Italy's Fabio Casartelli died today after a high-speed crash involving two other riders during the 15th stage of the Tour de France.
Casartelli, of the American Motorola team, was taken to a hospital after crashing into a concrete block on the side of the road in the Pyrenees.He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tarbes, and died after being in a coma for a few hours.
"Dr. Nicolet, who was with him in the helicopter, called me and told me that their revival attempts were unsuccessful. Casartelli had three cardiac arrests in the helicopter," said Jean-Marie Leblanc, the director of the Tour de France. "It's terrible for the Motorola team, for Italian cycling and for the Tour de France."
"He has serious facial and skull injuries," tour doctor Gerard Porte said. "He went into a deep and immediate coma."
It was the first death on the Tour de France since 1967, when British rider Tom Simpson collapsed during a mountain climb on an extremely hot day.
Casartelli, who was married, was the Olympic champion in the road race at the 1992 Barcelona Games. He would have turned 25 on Aug. 16.
He won the Olympic gold medal in the road race as an amateur and also had 12 additional wins that year. He mostly was successful in individual stages.
Casartelli, Germany's Dirk Baldinger of the Polti team and Italy's Dante Rezze crashed during one of the descents of the 128-mile stage from St. Girons to Cauterets.
At speeds approaching 55 mph, the riders failed to negotiate a curve and fell about 181/2 miles from the start on the Portet d'Aspet mountain.
Rezze and Baldinger were taken to the hospital in Saint-Gaudens. Porte said Rezze injured his left thigh, while Baldinger suffered mulitiple injuries.
In Italy, former world champion Vittorio Adorni, now an Italian television commentator, was close to tears as he announced Casartelli's death during a live telecast of the stage.
Gianni Savio, Casartelli's manager at ZG Mobili-Selle Italia last year, told Italian television he was heartsick by the death "of a friend.
"He was a splendid, sensible, frank young boy. . . . Now the stage, everything, has a minor importance."
In 1993, Casartelli's first pro season with Ariostea, he won a stage in the Settimana Verfnasca and had three second-place finishes in stages of the Tour of Switzerland.
The following year he raced with the Italian team GB-MG but a knee injury followed by corrective surgery kept him from competing much of the season.
In 1935 another rider, Francesco Cepeda of Spain, died after a fall in a ravine.