Fabio Casartelli

tailwindhome

Alan A wrote:

this yesterday passing the site of the death of Fabio Casartelli on Col de Portet d'Aspet.

This has been very quiet. I would have thought it would have be better remembered*













* maybe it was - it haven't seen stage 9 yet. Seen no mention on here or on twitter.

Omar Little

there was footage of Prudhomme laying flowers before the race passed

tailwindhome

Apologies. It seems the Tour has used that Col almost every year since 1995. Still...

Pross

I think there was just so much going on in the race yesterday. I seem to recall the riders doing a bit of a tribute as they passed one year but could be wrong

knedlicky

It’s not a round number anniversary this year, so I doubt the Tour intentionally went that way for that specific reason.

When I went by there, I felt the memorial horribly kitsch; I thought the French had a better sense of art. I don’t know if the monument is close to where Casartelli hit the parapet post but the descent is pretty steep just there.

There are a couple of stories of then which I wonder about …
… before the end of that stage, some in the peloton supposedly knew Casartelli had died. I find this very hard to believe. It was in the hospital at Tarbes 3 hours after his crash that he died and I doubt the news was immediately relayed to the riders, the first of whom arrived at the finish about 30 mins later.
… Armstrong apparently said he’d financially support Casartelli’s family. I don’t know if he said this just to sound big, but the winning riders that day (Virenque was stage victor) donated all the money won that stage to a fund established for Casartelli’s family, and the Tour organisers later matched that amount.

I don’t know any statistics for how helmets may have helped in any crashes since, but I suppose if helmets have helped, Casartelli didn’t die in vain.

Paul 8v

I remember this well, not nice at all but as you say, hopefully it encouraged more people to wear helmets.

disgruntledgoat

knedlicky wrote:

It’s not a round number anniversary this year, so I doubt the Tour intentionally went that way for that specific reason.

When I went by there, I felt the memorial horribly kitsch; I thought the French had a better sense of art. I don’t know if the monument is close to where Casartelli hit the parapet post but the descent is pretty steep just there.

There are a couple of stories of then which I wonder about …
… before the end of that stage, some in the peloton supposedly knew Casartelli had died. I find this very hard to believe. It was in the hospital at Tarbes 3 hours after his crash that he died and I doubt the news was immediately relayed to the riders, the first of whom arrived at the finish about 30 mins later.
… Armstrong apparently said he’d financially support Casartelli’s family. I don’t know if he said this just to sound big, but the winning riders that day (Virenque was stage victor) donated all the money won that stage to a fund established for Casartelli’s family, and the Tour organisers later matched that amount.

I don’t know any statistics for how helmets may have helped in any crashes since, but I suppose if helmets have helped, Casartelli didn’t die in vain.

Taking your points in order:

-No nobody in the peloton or the teamcars knew until after the stage finish. The jersey presentations and everything were muted but the win was celebrated, as I recall.
-Armstrong did indeed continue to support Casartelli's family. At least his widow and mother said he did in Pro Cycling a few years later.
-I think the thinking at the time was that no helmet would have helped. The accident was, in terms of collision with the corner of a roadside marker stone, quite similar to Weylandt a few years later.

As to the riders memorial, Stuart O Grady and a few of the CSC guys on the front last time they passed kept the bunch together up the climb and did the hand on heart bit at a slow pace on the way past the memorial.