Seventeen-year-old Italian cyclist Jacopo Venzo died after a heavy fall in the Tour of Austria for juniors on Friday. Venzo was transferred by helicopter to the hospital after his fall, where he succumbed to his injuries on Saturday morning, the organization of the cycling tournament reports. The stage race was not resumed on Saturday.
“We are deeply shocked to announce that the Italian young athlete who crashed yesterday has succumbed to his injuries despite all the efforts of the doctors,” the organization said. His team, Campana Imballaggi-Geo & Tex-Trentino, also commented: “It is with tears in our eyes and a broken heart that we announce that our junior Jacopo Venzo has left us. Ciao Jacopo, thank you for the good times together. You can’t imagine how much we will miss you.”
Safety in cycling has long been an important issue. In June, 26-year-old Swiss cycling pro Gino Mäder died from the consequences of a fall in the Tour de Suisse. In 2019, Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht died during the Tour of Poland.
SafeR was presented shortly before the start of the Tour de France. This organization will make proposals to make cycling safer in two ways. Firstly, by providing advice in advance about courses and how they can be made safer, based on data models and a database of racing incidents from previous years. In addition, it is the intention that SafeR will make analyzes of incidents while competitions are taking place.
Also read this interview with Jaap van Hulten, director at Jumbo-Visma and big supporter of SafeR