He was Swiss, only 26 years old, and was promised many happy days on the bike. “Gino was supposed to participate in the next Tour de France for the first time. He was very excited and excited about the idea, he told us about it with envy a few days ago at the hotel,” a member of his Bahrain Winner team, who passed out when the new one was announced, admitted to us this Friday. Gino Mader died from his injuries on the morning of June 16 after a heavy fall the day before at the end of stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.
He then finished 27th overall and crashed on the 197th kilometer of the Swiss competition royal in a dizzying descent from the Albula Pass after a grueling day marked by three ascents above 2000m above sea level. He was found “inert in water” in a ravine under the road. Resuscitated and then airlifted to Chur Hospital, “Gino lost the fight to recover from the severe injuries he sustained. He was unable to complete his last and greatest task and at 11:30 we had to say goodbye to one of our team’s lights,” shouts the “Bahrain Winner” scheme.
“We prayed and hoped,” another member of the formation admits. But, alas, since Thursday evening we have known that his injuries are very serious and the outcome will probably be fatal. We expected the worst. In his career, Gino Mader didn’t get the chance his talent deserved. A broken wrist left him sidelined for a long time in the early days, and the 2020 Covid epidemic slowed his growth as he took off. Before this tragic fate. “He loved his girlfriend and his dog. He cared about Switzerland, climate change, and curing the world’s ills. Gone is the bright light, ”writes his cyclist friend Kate Wagner online.
A few hours after the tragedy, tributes poured in. “He was a good and smart guy,” one of his relatives admits on condition of anonymity to hide his pain. “You were a warrior, a posh Gino type,” replies Julian Alaphilippe.
He reveals himself in the Tour de l’Avenir with Pogacar.
The Swiss came from a family of cyclists. He also dedicated his existence to the sport to console himself over his parents’ divorce, he said in an Instagram post a few years ago as a therapeutic confession. He made a name for himself in 2018 outside his country at the Tour de l’Avenir with IAM Excelsior. He won two stages in the Alps and finished third in a competition that was won by a certain… Tadej Pogacar. This performance brought him to the attention of the South African team Dimension Data, who took him to the big leagues and the WorldTour (First Division peloton) in 2019.
A few months later, he discovered his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta. Twentieth for his debut, he returned to Spain a year later with Bahrain-Victorious. He finished fifth in an event won by Primož Roglic and finished in Santiago de Compostela with the white best boy jersey on his back. Tenth place in Paris-Nice, sixth place in the Giro thanks to the victory at the 6th stage of the Sangiacomo. and an eighth place in the Tour de Suisse the same year created high expectations.
In this Vuelta 2021, Gino Mader is committed to protecting the environment and proving that he is a “good guy”. “Each runner I beat at each stage will be the equivalent of one euro that I will donate to the environmental association,” he wrote at the start of the event in August 2021. Unfortunately for his banker, the Swiss managed to pull off the Vuelta Royale. He eventually raised €3,159 which he donated to Justdiggit, an association that is campaigning to “Green Africa for the next ten years”. »
As if that wasn’t enough, Gino Mader adds 10 euros to his personal kitten for every runner behind him in the final standings. So he finished fifth and that made a lot of people go retro. Here are the 1370 euros that are added. Total bill: 4,529 euros. In 2022, he decides to do it again, but for the whole season, to finance the fight against global warming and the disappearance of the alpine glaciers, which he admired as a child. He died next to them.
“I really appreciate his way of expressing his views on our future. He was critical of the future of our planet, but not only negatively. He also had a foundation for climate protection,” Olivier Senn, director of the Tour de Suisse, slips us a few hours after the announcement of his death. “Gino was not only an extremely talented cyclist, but also a great person off the bike. I bow to his talent, his dedication and his enthusiasm,” exclaims Bahrain general manager Milan Erzen inconsolably.
Source: Le Parisien
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a keen interest in sports and have written for many different publications. I am currently working as an author at 24 News Recorder. I cover mostly sports news but also write about other topics such as current affairs and politics. I have a strong interest in social media and how it can be used to engage with audiences.
