Ex-professional Wegmann after Mäder's death: "It's a catastrophe"

Former professional cyclist Fabian Wegmann has defended the organisers of the Tour de Suisse following the fatal crash of professional cyclist Gino Mäder.

"As an organiser, you can't completely secure such a long route and secure every pass with safety fences so that a rider can't leave the road. That's not feasible in terms of time and money," he said in an interview with the German Press Agency.

As head of sport, the 42-year-old supports the planning of the Deutschland Tour routes. Wegmann was "devastated" when he received the sad news. "It's a catastrophe," he said.

On Thursday, 26-year-old Mäder fell into a ravine at high speed on the descent from the Albula Pass to the finish in La Punt on the last few kilometres of the fifth stage and had to be resuscitated. One day later, the seriously injured Swiss rider died in hospital. The sixth stage, which was originally planned, was cancelled, and instead the pros held a memorial ride in memory of their colleague. Late on Friday evening, the race organisers announced that the tour would continue in consultation with Mäder's family as well as the teams and riders.

Wegmann: "Departures not so close to the finish"

"The organiser has often organised this stage in this way. You can't just say that it's only the organiser's responsibility now. From what I've seen, that was a riding mistake," said Wegmann. The Münster-born rider, who won the Eschborn-Frankfurt classic twice during his active career and rode the route in Switzerland himself, suggested: "Perhaps in future we need to ensure that descents are not made so close to the finish."

Maximum speeds of more than 100 kilometres per hour would be reached on this descent. "That's dangerous. As a racing driver, you don't always think about it, but it's always there. I assume that Gino has ridden the descent before. He wasn't racing for a stage win or the overall classification. There was no pressure for him to take a 100 per cent risk," Wegmann added.

World champion Remco Evenepoel from Belgium criticised the organisers' route. It was not a clever idea to place the finish of such a stage after a descent, said the 23-year-old according to the Swiss newspaper "Blick". "But you obviously still need more spectacle. Something simply has to happen for people to react," said Evenepoel.

Wegmann is currently planning the route of the Tour of Germany, which starts at the end of August, intensively. Even if the descents there cannot be compared with the Tour de Suisse, safety is a top priority. Wegmann is working with a standard Norwegian safety system to help protect the pros on the course.

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