes. It's a huge drama. This girl was an excellent mountain biker, very good off-road. Now she comes to these road world championships and is so unlucky. It's just tragic," says Henri Gammenthaler in an interview with blue Sport shortly after learning of Muriel Furrer's death.
Henri Gammenthaler
Henri Gammenthaler analyzes cycling events for blue Sport. The Zurich native was once a rider himself and later a TV and radio pundit and commentator for the Tour de Suisse.
Gammenthaler lives not far from the scene of the accident and knows the route inside out. "It's in the middle of the forest. The descent towards Küsnacht is dangerous. Anyone who has ever ridden past there knows that," he explains.
His sadness is great, but Gammenthaler is not surprised that there was a serious crash on this descent. "There are cracks in the road, it's very steep and you can hardly see anything," he says. "It's immeasurably unlucky that an 18-year-old, talented rider has to lose her life there."
According to media reports, Furrer crashed on a left-hand bend, landed in the undergrowth and initially lay undetected next to the race track. Passing vehicles are said not to have seen her immediately. "If it's true that nobody noticed that she was missing from the track, that's insane," says Gammenthaler.
The question of safety
He would like to see the World Championships stopped after the drama. However, the competitions will continue until Sunday, as the organizers announced on Friday afternoon. This is also in the interests of Muriel Furrer's relatives. The organizers are not yet able to provide any information on the circumstances of the accident.
The sport has become brutal and is increasingly associated with accidents, explains Gammenthaler. This is also because the professional cyclists are getting faster and faster: "They have the latest, lightest and fastest equipment. With today's bikes, you can ride down a hill at 100 km/h and the bike remains stable." It becomes correspondingly dangerous if a rider falls.
After the death of Gino Mäder at last year's Tour de Suisse, Muriel Furrer's death at the World Cycling Championships in Zurich is the next drama in Swiss cycling. For Gammenthaler, it is clear that the race organizers and the world federation must react and invest in safer routes: "In order to increase safety, completely different routes would have to be designed and the dangerous spots defused. That doesn't happen enough."
