Things were looking good for Swiss cycling. After almost two days of rain, the sun had just worked its way through the cloudy sky over Lake Zurich, bathing the city in a soft, warming light. People flocked to the steep section of Zürichbergstrasse because they had seen on the TV pictures that a Swiss rider was well on his way to a great success at this World Championships in his own country.
At the start of the last lap of the U23 road race, the acclaimed young man named Jan Christen cast a furtive glance at the large TV screen at the side of the course. He could see that he was comfortably ahead of all his rivals, around 50 seconds ahead. As an eyewitness, you thought you could see a smile flit across the 20-year-old's face in the middle of one of the steepest sections of this world championship course. He was on his way to fulfilling a childhood dream of using this race in the men's U23 category as a springboard for his career. To capitalise on his great talent.
Tragic death at the World Cycling Championships
What Jan Christen didn't see, didn't realise: Swiss cycling had been in a state of shock for a good hour. A young team-mate had succumbed to the serious injuries she had suffered the day before as a participant in the junior world championship race. Muriel Furrer, 18 years old - for her, taking part in the World Championships just a few kilometres from her home must have been a tremendous experience.
"A young talent who would have had a great future ahead of him", according to a statement from the UCI cycling organisation. In pursuit of their youthful dreams, the young talents around Christen, with their tunnel vision for the race track and their competitors, did not even notice that at around 4 p.m., before the start of the last lap of the race, workers at the side of the track lowered the flags to half-mast. The live pictures on Swiss TV channel SRF were shown without commentary since it became public knowledge that Furrer had lost her final battle. A text overlay provided information about the death.
Behrens surprisingly becomes U23 World Champion
What followed was a difficult balancing act between jubilation and joy on the one hand, and sadness and compassion on the other. Niklas Behrens, who caught up with the slowing Christen in the chasing group and was able to celebrate as U23 World Champion after winning the final sprint with his last ounce of strength, was able to report on this.
"I dreamed of this!" said the 20-year-old from Bremen at an improvised press conference with German journalists - standing in front of the containers for the doping control because all press appointments with athletes had been cancelled by the UCI that day. The young German reported: "I didn't realise anything at first. I crossed the finish line full of joy. Then I wondered a bit why everyone was clapping at first and then suddenly there was silence."
Road World Championship: Between the thrill of victory and terrible news
Those were the moments between victory and shock news. There was no national anthem or fanfare at the victory ceremony. And Behrens also sensed that there is a fine line between dream and nightmare in fast-paced road cycling - between winning gold and a fatal "DNF" (abbreviation for did not finish), as it was succinctly written behind Furrer's name in the results list.
"I had mixed feelings at the award ceremony. I had to think about my parents and family. I can't be as happy about the World Championship title now as I would have been if everything had gone well," said Behrens, revealing his inner feelings. The cycling family had been fearing for the young athlete's life for a whole day. Behrens himself had skidded dangerously several times on the wet roads. While the German world champion and his peers were caught unprepared, the women started the next day informed, but no less shocked.
Condolences from the world champion
It began with a minute's silence for the peloton in the pouring rain, with the racers from the host country's team in the front row. "The Swiss women crying at the start - you don't want to see that," said Lotte Kopecky, who was cheered on as world champion by her Belgian team-mates at the end. It was a strong performance with which Kopecky prevailed against the numerically superior Dutch women. In the final sprint of the leading group the 28-year-old defended her World Championship title - as only the sixth woman in the history of cycling. But it was a day of reflection, not one for superlatives and hymns of praise.
Road World Championships: Chasing medals with fear and discomfort
"There wasn't a single person in the peloton who didn't think of the young woman. But then we focussed on the race - and maybe it was a way of celebrating her and her life, the fact that she was a cyclist who had dreams and goals," said bronze medallist Elisa Longo Borghini, who struggled for words.
Antonia Niedermaier, the up-and-coming German cycling talent, reported afterwards how much of a mental strain the race had put on her. After all, the 21-year-old from Upper Bavaria felt that her fellow riders were particularly careful during the rainy race, during which they all passed the accident site several times. It was not much different for Georg Zimmermann, who finished 15th in the men's road race a day later and was the best German.
Although exhausted, he was able to realise with satisfaction that he had gained the experience of being able to be even further up the field in the most important one-day race of the year. After all, he felt during the race that the eventual silver medallist Ben O'Connor didn't look any fresher on the climbs than he did. But the 26-year-old from Augsburg also spoke about unpleasant experiences: "It was a strange feeling to be riding on the same course. Fortunately, I didn't know exactly where it happened." Otherwise, he would have preferred to give the scene of the accident a wide berth.
Re-emerging safety debate in cycling
It began after the fatal crash, the circumstances of which remained unclear during the Road World Championships (see below), once again a discussion about safety in road cycling. Within the space of a year, Swiss professional cyclist Gino Mäder died at the Tour de Suisse 2023 and Norwegian André Drege at the Tour of Austria last July. Then there was the serious racing accident at the Tour of the Basque Country, in which Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel were seriously injured.
As the most experienced member of the German team, Simon Geschke, who competed in his last World Championships in Zurich, emphasised that a lot had improved in terms of safety in recent years and that the professionals and their concerns had been listened to. But he also said that not all dangers could be ruled out. Others, such as the German national rider Franziska Koch, praised the fact that the organisers in Zurich had removed a lot of street furniture such as traffic islands from the race course before the race and had done a lot to improve safety.
There was no criticism of the organisers, the route or safety from the peloton. However, world champion Tadej Pogacar, who always makes everything look so easy and daring on a racing bike, warned: "We are practising a dangerous sport." Rarely at a World Championships has it been clearer how thin the line is in cycling between a spectacular triumphant ride like the Slovenian's solo on the roads around Zurich and fatal tragedy. The rainbow symbolising the World Championships was symbolically plunged into a valley of tears in Zurich.
Fatal racing accident among the juniors
The Road World Championships in Zurich were overshadowed by Muriel Furrer's fatal accident. The 18-year-old Swiss rider crashed during the junior women's race and died the following day from severe head injuries at Zurich University Hospital. What exactly happened remained a mystery during the World Championships. The Zurich cantonal police did not respond to press enquiries. The authorities had left communication to the world cycling organisation UCI and the local OC. The officials failed to provide useful answers for days - despite many questions at several press conferences. Research by Swiss media suggested that the seriously injured cyclist was found and treated extremely late.
The crash on a winding descent in a wooded area near Küsnacht could not be seen on TV footage and was apparently not noticed or reported by anyone during the race. When the race passed the accident site for the second time, no rescue measures could be seen on TV, only later on the sidelines of a subsequent para-cycling race.
A rescue helicopter did not arrive at the scene of the accident until around two hours after the presumed time of the accident. For the following races, the scene of the accident was cordoned off with mats and warning signs were put up. Furrer was one of the world's top cyclocross and mountain bike riders in the U19 class and lived around ten kilometres from the scene of the accident. The public will not be informed until the investigations by the Zurich public prosecutor's office have been completed.
Results of the Road World Championships in Zurich
Women (154.1km/2250 vertical metres)
- Lotte Kopecky (BEL), 4:05:26 hrs (37.67 km/h)
- Chloé Dygert (USA)
- Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy)
- Liane Lippert (Germany)
- Demi Vollering (Netherlands)
- Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Australia), all same time
- Justine Ghekiere (Belgium), +1:06 min.
- Marianne Vos (Netherlands)
- Riejanne Markus (Netherlands), all same time
- Blanka Vas (Netherlands), +3:00
- ... 18. Antonia Niedermaier (Germany), same time
Special classification U23
- Puck Pieterse (Netherlands), 4:08:26 hours
- Neve Bradbury (Australia)
- Antonia Niedermaier (Germany), all same time
Men (273.9 km/4300 vertical metres)
- Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia), 6:27:30 hrs (42.41 km/h)
- Ben O'Connor (Australia), +0:34 min.
- Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), +0:58
- Toms Skujiiņš (Latvia)
- Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)
- Marc Hirschi (Switzerland), all gl. time
- Ben Healy (Ireland), +1:00
- Enric Mas (Spain), +1:01
- Quinn Simmons (USA), +2:18
- Romain Bardet (France),
- ... 15th Georg Zimmermann (Germany), +3:52
- ... 28th Florian Lipowitz (Germany), +6:36
U23
- Niklas Behrens (Germany), 3:57:24 hrs.
- Martin Svrček (Slovakia), same time
- Alec Segaert (Belgium), +28 sec
Andreas Kublik
Editor
