Muriel Furrer

Sad news for Family and team as well as the sport. She was a fresh and upcoming star for the future. RIP.

Any news of the investigation? It seems incredible that she went an hour (as reported by the local press) before being found.

The Swiss newspaper Blick reported some new details on Tuesday morning, as well as repeating some of the already-known facts.

The newspaper stated that just before 11:00, Furrer was seen ascending the 18% steep climb on the circuit between Zumikon and Küsnacht, together with the Austrian Ramona Griesser.

Just after 11:00, by then over the top of the climb and on the wet descent through the woods, Furrer passed a reporter from Blick, who was on the roadside roughly 400 m before where, it later turned out, Furrer crashed.

He was able to give some details of how many riders went by him either just in front of, or behind, Furrer. It sounds like there were 3 riders up to 20 m ahead of Furrer, and about 6 riders between 70 and 130 m behind her, the last of those being Griesser. And then farther back 4 more riders and some team cars. The reporter was only able to identify Furrer and Griesser.

The newspaper reckons Furrer must have crashed 20-30 seconds after passing the reporter.

On the second circuit, at about 11:45 the leading group went by where Furrer was later discovered. At 12:20, by then all riders still in the race having passed on their second lap, the reporter left his place by the roadside. like others still unaware that Furrer had crashed about 400 m on from where he had stood.

Shortly thereafter, a race-security vehicle drove the circuit seeking and finding Furrer. By 12:45, at the location where Furrer had crashed, there were 2 ambulances, a police car, a car from Swiss Cycling and another vehicle. A helicopter landed in a nearby field at 12:56, took off at 13:32, and arrived with Furrer at the Zurich hospital at 13:35.

In the Tuesday morning edition of the newspaper, Blick stated that it is not known whether any of the riders at the time just in front or behind Furrer noticed anything, and that the authorities had said none of the other riders have so far come forward to provide information.

However by Tuesday evening, Blick reported that it had been able to identify the two riders who were the closest behind Furrer on the descent through the woods, from a video by a spectator who was standing at about the same spot as their reporter. And the newspaper had contacted the riders' federations.

The federation of the one who was farther back has stated that their rider didn't notice any crash, while the federation of the one who was closer to Furrer has stated that their rider did not see the accident itself but she perceived that Furrer must have gone off the road since Furrer was suddenly no longer there as she continued the descent.

At the request of the relevant federations, the two riders concerned have not been named by Blick, nor the countries of the federations, and the federations have apparently said they will provide the investigating authorities with the necessary information.

I read that the UCI made £26m from the Olympics alone. The fact that they're sending out the least experienced and youngest riders with no trackers is a fucking disgrace. I remember a world when people would lose their jobs over this.

How do they make money from the Olympics? (Genuine question)

Edit - actually ignore the question as I don't want to turn this thread into any debate that comes out of it.

If Blick's account turns out to be how things panned out, heads need to roll for that, a rider leaves the road and isn't found for ~2 hours.

I don't know her injuries, but if rescued immediately, maybe she might still be around to tell the tale.

I assume she had a transponder, so should have started to be missed when she didn't go through a checkpoint?

But how often do we also hear from riders that their radio wasn't working, or they were out of range of the team car?

I would have thought thinking ‘we haven’t seen Muriel go through’ together with a static transponder would raise alarm bells. Even with the transponder you would think someone would realise they hadn’t seen her on that lap and do some checking with the team car.

There are no race radios at the UCI world championships.

Perhaps a little less speculation and wait for a few more facts?

I think comment re radios was that their use may have created a means, that wasn't available as they weren't being used, for this awful tragedy to have been averted.

I think it was me that first brought up radios. I definitely wasn't trying to do an internet coroner's enquiry, a proper inquest needs to be held with verified facts. I mainly brought it up because the Worlds is raced without radios and radios are currently being blamed for various safety issues (people being told to move up etc). While a radio *might* not have helped in this specific instance it seems difficult to suggest it would have been a hindrance.

But from what we've heard so far, which might not all be correct (let's wait for the inquest) it doesn't seem like this was a situation that's been encountered often before.

I think it's hard to be too critical of the organisers if it's the case that they haven't deviated from the norm or from the standards laid down by the governing body.

Yes having watched the race I think I *might* have been alert to the risk of a rider going off the road in that wooded descent if I was tasked with a risk assessment but who knows.