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CYCLING; Italian Rider Dies After High-Speed Crash

By Samuel Abt

• July 19, 1995

Fabio Casartelli, a 24-year-old Italian bicycle racer who was the reigning Olympic road race champion, was killed in the Tour de France today when he crashed on a steep and sinuous descent in the mountains and fractured his skull.

While Casartelli was being flown by helicopter to a hospital in Tarbes, his heart stopped three times. He was revived by doctors aboard the craft after the first two attacks, but they were unsuccessful after the third and he could not be helped at the hospital either.

Casartelli was not wearing a helmet, according to Reuters and The Associated Press. This is not unusual, since the overwhelming majority of the riders do not wear helmets on hot days, as this was. Nevertheless, it is sure to renew debate over whether protective headgear should be mandatory in major professional bicycle races.

"'It's an issue that will come to the forefront again," said Alfredo Martini, head of the Italian national cycling team. "It's time to deal with this issue seriously."

The death of the rider for the Motorola team was the third in the history of the Tour de France and the first since 1967. Tom Simpson, a British rider, died that July of heat asphyxiation, complicated by amphetamines, while climbing Mont Ventoux. In 1935, Francesco Cepeda of Spain died after a fall in a ravine. The Tour began in 1903.

Casartelli, the winner of the gold medal in the 1992 Olympic road race in Barcelona, Spain, would have turned 25 on Aug. 16. He was married and had a 4-month-old son.

He crashed on the descent from the Portet d'Aspet Pass, the first of six climbs in the Pyrenees. As riders approached speeds of 55 miles an hour, several of them, including Casartelli, failed to negotiate a curve. Casartelli then flew into the air and appeared to smash his skull into one of the low, concrete blocks lining the road high above a valley.

"It was a fairly fast descent," said the French rider Francois Simon, who was behind Casartelli. "At a certain point, there was a longer curve than the others. Casartelli couldn't make the turn. I think it was his back wheel which hit the side, and he flew in the air."

Television replays showed Casartelli lying on his right side in a fetal position, a stream of blood pouring from his head.

Casartelli began the race wearing a standard team cap made of cloth. The use of more substantive headgear is not mandatory in professional races in Europe except in Belgium and England, and even there, the helmets are strips of leather known as "hairnets," rather than more resistant hardshell gear. Headgear is also mandatory in the United States and Australia.

Despite the obvious dangers, few professional riders in the Tour de France wear helmets on hot days in the mountains, as this one was, protesting that for comfort's sake they prefer cloth caps or bare heads. Only about 5 percent would wear them in these conditions, compared with 75 percent on cooler days during flat stages.

When international officials tried to make helmets mandatory early in the 1990's, the riders protested and threatened to strike. The officials backed off.

The Motorola team announced this evening that it would continue to race in the Tour, and race officials said a moment of silence would be observed at the start of Wednesday's stage, which begins in Tarbes.

Three other riders were badly injured in the same crash today, and four others dropped out from exhaustion.

Dante Rezze, a Frenchman with the Aki team, went off the road and into a ravine, fracturing his left leg. Dirk Baldinger, a German with Polti, also fractured his left leg but, like Casartelli, did not hurtle off the road. Less seriously injured was Juan Cesar Aguirre, a Colombian with Kelme, although he had to withdraw from the race.

Rezze and Baldinger were both taken by ambulance to the town of St. Gaudens.

Tour doctors quickly examined Casartelli and determined that he had major injuries. Dr. Gerard Nicolet, one of the Tour's four doctors, and Dr. Massimo Testa, the Motorola team's doctor, accompanied the rider and tried to save him on the helicopter.

"I arrived 10 seconds after the fall," said Dr. Gerard Porte, the tour's chief doctor. "I could tell it was a serious injury. Casartelli had cuts that were bleeding badly. We did everything in the best conditions and as fast as we could. But he had very serious cuts, and when there's such heavy bleeding you know it was very powerful impact."

The accident occurred at Kilometer 34 (Mile 31) of the 206-kilometer-long (128 miles) stage in sunny and hot weather. Travelers with the Tour were warned beforehand that the descent was especially dangerous because of its many short curves and steep grades.

Casartelli crashed at 11:48 A.M. and his death was announced on the Tour's internal radio at 2:39 P.M. by Jean-Marie Leblanc, the director of the race. Since the news was heard by all 21 team directors and their deputies in their cars, it must have been passed along to the riders.

In today's stage from St. Girons in the lowlands to Cauterets atop a peak, Richard Virenque sped away early, held off all chasers easily and coasted over the finish line in a remarkably fresh state.

For more than a week, Virenque has been wearing the polka dot jersey of the Tour de France's best climber and explaining over and over again why he has not been the Tour's best climber. The closest he has come to that was when he bumped into Marco Pantani, the Italian rocket.

When Virenque donned the polka dot jersey this time, he could do it without embarrassment. Pantani, first up the mountain at Alpe d'Huez and Guzet-Neige, fell apart today and was still laboring to the finish when Virenque was leaving for the television studio.

Virenque won the equivalent stage in the Pyrenees last year and went on to keep the title of king of the mountains while finishing fifth in the Tour.

The Frenchman was timed in 6 hours 20 minutes 48 seconds today, an average of 32.4 kilometers an hour (20 m.p.h.). Virenque finished 1:17 ahead of Claudio Chiappucci, an Italian with Carrera. Third, 1:18 behind, was the Colombian revelation, Hernan Buenahora of the Kelme team. He finished second and fourth in recent stages of the three-week Tour, which ends Sunday in Paris.

When it does, Miguel Indurain, who maintained the overall lead, can look back on this stage as the day he almost certainly won his fifth successive Tour. Holding off all his main rivals, he finished sixth, 2:34 behind the winner, the same time as his shadow, the second-placed Alex Zulle, a Swiss with ONCE.

But when many people look back on this Tour, unfortunately they will remember it with sadness, for the death of Casartelli.

In his first year with Motorola, Casartelli rode previously for the Ariostea and GB-MG teams in Italy. He turned professional in 1993 and won a stage of the Settimana Bergamasca and three times finished second in stages of the Tour of Switzerland.

Last year, he was inactive because of a knee injury and corrective surgery. He had been racing well this season and was one of the last riders to be named to Motorola's Tour team, where his role was that of a domestique, a support rider.

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Crash Kills Cyclist in Pyrenees : Tour de France: Casartelli fails to make a turn at 55 m.p.h. and becomes third to die in 92-year history of race.

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One of the worst accidents in the 92-year history of the Tour de France sent shock waves through the international cycling community Tuesday as Italian rider Fabio Casartelli died after crashing into a concrete pylon at high speed.

Casartelli’s death was the third in the race’s history, and the accident is expected to rally support for a controversial helmet rule. Headgear probably wouldn’t have saved Casartelli, 24, who rode for the American Motorola team. He was traveling about 55 m.p.h. when he missed a turn along the steep, narrow road down the Col de Portet d’Aspet in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France.

Several other riders also failed to negotiate the steep curve and two were injured.

“It was a fairly fast descent,” French rider Francois Simon, who was behind Casartelli, told the Associated Press. “At a certain point, there was a longer curve than the others. Casartelli couldn’t make the turn. I think it was his back wheel that hit the side, and he flew in the air.”

Unconscious, Casartelli was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Tarbes, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later. Physicians said Casartelli had three cardiac arrests during the trip.

“Some riders went off the edge,” said George Noyes, Motorola’s chief mechanic, in Tarbes for today’s 16th stage to Pau. “Some riders went through the pylons [marking the edge of the road]. Fabio hit one directly.”

Casartelli’s was the first Tour death for a competitor since 1967, when British world champion Tom Simpson collapsed during a mountain climb on a hot day. In 1935, Spanish rider Francesco Cepeda was killed when he fell into a ravine.

Casartelli was the father of a 4-month-old boy. The 1992 Olympic road race champion from Cuomo was competing in his first Tour after having missed most of last season because of knee surgery.

Motorola’s riders and support crew decided during a team meeting after Tuesday’s stage to continue today.

“That’s what Fabio would want us to do,” Noyes said.

Richard Virenque of France won the 128-mile stage, and overall leader Miguel Indurain of Spain finished eighth, with second place Alex Zulle of Switzerland ninth.

Also injured during the crash were Dirk Baldinger of Germany, who broke a hip; and Dante Rezze of Italy, who suffered a bruised thigh.

“Sometimes, we don’t realize the risks we take on the descents,” France’s Laurent Maduoas told VeloNews after finishing Tuesday’s stage.

Like most of the cyclists on the hot, clear day in the mountains, Casartelli did not wear a helmet.

“It’s an issue that will come to the forefront again,” said Alfredo Martini, head of the Italian national cycling team. “It’s time to deal with this issue seriously.”

Helmets are mandatory in U.S. races, and the International Cycling Union tried to institute a helmet rule in 1991, but riders protested by boycotting a race in Belgium.

The world’s best riders turned the safety rule into an issue of choice, said Davis Phinney, a former Tour de France rider who lives in Boulder, Colo. It was more a statement of the young riders’ sense of invincibility, he added.

Now that Phinney is on the sidelines, he has a clearer picture of the chances riders take.

“Having been knocked out of my bike [with a] helmet on, [you] realize your head is like an eggshell,” he said. “All you have to do is slap it down on the pavement ever so slightly the wrong way and you snuff yourself out.”

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Darkness and light: remembering Fabio Casartelli

“It’s not true, it’s not true,” Annalisa Casartelli said when the phone call came through from Motorola team doctor Massimo Testa. Her husband was dead. Little more than two hours earlier, during stage 15 of the 1995 Tour de France, Fabio crashed while descending the Col de Portet d’Aspet. He hit his head on a roadside concrete block and could not be resuscitated after suffering four cardiac arrests.

Followers of professional cycling often laud suffering with the unspoken knowledge that it’s all temporary. The lactic acid burn of a race-winning move, the heartbreak of narrow defeat, the agony of a broken femur: sooner or later, the pain goes away and the athlete returns home. Sport is not a matter of life and death. When the latter occurs, nobody knows quite what to do. It’s not true. That evening, riders wept in shock at the loss of a friend and the stark reminder of their own mortality. 

At the funeral, two days later, 200 red roses adorn the coffin in the little Lombardy town of Albese. Hundreds of eyes are trained in sadness and sympathy on a young, black-haired woman. There are white flowers on her dress and she is holding a baby.

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This is Annalisa Casartelli and Marco, their two-month-old who was supposed to be baptised days after his father had finished the Tour. She feels like she cannot join the funeral procession, but she goes through with it. July 18 will always be a poignant date for her. “One year, five years, ten, it’s all the same. For me, everything ended that day [he died],” she says, years later. But thankfully, that’s not quite true either.

The leaves crunch underfoot as we walk down a long tree-lined avenue in Forli to a crossroads. On this winter afternoon, all the warmth seems to have been sucked out of this north-eastern Italian town. Our meeting place is the café-pasticceria where Annalisa works. Over the phone, her voice was emotionless, surprised, probably suspicious to be talking with an English journalist.

In person, she is bubbly and her laugh resounds round the room. Her partner Daniele sits next to her in a sweatshirt bearing the Union Jack. There is one proviso: no photographs of her face please as “we’re here to talk about Fabio.”

But really, this story is about them – and her.  Annalisa and Fabio met by chance during the August summer holidays of 1990 at the resort of Marina Romea on the nearby Adriatic coast. She was there with her aunt, while her future husband was seeing a friend while recovering from broken vertebrae. Without that injury, he would probably have been racing nearer his home in Como, 400 kilometres away.

It wasn’t exactly love at first sight. “He seemed very shy. I was too, what a pair we were,” she says. However, they saw each other every day for weeks in the same group of friends and talked a lot. “In the end, I changed my mind,” she said. Their first date was at the cinema, watching Tango & Cash, a mediocre good cop, bad cop thriller starring Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell. By the end of the summer, they went their separate ways as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Living four hours drive apart, they saw each other every three weeks, going to see more movies or mushroom picking in the Como foothills. Though he was an only child, Fabio had a large family and Annalisa felt nervous on her occasional visits. “Everyone would be looking because the Romagnola had arrived … I was always meeting someone new, it was endless. I’d forget their names.”

When they weren’t together, they were talking on the phone. “The bills must have been crazy,” she says. Sometimes Annalisa’s parents would take her south to Tuscany or Le Marche to watch Fabio compete on the Italian amateur scene. Before Monte Carlo-Alassio, a prestigious early-season race close to Valentine’s Day, Fabio asked her to attend, promising: “I’ll win and give you the flowers.” He was as good as his word. 

When the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona approached, he was just happy to be included in the road race team, alongside more-fancied team-mates Davide Rebellin and Mirco Gualdi. Taking time off from her job at a textile factory, Annalisa went too. It took a while to get there: Giacomo, a charismatic fifty-something figurehead in Fabio’s fan club, had laid on a coach to take supporters from Como to Catalonia. Little sleep was snatched on the 1,000-kilometre journey.

With three-rider teams, it was a difficult race to control. After a flurry of attacks on a sweltering day, Casartelli made the decisive move, accompanied by Latvian Dainis Ozols and Dutchman Erik Dekker.

Annalisa was stood just before the finish line with a tiny portable TV in hand, craning her neck to spot him every time the leaders passed. On the last lap, as they stopped sprinting before the line, there was the unusual sight of three riders all raising their arms in the air, but the man in baby blue was several bike lengths in front. 

Annalisa managed to find a way past the barriers to the podium, shouting, “I’m his girlfriend, I’m his girlfriend”. Fabio’s broad smile did not leave his face that evening; he went to sleep wearing his gold medal. Staying on longer to conduct interviews, he asked Annalisa to prolong her trip too. His team-mate Rebellin generously gave her his plane ticket, opting to go home with his fan club’s coach. “It had his name on it, but the controls weren’t strict like they are now,” she says. 

Winter was a baptism of fire to life as the champion’s plus-one and a succession of galas and cycling club dinners. “It was hard for me. I was detached, bored. There are hundreds of people and he has to talk with everyone. And I’m there, barely knowing anyone. But hey, the sacrifices you make,” she says and smiles. Both laidback people, they would rarely have arguments. To her, Fabio was sweet and cheerful, albeit lazy, always putting things off.

Cycling had been Fabio’s passion, now it became his job. He turned pro with Ariostea for 1993. A fast finisher who could get over a few hills, he got round his debut Giro that year and was on the podium in three Tour de Suisse stages, beaten by the likes of Johan Museeuw and Giorgio Furlan in bunch sprints. The highlight of his year was marriage to Annalisa in September 1993, months after moving in together in Como. They honeymooned in the Maldives, and then it was back to the grindstone.

Tendinitis affected his progress. Moving to Gianni Savio’s ZG Mobili team then Motorola, he underwent an operation to fix his knee problems. Annalisa recalls that Fabio wanted to get to the age of 30 and earn some money. “He said he’ll make these sacrifices for four or five more years and then see [about his career].”

The birth of Marco in 1995 gave him a new motivation. He would race home from training to see his newborn son. But when everyone told him “your boy will be a cyclist”, he would reply, “I hope not”. That summer, he sprinted to top-five placings on stages of the Dauphiné and Tour de Suisse, gaining selection for his second Tour de France. Having abandoned after a week the previous year, he set out to finish.

 He was mid-pack and a week away from the Champs-Élysées after an attritional opening fortnight that saw 60 abandons. Two days before that fateful fifteenth stage between Saint-Girons and Cauterets, his mother Rosa phoned him, telling him to be careful and to wear his helmet.

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On the Portet d’Aspet, the first climb of a pitiless Pyrenean day, the 24-year-old was caught up in a big crash. His uncovered head hit a concrete block on the side of the road, positioned to stop vehicles from tumbling into the stream below. A monument now stands where he fell to commemorate the last competitor to die during the Tour de France.

French television carelessly replayed the crash footage repeatedly. “Please don’t use the photo,” Annalisa asks, referring to the post-crash image of his body curled up in the foetal position, blood streaming from his head. The Tour de France’s communication of the accident was slapdash: some riders in the gruppetto found out from a commissaire and wept on their bikes, while still racing. Meanwhile, Richard Virenque celebrated as he won the stage and sprayed champagne on the podium; later, he said he hadn’t been aware of what had happened. The Tour de France never accepted responsibility for the crash.

 One of the few things that binds split agendas and bitter rivals is the loss of a peer. The next day, the grief-stricken Tour peloton agreed to go slow in honour of Fabio over the 149 kilometres between Tarbes and Pau. Approaching the finish, his remaining Motorola team-mates fanned out in front and Andrea Peron, Fabio’s closest friend there, crossed the line first. “He will always ride alongside me,” the Italian said afterwards. The stage’s prize money was sent to the Casartelli family.

Then it was back to business for the sport’s biggest race. As racing resumed, Annalisa’s battle was just beginning. In the months that followed, she was exhausted by grief and intrusion. “At the start, a lot weren’t respectful. Journalists and regular people didn’t know limits,” she says. “When it happened, I was 25, I didn’t understand, all these people. It tired me out to say no.” 

In the following year, she would sometimes wear some of Fabio’s clothes or sleep next to his racing mitts. His death changed her. Torn between their memories in Como and her home region, protecting Marco from a perpetual association to tragedy became a big concern.

“We couldn’t stay there. It’s a small town and I would always have been ‘the widow of Fabio Casartelli’; Marco would always have been ‘the son of Fabio Casartelli’. We returned to Forli, where not even my neighbours know what happened to me.” 

Her parents lived in the apartment next door, helping her to cope. Four years after Fabio’s death, another blow: Annalisa’s mother suffered a brain aneurysm, which left her paralysed.

Annalisa took a tiring job in Polli Amadori, Romagna’s regional chicken-producing giant. Then she moved to Blockbusters in Ravenna, and it ended up being much more than something to pay the bills. “I spent so much time there. When I knew I was having dark days, I’d put myself to work; there were always so many people there that I didn’t have time to think of other things. The bosses at Blockbuster don’t know, but that job – staying busy – helped me a lot.” 

The fatal crash of her partner – who always raced with a crucifix – has caused Annalisa to question her faith more. “There’s a part of me that remains enormously angry – not with Fabio, with God. I don’t understand [why it happened]. But I know there are worse things in the world, people die every day. Each to their own.” 

When Marco was old enough to wonder about his father, Annalisa turned reality into a fairytale. “I told him that his daddy raced bikes, that he won. Then one day in a race, he crashed. But before he could feel pain, an angel arrived and took him to Paradise.” She worried about how Marco would cope with his absence, but the anxiety dissipated over time. His death was never a taboo, with photographs of Fabio dotted around Annalisa’s house. Marco grew into a young man who resembles his father, both physically and in his gentle character. 

Meanwhile, in the sport Fabio loved, little changed for the better. There was wrangling over whether wearing a helmet would have saved his life. “We have indicated the risk to the riders, but I believe that if you can’t apply certain rules on people, it is better to drop them,” UCI president Hein Verbruggen said in late 1995. It took the death of another professional cyclist, Andrei Kivilev during the 2003 Paris-Nice, for the sport’s governing body to introduce a rule on the compulsory wearing of helmets.

 Annalisa is still in touch with a few of Fabio’s peers: Olympic team-mate Mirco Gualdi, Andrea Peron and former Motorola directeur sportifs Jim Ochowicz and Hennie Kuiper. Yet understandably, her relationship with the sport has been darkened by her experience. She doesn’t watch cycling on TV anymore. “Still when I see the peloton, I habitually look for Fabio in the bunch. I’m still looking for him.”

She says she won’t go to the Tour commemoration services anymore, which occur whenever the race passes the Col de Portet d’Aspet, as it regularly does and will do again in 2018. “Logically, the Tour de France is an ugly and distant thing for me… I don’t know anyone anymore, what am I going to do? Give a trophy? I don’t like to do that, to play the role of ‘the widow of Fabio Casartelli’. 

“It’s still painful. You turn everything over in your mind. People look at you, see if you cry, if you smile, whatever you do. I’m proud of what Fabio Casartelli was, but it’s not my role [to be his widow]. My role is to raise Marco and be behind him.”

Besides, she cannot choose how he is remembered. “If you say Fabio Casartelli, most people will remember him as the cyclist who died on the Tour de France. It shouldn’t be like that. Instead, if you say Casartelli, the first thing that should come to mind is the winner of the 1992 Olympic road race … but people remember calamity more than good things.”

Invariably, the majority of requests from journalists crop up around July 18. After Wouter Weylandt’s fatal crash at the 2011 Giro d’Italia, hacks tried to call her to talk about her ordeal. “I turned my mobile off and unplugged the house phone. I don’t like to be associated with death,” she says, laughing uneasily. “I don’t like to make people cry.”

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When she talks about Fabio now, how does she feel? “A bit of fatigue. However, there’s a part that is nice because it was a beautiful thing that I lived.” She pauses and begins to cry. “But as for a response, there isn’t one. I know so many years have passed.” 

Out of her control, a chapter of her life ended on July 18, 1995, but new ones have started and flourished. Marco is grown up and studying graphic design. For nearly two hours, Daniele has been quietly listening, holding her hand when the tears fall. A builder by trade, they were friends at middle school who were reunited by chance 25 years later. “I used to copy answers over her shoulder,” he says. Early in 2015, they were married.

Annalisa has wrestled out of the tentacles of tragedy and come through more adversity to happiness. And as importantly, to what she has craved for most of the last two decades: a normal life.

This article was first published in Rouleur 18.4  

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InCycle Video: Remembering Fabio Casartelli

Rider's mother still grieves for her son

The tragic 1995 death of Fabio Casartelli still haunts the professional peloton, in particular when the Tour de France passes the site of his fatal crash on the Col de Portet d'Aspet, near where his memorial now stands.

The affable Italian crashed on the descent during stage 15 of the 1995 Tour de France, during which he rode for the Motorola team. He suffered a critical head injury.

But perhaps no one feels the pain of his death more acutely than his mother, Rosa, who InCycle interviewed during the Tour de France.

Casartelli, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist, is fondly remembered in the interview. Be sure to have a tissue handy for this heartfelt remembrance.

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27 years ago today, Fabio Casartelli died during the Tour de France

The italian cyclist was the first rider since tommy simpson to perish in the race.

On July 18, 1995, Italian cyclist was killed in a crash on the descent of the Col de Portet d’Aspet during the 15th stage of the Tour. Casartelli famously won the 1992 Olympic road race and had just begun his professional cycling career.

The Italian was on the American Motorola team, and was teammates with riders like Lance Armstrong, Steve Bauer and Frankie Andreu. During the stage, he fell on the downhill and his head struck concrete blocks on the side of the road. He suffered severe head injuries and lost consciousness. He was immediately flown by helicopter to the local hospital, but would ultimately lose his life despite the best efforts of doctors.

The following day, the peloton would not race, but instead ride as a group ride. It was the same “funeral procession” type ride that the peloton did back when Tommy Simspon died in 1967.

Monument to Olympic champion Fabio Casartelli who crashed and died in 1995, July 18th. Col de Portet d'Aspet. https://t.co/biM3dPUqcz #TDF2022 pic.twitter.com/Q478OL4H2f — ETCore2 (@Core2Et) July 16, 2022

Three days later, still wearing black armbands for his fallen teammate, Armstrong would win the stage, gesturing to the sky.

1995 Tour – Stage 18 – Montpon-Ménestérol › Limoges (154 km) Lance Armstrong crosses the finish line with his fingers pointing to the sky. The American dedicates this victory, to Fabio Casartelli, his companion died 3 days earlier, on the road of the Tour. ? CI 1995 #TDF pic.twitter.com/IccLKBDJqG — Miroir du Cyclisme ?? (@Miroir2Cyclisme) August 11, 2019

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ITALIAN CYCLIST IS KILLED IN TOUR DE FRANCE CRASH

Casartelli, without helmet, tumbles on mountain curve.

CAUTERETS, FRANCE, JULY 18 -- Italian cyclist Fabio Casartelli was killed today when he crashed at high speed on a mountain pass, becoming the third rider to die in the history of the Tour de France.

Casartelli, 24, of the American team Motorola, was one of several riders who failed to negotiate a steep curve during the descent from the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenees.

With the riders traveling at speeds approaching 55 mph, Casartelli appeared to hit a concrete block on the side of the road and fell heavily onto the pavement.

"It was a fairly fast descent," said French rider Francois Simon, who was behind Casartelli. "At a certain point, there was a longer curve than the others. Casartelli couldn't make the turn. I think it was his back wheel which hit the side, and he flew in the air."

Television replays showed Casartelli lying on his right side in a fetal position, a stream of blood pouring from his head wound.

Unconscious, he was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Tarbes, where he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

"I arrived 10 seconds after the fall," said Gerard Porte, chief medical officer of the tour. "I could tell it was a serious injury. Casartelli had cuts that were bleeding badly. We did everything in the best conditions and as fast as we could. But he had very serious cuts, and when there's such heavy bleeding you know it was a very powerful impact."

Casartelli was not wearing a protective helmet, which is sure to reopen debate over whether headgear should be mandatory.

"It's an issue that will come to the forefront again," said Alfredo Martini, head of the Italian national cycling team. "It's time to deal with this issue seriously."

Race director Jean-Marie Leblanc announced the death of Casartelli on the tour's official radio.

"{A doctor} who was with him in the helicopter called me and told me that their revival attempts were unsuccessful," he said. "Casartelli had three cardiac arrests in the helicopter. It's terrible for the Motorola team, for Italian cycling and for the Tour de France."

It was the third death in the Tour de France since it began in 1903. In 1967, British world champion Tom Simpson collapsed during a mountain climb on an extremely hot day. In 1935, Spanish rider Francesco Cepeda was killed when he fell into a ravine.

Today's incident occurred about 18.5 miles into the 15th stage, a 128-mile ride from St. Girons to Cauteret.

Also injured were Germany's Dirk Baldinger of the Polti team and Italy's Dante Rezze of the AKI team. They were taken to the hospital in Saint-Gaudens, where doctors said Rezze had a thigh injury and Baldinger had a fractured hip.

Casartelli, who was married and had a 4-month-old son, was the Olympic champion in the road race at the 1992 Barcelona Games. In his first pro season in 1993 with Ariostea, he won a stage in the Settimana Bergamasca and had three second-place finishes in stages of the Tour of Switzerland.

"We raced together with Ariostea," Denmark's Bjarne Riis said. "It's very sad. I knew him very well and he was a very nice young man." CAPTION: Fabio Casartelli is third cyclist to die in Tour de France after hitting concrete block and falling coming down a steep mountain curve. CAPTION: Fabio Casartelli, who was married and leaves behind 4-month-old son, was road race champion at 1992 Barcelona Olympics. His first pro season was 1993.

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Tour de France

20 years later, casartelli’s death still resonates in tour, the peloton pays its respects to fabio casartelli, who died 20 years ago in a crash on the portet-d'aspet.

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Download the app .

LANNEMEZAN, France (VN) — Early in Thursday’s “queen stage” across the Pyrénées, the peloton paid its respects to one of its fallen.

Twenty years ago, Fabio Casartelli crashed into a concrete barrier while descending the Cat. 1 Col de Portet-d’Aspet during stage 15 of the 1995 Tour de France on July 18. In one of the most harrowing incidents in Tour history, the Italian died from a massive head injury. He was 24.

Among those in the middle of the unfolding drama was BMC Racing’s general manager Jim Ochowicz, who was then manager of the Motorola team. Speaking to VeloNews before the start of Thursday’s stage, Ochowicz said it’s a day he will never forget.

“The years have passed, but the sport has not forgotten him. The fact that we built the monument on the spot, and how the peloton pays its respect, that’s important,” Ochowicz said. “I had a lot of respect for Fabio. He was Olympic champion, he was just starting his pro career, and he was excited about racing, being at his first Tour de France.”

On that fateful day, Casartelli fell on the technically challenging descent, slamming the back of his head and neck into a concrete barrier with sharp edges that proved lethal. Since then, the row of individual cement pylons have been replaced with continuous barriers without edges that can prove so disastrous for cyclists and motorcyclists.

Despite efforts to revive him, Casartelli died en route to a hospital. The next day’s stage was neutralized, and the Motorola team led the peloton across the finish in a slow procession. Three days later, the now-banned Lance Armstrong won a stage that he dedicated in Casartelli’s honor.

“I think the whole peloton froze that day. This is a dangerous, tough sport, things like that can happen,” Ochowicz said. “It’s a memory I’ll never forget, and I don’t forget him. I’ve stayed in close contact with the family, and we’ll see them today at the monument.”

On Thursday, Ochowicz and others planned to drive ahead of the peloton to meet with Casartelli’s widow and son Marco, who was two months old when his father died. Tour officials also planned to attend the monument.

Casartelli’s death is a reminder at just how dangerous the sport of professional road racing can be. A helmet rule, introduced in 2003 following the death of Andrey Kivilev during Paris-Nice, has helped make the peloton safer. But the death of Wouter Weylandt at the 2011 Giro d’Italia is a reminder that the threat is constant.

“It’s gotten better. There was no helmet rule then,” he said. “Bikes are better, braking systems, wheels, tires, everything is safer. We just had someone pass at the Giro a few years ago, so it does happen, but thankfully, not very often.”

Racing on open roads, the peloton faces a variety of conditions and challenges each day, ranging from weather, rough road conditions, traffic furniture, fans and vehicles on the roadway, and the occasional unexpected surprise. In Wednesday’s stage, Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) had to steer around cows that had strayed onto the roadway as he dropped down the Col du Tourmalet.

Ochowicz has become outspoken about reducing the size of the peloton , one way he believes could lead to safer racing conditions.

“That’s what we are. Every street is our stadium. It’s a free sport, it doesn’t cost anything to see it, that’s what makes it unique,” Ochowicz said. “These guys go out there and risk their lives every day.”

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Reflections on Fabio Casartelli

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Rest Day 2 Reflections on Fabio Casartelli By Chris Carmichael I’ve been thinking a lot about Fabio Casartelli over the past few days. I didn’t actually know the young man while he was alive, but his life and untimely death ten years ago during the 1995 Tour de France had such an impact on the people close to me that he’s left an indelible mark on my life as well. I remember hearing about Casartelli from Max Testa in 1992. I was the coach for the men’s road team preparing for the Barcelona Olympics, and Max told me there was this very talented Italian kid who had a real chance of winning the Olympic road race. This was back in the days before the pros were eligible to compete in cycling events at the Olympics, and Fabio Casartelli was one of the riders I told our team, including Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie, to watch out for in Barcelona. Sure enough, Max was right. Casartelli could climb, sprint, and ride your legs off on anything in between. He was the complete package, a rider who was just over one year older than Armstrong and more advanced as a cyclist. Lance had some very strong performances in the months leading up to the Barcelona Games and was one of the favorites for the gold medal. Yet, the day and the gold medal belonged to the young Italian rider, and I remember Lance being quite impressed by him. Following the Olympics, Lance turned pro for Motorola and George continued as an amateur until he joined Lance on Motorola in 1994. A year later, Jim Ochowicz brought Casartelli onto the team from ZG-Mobili, and all three became fast friends. I met Fabio a few times in passing at team camps or races, and though I never had the chance to get to know him, it was clear Lance’s original impressions about him in 1992 were true. He was a very talented rider who worked hard; he was kind and friendly, and he seemed destined for big things in cycling. Fabio was selected for the 1995 Tour de France along with Lance Armstrong, Frankie Andreu, Sean Yates, Steve Swart, Steve Bauer, Kaspars Ozers, Andrea Peron, and Alvaro Mejia. When he died after a crash on the slopes of the Portet d’Aspet, he was just shy of his 25th birthday. Lance was just a few months away from turning 24. Now, Lance is nearing his 34th birthday and I’m amazed by how much has changed and how much Fabio has missed. Lance Armstrong went on to battle through cancer and come back to win the Tour de France six times, and in another week that could become seven times. Sean Yates continued racing and is now in one of the Discovery Channel team cars during the Tour de France. Frankie Andreu went on to be an integral part of Lance’s comeback and first triumphs at the Tour. Andrea Peron is still racing, and Steve Bauer is here at the Tour de France with his cycling camps. And since 1995, George Hincapie has won the USPRO Championship, Ghent-Wevelgem, stood on the podium at Paris-Roubaix, helped Lance win six yellow jerseys, and won the hardest mountain stage of the 2005 Tour de France wearing an armband with Fabio’s name on it. Most of all, Fabio has missed seeing his son grow up. Marco was just a few months old in July of 1995. Now he’s ten, but he never had a chance to get to know his father. I’ve been in this sport for a long time. I started racing in 1969 and I had the privilege of competing and riding all over the world. When I look back to all of the close calls, near misses, and bad wrecks I’ve been through over the past 30-plus years, it sometimes makes me wonder why I’ve continued riding as long as I have. I have young children at home, just as Lance and George do now, and I can’t imagine not seeing them grow up or not being there for them as they mature. I’ve changed the way I ride since I had children. Like many old pros from my era, I rode without a helmet for decades. Now I don’t throw my leg over the top tube without strapping on a helmet. I descend more carefully and play more nicely with traffic as well. I do what I can to minimize the risks while maximizing the benefits of riding. It’s a part of my life, the way I stay healthy, and the way I connect to my past. For Lance, George, and many other professional cyclists, cycling is how they make a living to support their families. People ask me why anyone would take the risk of flying down a mountain pass with no guardrails, attached to the ground by two square centimeters of rubber, wearing only a foam and plastic helmet. Looking back over the past two weeks of racing, with Lance and his kids and George and his daughter, and with my Anna and Connor waiting for me a few stages from here, I believe we accept these risks hopefully to provide more comfortable lives for our children. Fabio Casartelli has been an important example, to Lance and George, and to me, of how quickly everything can be taken from you. The sincerity with which his life is still commemorated, ten years later, also shows that yellow jerseys and championships aren’t what legacies are made of; but rather, we are remembered for the lives we lead, however long or tragically short. Chris Carmichael is Lance Armstrong’s personal coach and founder of Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. (CTS). His latest book, Chris Carmichael’s Fitness Cookbook , is now available and you can register for a chance to win a ride with the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team at www.trainright.com .

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Tour rider killed in mountain crash

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ROBIN NICHOLL

with the Tour de France

Fabio Casartelli, Italy's Olympic road race champion, died in hospital yesterday after a crash during the 15th stage of the Tour de France.

Casartelli, the first competitor to die during the Tour since Britain's Tommy Simpson in 1967, was in a small group of riders who fell on the descent from the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenees, the first climb of the day.

The 24-year-old sustained critical head injuries when he hit the road and lay unconscious with blood pouring from head wounds before being taken to Tarbes hospital by helicopter.

"His heart stopped three times in the helicopter but it was brain trauma that caused the death," a hospital spokesman said. "He died 30 minutes after reaching hospital." Casartelli, from Como, was married last year and recently became a father.

The tragedy highlighted a long-standing controversy about crash helmets. The former world champion Hennie Kuiper, the Dutch manager of Casartelli's team, insisted that a helmet would not have saved his rider.

"There would have been no sense in it because he fell with the right side of his head hitting a concrete post. His helmet was in the back of my car. Most riders would not wear them because it was too hot. I don't think cycling is dangerous if you compare it with Formula One racing. There are a lot of risks but these men are professionals."

Depending on the nerve of riders and the weather conditions, they can touch 80kph (50mph) as they sweep through the bends on a 15-kilometre swoop from mountains such as the Tourmalet, 2114m above sea level. Riders protested successfully two years ago about having the right to choose whether they wear crash helmets while racing. In France and Italy they have the option but not in the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain.

Yesterday's accident saw Casartelli hit a post, causing several others to crash. The Frenchman Dante Rezze fell into a ravine, seriously injuring his leg. Germany's Dirk Baldinger broke his hip, and he and Rezze went by ambulance to hospital.

Tony Rominger, ranked No 1 in the world, expressed concern over rider safety in the Tour of Italy, complaining about unlit road tunnels and spectators.

"I had been worried about safety then because riders are racing so much faster these days. Safety becomes an even greater factor, but on the Tour they are conscious of this. However there should have been more warning if the descent was dangerous."

Rominger was in tears after discovering the tragedy when he saw television coverage in his team bus at the Cauterets finish. "It's very bad that we were not told during the race. After this Tour I want a break from racing."

Bernard Thevenet, twice a Tour winner in the Seventies, said there were greater risks taken in finishing sprints at 60kph. "It is not a matter of speed or mountain descents, but the risks that are taken."

Miguel Indurain, the race leader, said: "It is a tragedy for his family and the sport. We take so many risks we are lucky it doesn't happen more often. It is unbelievable how high the mountains are, but when you are descending you don't think about it."

The stage winner, Richard Virenque, said: "I was taking all sorts of risks. I was unaware of what had happened, otherwise I might have eased off. When I heard what had happened, it finished my celebrations. I dedicate my victory to his family, who must be in terrible pain."

Eddy Merckx, the Belgian who won five Tours, was angry because the victory ceremony continued in spite of Casartelli's death. "A fatality is the worst thing that can happen in the Tour and the sport, but I would wish that people would respect the dead. The ceremonials after Virenque's victory were unnecessary."

Gianni Savio, Casartelli's team manager last year, said: "Although he won an Olympic title he remained the same likeable guy with the same humility. Last year he had an operation for tendinitis in his knee, so not too much was seen of him."

Casartelli is only the third Tour rider to die in the race's 92 years. The first was Spain's Francesco Cepeda, who fell while descending the Alpine pass of the Galibier in 1935.

In 1967 Simpson collapsed in extreme heat on the Provencal mountain of Ventoux, known as the Bald Mountain because of its exposed, rocky and tree-less summit, although there were traces of amphetamines and alcohol found at the autopsy.

Motorola said they would continue in the Tour. "They felt they wanted to carry on in his memory," team spokesman Paul Sherwen said. There will be a minute's silence for Casartelli at the start of today's stage.

Virenque peaks, page 23

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Fabio Casartelli

Biographical information

Fabio Casartelli had several wins as an amateur from 1990-92, including back-to-back wins in 1991-92 at Monte Carlo-Alassio. He was not a sure bet to be chosen for the Italian road team in 1992, but he was chosen and in the 1992 Olympic road race, Casartelli headed a three-man breakaway, and held off Erik Dekker to take the Olympic gold.

Casartelli then became a professional in 1993, signing with Team Ariostea, achieving fairly unremarkable results, his only significant win a stage victory in the 1993 Settimana Bergamasca. He was chosen as a member of the 1995 Motorola team to ride the Tour de France. In stage 15, Casartelli and several other riders fell on the descent from the Col de Portet d’Aspet. He struck a concrete block along the road, and was immediately transported to a hospital by helicopter, but was declared dead on arrival. Although it is unlikely that a helmet would have saved Casartelli’s life, helmets soon became mandatory in professional cycling races. In 1997 the Tour de France changed the name of the award in the young rider classification (white jersey) to the “Souvenir Fabio Casartelli”.

Special Notes

• Listed in Olympians Who Died in Competition or Training (Died from a crash during a descent on the 15th stage of the 1995 Tour de France.)
• Listed in Olympians Who Received the Italian Olympic Association (CONI) Gold Medal ()

1995 Tour de France

82nd edition: july 1 - july 23, 1995, results, stages with running gc, photos and video.

1994 Tour | 1996 Tour | Tour de France Database | 1995 Tour Quick Facts | Final 1995 Tour de France GC | Stage results with running GC | 1995 Tour de France photos | Video

Map of the 1995 Tour de France. The race started in Brittany's Saint-Brieuc

Les Woodland's book Cycling's 50 Craziest Stories is available as an audiobook here .

1995 Tour de France quick facts

The 1995 Tour had 20 stages plus a prologue that totaled 3,635 kilometers.

It was ridden at an average speed of 39.193 km/hr.

There were 189 starters (21 9-member teams) and 115 classified finishers.

This was Miguel Indurain's fifth Tour victory, allowing him to join Anquetil, Merckx and Hinault in the 5-time Tour winner's club.

Indurain was the first racer to win five sequential Tours, a feat later exceeded by Lance Armstrong, who won seven Tours in a row.

Of course, now we know those seven Armstrong Tour victories were annuled because of Armstrong's doping.

1995 Tour de France complete final General Classification:

• Alex Zulle (ONCE) @ 4min 35sec
• Bjarne Riis (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 6min 47sec
• Laurent Jalaber t (ONCE) @ 8min 24sec
• Ivan Gotti (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 11min 34sec
• Melchior Mauri (ONCE) @ 15min 20sec
• Fernando Escartin (Festina) @ 15min 49sec
• Tony Rominger (Kelme) @ 16min 46sec
• Richard Virenque (Carrera Jeans) @ 17min 31sec
• Hernan Buenahora (Castorama) @ 18min 50sec
• Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans) @ 18min 55sec
• Laurent Madouas (Brescialat) @ 20min 37sec
• Marco Pantani (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 26min 20sec
• Paolo Lanfranchi (Motorola) @ 29min 41sec
• Bruno Cenghialta (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 29min 55sec
• Alvaro Mejia (TVM) @ 33min 40sec
• Bo Hamburger (Novell) @ 34min 40sec
• Viatcheslav Ekimov (Festina) @ 39min 51sec
• Laurent Dufaux (ONCE) @ 45min 55sec
• Erik Breukink (ONCE) @ 47min 27sec
• Vicente Aparicio (Banesto) @ 52min 54sec
• Jean-Cyril Robin (Festina) @ 56min 1sec
• Arsenio Gonzalez (Mapei) @ 56min 18sec
• Federico Muñoz (Kelme) @ 1hr 1min 3sec
• Vladimir Poulnikov (Telekom) @ 1hr 1min 31sec
• Massimo Podenzana (Brescialat) @ 1hr 1min 54sec
• Laudelino Cubino (Kelme) @ 1hr 2min 27sec
• Laurent Brochard (Festina) @ 1hr 2min 45sec
• Beat Zberg (Carrera) @ 1hr 7min 8sec
• Yvon Ledanois (Gan) @ 1hr 14min 4sec
• Johan Bruyneel (ONCE) @ 1hr 18min 14sec
• Oscar Pelliccioli (Polti) @ 1hr 20min 13sec
• Alberto Elli (MG-Technogym) @ 1hr 21min 34sec
• Jean-François Bernard (Chazal) @ 1hr 23min 11sec
• Herminio Diaz (ONCE) @ 1hr 23min 27sec
• Lance Armstrong (Motorola) @ 1hr 28min 6sec
• Georg Totschnig (Polti) @ 1hr 30min 47sec
• Udo Bölts (Telekom) @ 1hr 31min 16sec
• Andrea Tafi (Mapei) @ 1hr 36min 49sec
• Ramon Gonzalez (Banesto) @ 1hr 38min 4sec
• Ferard Rué (Banesto) @ 1hr 38min 11sec
• Enrico Zaina (Carrera) @ 1hr 38min 28sec
• Massimiliano Lelli (Mercatone Uno) @ 1hr 39min 43sec
• Andrea Peron (Motorola) @ 1hr 42min 18sec
• Eddy Bouwmans (Novell) @ 1hr 44min 9sec
• Zenon Jaskula (Aki-Gipiemme) @ 1hr 53min 46sec
• Maximilian Sciandri (MG-Technogym) @ 1hr 55min 10sec
• Franco Vona (MG-Technogym) @ 1hr 55min 35sec
• Jesper Skibby (TVM) @ 1hr 55min 43sec
• Leonardo Sierra (Carrera) @ 1hr 56min 17sec
• Gabriele Colombo (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 1hr 57min 14sec
• Maarten Den Bakker (TVM) @ 1hr 58min 25sec
• Gianni Bugno (MG-Technogym) @ 1hr 58min 47sec
• Andrea Ferrigato (Telekom) @ 2hr 4min 51sec
• Didier Rous (Gan) @ 2hr 7min 39sec
• Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Novell) @ 2hr 8min 55sec
• Carmelo Miranda (Banesto) @ 2hr 8min 57sec
• Rolf Aldag (Telekom) @ 2hr 13min 41sec
• François Simon (Castorama) @ 2hr 15min 16sec
• Neil Stephens (ONCE) @ 2hr 16min 1sec
• Miguel Arroyo (Chazal) @ 2hr 19min 6sec
• Armand De Las Cuevas (Castorama) @ 2hr 19min 23sec
• Gilles Bouvard (Chazal) @ 2hr 24min 18sec
• Stephen Hiodge (Festina) @ 2hr 28min 17sec
• Alberto Volpi (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 2hr 28min 43sec
• Jens Heppner (Telekom) @ 2hr 30min 47sec
• Rolf Järmann (MG-Technogym) @ 2hr 32min 14sec
• Fabian Jeker (Festina) @ 2hr 38min 21sec
• José Ramon Uriarte (Banesto) @ 2hr 38min 22sec
• Erik Dekker (Novell) @ 2hr 38min 22sec
• Andrei Tchmil (Lotto) @ 2hr 39min 2sec
• Massimo Donati (Mercatone Uno) @ 2hr 40min 4sec
• Johan Museeuw (Mapei) @ 2hr 41min 54sec
• Serhiy Itchakov (Polti) @ 2hr 42min 7sec
• Arturas Kasputis (Chazal) @ 2hr 45min 50sec
• Jim Van De Laer (TVM) @ 2hr 45min 52sec
• Francesco Frattini (Geweiss-Ballan) @ 2hr 46min 11sec
• Marino Alonso (Banesto) @ 2hr 47min 25sec
• Dario Bottaro (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 2hr 47min 26sec
• Thomas Davy (Banesto) @ 2hr 49min 17sec
• Davide Perona (Lampre) @ 2hr 51min 34sec
• Frankie Andreu (Motorola) @ 2hr 52min 15sec
• Alessio Galletti (Lampre) @ 2hr 52min 22sec
• Marcello Siboni (Carrera) @ 2hr 53min 16sec
• Marco Milesi (Brescialat) @ 2hr 54min 10sec
• Flavio Vanzella (MG-Technogym) s.t.
• Giancarlo Perini (Brescialat) @ 2hr 54min 18sec
• Wilfried Peeters (Mapei) @ 2hr 54min 18sec
• Guido Bontempi (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 2hr 55min 28sec
• Erik Zabel (Telekom) @ 2hr 56min 48sec
• Arvis Piziks (Novell) @ 2hr 57min 55sec
• François Lemarchand (Gan) @ 2hr 58min 26sec
• José Angel Vidal (Kelme) @ 2hr 58min 26sec
• Thierry Marie (Castorama) @ 2hr 58min 54sec
• Aitor Garmendia (Banesto) @ 2hr 59min 43sec
• Alexander Gontchenkov (Lampre) @ 3hr 0min 25sec
• Frans Massen (Novell) @ 3hr 1min 43sec
• Mario Scirea (Polti) @ 3hr 1min 55sec
• Mauro Bettin (Ski-Gipiemme) @ 3hr 4min 0sec
• Nicola Loda (MG-Technogym) @ 3hr 4min 45sec
• Steve Bauer (Motorola) @ 3hr 5min 33sec
• Rossano Brasi (Polti) @ 3hr 6min 23sec
• Giovanni Lombardi (Polti) @ 3hr 6min 40sec
• Gilles Talmant (Castorama) @ 3hr 7min 19sec
• Peter Farazijn (Lotto) @ 3hr 9min 32sec
• Stefano Colagé (Telekom) @ 3hr 10min 4sec
• Gian-Matteo Fagnini (Mercatone Uno) @ 3hr 12min 11sec
• Giovanni Fidanza (Polti) @ 3hr 12min 20sec
• Stephen Swart (Motorola) @ 3hr 14min 15sec
• Gianluca Gorini (Aki-Gipiemme) @ 3hr 14min 20sec
• Marco Serpellini (Lampre) @ 3hr 16min 5sec
• Davide Cassani (MG-Technogym) @ 3hr 16min 51sec
• Bart Voskamp (TVM) @ 3hr 17min 41sec
• Eros Poli (Mercatone Uno) @ 3hr 21min 26sec
• Bruno Cornillet (Chazal) @ 3hr 36min 26sec

Climbers Competition:

Points Competition:

Team Classification:

• ONCE: 278hr 29min 35sec
• Gewiss-Ballan @ 13min 23sec
• Mapei @ 55min 53sec
• Marco Pantani (Carrera) 93hr 11min 19sec
• Bo Hamburger (TVM) @ 8min 29sec
• Beat Zberg (Carrera) @ 40min 48sec

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1995 Tour de France stage results with running GC

Prologue: Saturday, July 1, St. Brieuc 7.3 km Individual Time Trial. Stage and GC times are the same.

Stage 1: Sunday, July 2, Dinan - Lannion, 233.5 km

GC after Stage 1:

Stage 2: Monday, July 3, Perros Guirrec - Vitré, 235.5 km

GC after stage 2:

Stage 3: Tuesday, July 4, Mayenne - Alençon 67 km Team Time Trial

GC after Stage 3:

Stage 4: Wednesday, July 5, Alençon - Le Havre, 162 km

GC after Stage 4:

Stage 5: Thursday, July 6, Fécamp - Dunkerque, 261 km

GC after Stage 5:

Stage 6: Friday, July 7, Dunkerque - Charleroi, 202 km

GC after stage 6:

Stage 7: Saturday, July 8, Charleroi - Liège, 203 km

GC after Stage 7:

Stage 8: Sunday, July 9, Huy - Seraing 54 km Individual Time Trial

GC after Stage 8:

Stage 9: Tuesday, July 11, Le Grand Bornand - La Plagne, 160 km.

GC after Stage 9:

Stage 10: Wednesday, July 12, Aime La Plagne - L'Alpe d'Huez, 162.5 km

GC after stage 10:

Stage 11: Thursday, July 13, Bourg d'Oisons - St. Etienne, 199 km

GC after Stage 11:

Stage 12: Friday, July 14, St. Etienne - Mende, 222.5 km

GC after Stage 12:

Stage 13: Saturday, July 15, Mende - Revel, 245 km

GC after Stage 13:

Stage 14: Sunday, July 16, St. Orens de Gameville - Guzet Neige, 164 km.

GC after stage 14:

Stage 15: Tuesday, July 18, St. Girons - Cauterets, 206 km.

Richard Virenque was first to the top of all 6 passes.

Fabio Casartelli died after crashing on the descent of the Portet d'Aspet.

GC after stage 15:

Stage 16: Wednesday, July 19, Tarbes - Pau, 229 km

The stage was neutralized in homage to Fabio Casartelli, who died during stage 15.

Stage 17: Pau - Bordeaux, 246 km.

GC after Stage 17:

Stage 18: Friday, July 21, Montpon Ménestérol - Limoges, 166.5 km

GC after Stage 18:

Stage 19: Saturday, July 22, Lac de Vassivière 46.5 km Individual Time Trial

GC after Stage 19:

20th and Final Stage: Sunday, July 23, St. Geneviève des Bois - Paris (Champs Elysées)

Complete Final 1995 Tour de France GC after Stage 20

1995 Tour de France photos:

Video of Stage 10 with Pantani's record ride to the top of l'Alpe d'Huez

© McGann Publishing

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Which riders have died at the Tour de France?

Mathew Mitchell

• Published on June 9, 2021
• in Men's Cycling

Over the years, there have been a few Tour de France deaths, by riders and non-riders. It’s an unfortunate part of bike racing that the combination of high speeds and only thin lycra for protection sometimes doesn’t end well. Thankfully it’s a very rare occurrence with no deaths in the last 25 years of racing the Tour de France.

Table of Contents

How many riders have died in the Tour de France?

There have been 4 Tour de France deaths for riders across its long history.

Tour de France Deaths by Rider

• Adolphe Hélière (1910)

Starting with the first death on the Tour de France, it’s one that’s unlikely to ever be repeated. Adolphe Hélière, aged 19, joined the race as one of the 80 or so independent riders, effectively amateurs joining in, hoping to be noticed by the major teams. His day job was as a car mechanic but he had been racing bikes for a while. Before the 1910 Tour de France, Hélière finished 13th in Paris-Le Mans.

The 6th stage of the 1910 Tour de France saw riders head out of Grenoble down to the coastal city of Nice. Hélière completed the stage in 63rd place. Many of the independent riders saved money by sleeping outside rather than paying for hotel rooms. Reportedly Hélière spent the night after Stage 6 sleeping on the beach at Nice. The following day, the riders were treated to a rest day in Nice and Hélière was recorded as saying he was looking forward to riding through his hometown in the coming days.

What exactly happened to Hélière isn’t clear. One version suggests that he simply succumbed to exhaustion whilst swimming after 6 days of racing. Another version says that a jellyfish in the sea stung Hélière. Then he drowned due to a bad reaction to the sting. The local paper reported that after a large meal, Hélière suffered some form of attack or congestion as soon as he got into the water. Whatever the reason, despite the speed with which he was brought back to shore, doctors were unable to save the young rider’s life.

Francisco Cepeda (1935)

Grenoble also gets a mention in the first on-road death in the Tour de France. That day’s race from Grenoble to Gap was the 8th Stage of the 1935 Tour de France. Francisco Cepeda crashed into a ravine whilst descending the Col du Galibier and suffered a fractured skull. Cepeda died shortly afterwards on the way to the hospital. He never regained consciousness.

Cepeda was 29 years old at the time of the crash and had had a solid racing career. He was 3rd in the 1927 Spanish National Road Race and twice won the Circuito de Getxo race which continues to this day.

Writing a report on the death in the L’Auto newspaper Dieudonne wrote the following tribute and cast light on the mindset of riders and sportsmen when faced by a tragedy to one of their own.

“Poor little Cepeda, who met his destiny on the road to Bourg-d’Oisans. Other riders, when they heard of his death, reflected for a moment, thought about all the dangers they faced but, like a driver who slows up when he sees a car with its wheels in the air, they set off again 10 seconds later thinking ‘not me!’. They quickly forget the tragedy because if they thought about it, they would never ride again. Goodbye, little rider without glory but not without merit, your cards were marked and you tried to rebel in vain.”

• Tom Simpson (1967)

The most famous Tour de France death belongs to that of British rider Tom Simpson. The highest-profile rider on this list, Simpson was, without question, the most successful British road cyclist until recent years. The 1965 World Champion also won the Tour of Flanders , Milan San Remo and Il Lombardia. Mark Cavendish is the only other Brit to be World Champion and win Milan San Remo , with no other British rider able to match Simpson’s Flanders and Lombardia wins since.

Simpson aimed to do well in the 1967 Tour de France. This was to earn more from the post-Tour criteriums where professionals earned a large bulk of their yearly wage in appearance fees. One week into the race, Simpson was 6th Overall with no serious rivals ahead of him. However, he began to suffer from a stomach upset whilst riding across the Col du Galibier. He suffered through the next couple of stages, riding on empty and losing chunks of time. Heading into Stage 13, he was 7th Overall, but now rivals had overtaken him in the classification. His teammates began to suggest that Simpson quit the race.

Stage 13 saw the riders take on the legendary Mount Ventoux on a very warm day. Already dropped from the group of favourites, Simpson began to zig-zag back and forth across the road. 1 kilometre from the summit, Simpson fell and despite protestations from the team manager to stop, Simpson pushed on. Almost 500 metres further on, he began to wobble and spectators caught him before he crashed again. Gently lowered to the side of the road, Simpson was already unconscious and had to have his hands pried from the handlebars. Despite the best efforts of those on the scene, including the Tour’s medical team, he didn’t regain consciousness. 40 minutes afterwards, a helicopter took him off the mountain. Simpson was taken to the hospital in Avignon, where he was pronounced dead.

The death of Tom Simpson is attributed to a combination of amphetamines (that were rife in the peloton at the time), alcohol, stomach upset and the heat. The lethal combination allowed Simpson to push himself past his body’s limits, particularly one already run down with an illness.

Tommy Simpson rode to his death in the Tour de France so doped that he did not know he had reached the limit of his endurance. He died in the saddle, slowly asphyxiated by intense effort in a heatwave after taking methylamphetamine drugs and alcoholic stimulants. J.L. Manning reporting on Tom Simpson’s death in the Daily Mail (31st July 1967)

The day following Simpson’s death, the peloton had to ride. They agreed that a British rider should cross the line first. Barry Hoban was given the honour and he went on to marry Simpson’s widow a couple of years later.

• Fabio Casartelli (1995)

Almost 30 years passed before the next death of another rider on the Tour de France. Fabio Casartelli was the reigning Olympic champion, after taking the victory at Barcelona in 1992. The last Olympics where only amateurs could race. Casartelli turned pro the following year and completed that year’s Giro d’Italia. Team Motorola selected him for the 1995 Tour de France. The team included big names like Sean Yates, Lance Armstrong, Steve Bauer and Frankie Andreu.

Riding in the days before helmets were mandatory, Casartelli and other riders crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet d’Aspet on Stage 15. Casartelli was the only rider to make contact with his head on the concrete blocks that lined the roadside. A medical team was there to stabilise Casartelli within 10 seconds. Afterwards, the helicopter came to take him to the nearest hospital. Whilst on the helicopter Casartelli stopped breathing and could not be resuscitated.

Casartelli’s death sparked a debate on the mandatory use of helmets in the peloton. Doctors argued that the injuries wouldn’t have been as severe with a helmet. Particularly as the impact was made with on the top of the head. It took another 8 years for helmet-wearing to be made compulsory. The death of Andrey Kivilev during Paris-Nice finally tilted the scales towards this act of safety.

Non-rider Tour de France deaths

Unfortunately, it’s not just riders who have died during the Tour de France.

The first three non-rider deaths were motorcycle related. The very first was in 1934 when a rider performing pre-race entertainment in a velodrome crashed at high speed. In 1957 one of the race-following motos crashed off the road in the Pyrenees killing the rider and the journalist he was transporting.

The following year, a race official died after making contact with Andre Darrigade. This was in a sprint at the Parc des Princes in Paris. The largest death toll from a single event was when 9 people died. Their supply van hit a bridge in 1964. The pre-race advertising caravan has claimed the lives of a pair of children in the early 21st Century. Most recently, another spectator died in 2009 when hit by a police motorcycle.

Who died in the Tour de France?

• Francisco Cepada (1935)

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Points at finish

Sprint | sables-d'or, sprint | trestel, sprint | radome de pleumeur-bodou, kom sprint | côte de saint-aide, kom sprint | côte de langueux, kom sprint | côte de falaises-de-plouezec, race information.

• Date: 02 July 1995
• Start time: -
• Avg. speed winner: 39.164 km/h
• Race category: ME - Men Elite
• Distance: 228 km
• Points scale: GT.A.Stage
• Parcours type:
• ProfileScore: 83
• Vert. meters: 2957
• Departure: Dinan
• Arrival: Lannion
• Race ranking: 0
• Startlist quality score: 1871
• Won how: Sprint of large group
• Avg. temperature:

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