Belgian rider Antoine Demoitié of UCI Professional Continental team Wanty-Gobert has died of his injuries after he was run over by a motorbike following a crash at Gent Wevelgem yesterday.
His death was confirmed late on Sunday evening by a spokesman for the regional gendarmerie in Nord-Pas-de-Calais where the incident occurred when the race briefly entered Northern France from Belgium. The Gendarmerie official also confirmed that an investigation was already underway in to the circumstances that led to Demoitié’s death.
At the time of writing this update has been no further statement from Demoitié’s team. Earlier in a tweet, Team Wanty described the condition of the 25-year-old Belgian rider as “extremely serious.”
Demoitié was taken to hospital in Lille after the crash, which happened around 150 kilometres into the 243 kilometre race, won by world champion Peter Sagan of Tinkoff.
Shortly after 7pm UK time, his team tweeted this update on his condition.
Antoine Demoitié’s situation remains very serious. His wife and family are with him at the hospital in Lille.
— Team Wanty-Gobert (@TeamWantyGobert) 27 March 2016
The dangers posed by in-race vehicles – particularly motorbikes – to riders has become an increasingly vexed one in recent seasons. Last month in response to a number of incidents involving in-race motorbikes and riders BMC team boss Jim Ochowicz wrote an open letter to the UCI calling on the organisation to take action to increase rider safety. That letter was itself a follow-up to one Ochowicz wrote to the UCI a year year earlier on the same subject.
We can expect that calls for the UCI and race organisers to take action will increase dramatically following the tragedy that has befallen Antoine Demoitié, his family, and his team at Gent Wevelgem.
More to follow.
12 thoughts on “Team Wanty-Gobert rider Antoine Demoitié dies after Gent-Wevelgem crash”
So very sad.
So very sad.
Watching great racing from
Watching great racing from Corsica, Barcelona and Belgium today and feeling great about our sport- then to get this news- shocking.
Thoughts and prayers with those closest to Antoine Demoitié but also with the moto pilot.
My goodness, this is terrible
My goodness, this is terrible. My heart goes out to his family. Perhaps now the UCI will sort the motor bikes out.
Terribly sad news.
Terribly sad news.
RIP
RIP
If the motos are only there
If the motos are only there to provide better coverage for viewers, then we should be taking the riders’ side and saying that we put their safety ahead of our viewing.
GerardR wrote:
They’re not.
Of the motos involved in a major race, TV account for no more than five or six – three or four cameras, one host TV channel on-bike commentator, maybe one technical support.
There will be a number of press photographers, maybe a dozen, who leapfrog the convoy to get their passengers to the interesting points of the race and (rotating under supervision, which will be when you see them massed together) to take pictures of riders on the move. They are probably the most “disposable” of the motos although as far as I can recall none of the recent incidents hnve involved them.
The remainder of the motos you see will be carrying out technical roles of one kind or another. Race officials supervising both the riders and the other vehicles in the convoy. Safety marshals to alert riders about danger points, street furniture and other obstacles, police to enforce road closures, neutral service to reduce the need for cars to move up and down the convoy. You could replace some of the mobile marshals by recruiting and paying enough static marshals instead for known danger points, but you’d probably need a few hundred people for that.
In this horrible incident it appears that the bike involved was carrying a commissaire – from the general descriptions, probably one who was there to stop team cars moving up into the back of the field as riders were being dropped. Both rider and pillion were highly experienced, and it appears to have been a real freak accident while the rider was trying to take evasive action after a crash right in front of him with cars coming up behind, no high speed passing or anything like that, just a drop whlie trying to manoeuvre 400 kg of bike and riders at low speed on wet roads. Obviously the incident needs to be investigated (and will be, probably by both French and Belgian authorities as well as the cycling bodies involved) and lerssons learned, but the whole trial-by-internet thing that appears already to be under way is both misdirected and distasteful in the extreme.
R.I.P.
R.I.P.
Sad news, motorcycles have
Sad news, motorcycles have been getting too close in recent years. With miniature cameras now available on cycles, motorcycles could be eliminated or separated from the race
Cycling fans the world over
Cycling fans the world over will be shocked at saddened at the untimely death of this wonderful cycling athlete.
Sincere condolences to his family, team-mates and friends during a time of what can only be terrible grief for them.
What a sad story.
RIP.
What a sad story.
RIP.
My condolences to his family.
My condolences to his family. This is a tragedy that need not have happened no matter what the apologist posted here. There has been so much discussion about disc brakes in the pro peloton and the discrepency of stopping distances. But here you have these 400kg behomeths in the peloton that can’t maneuver or stop like a bicycle. Something needs to change.