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Veranda's Willems-Crelan lead minute's silence for Michael Goolaerts

Belgian team wore black armbands as they returned to racing at Brabantse Pijl today

The Belgian UCI Professional Continental outfit Verandas Willems-Crelan returned to racing today, leading an emotional tribute to their rider Michael Goolaerts, who died on Sunday after suffering a cardiac arrest during Paris-Roubaix.

Eurosport UK posted a video to its Facebook page of the team’s riders, wearing black armbands bearing the hashtag #ALLFORGOOLIE, observing a minute’s silence in memory of the 23-year-old ahead of the start of the Brabantse Pijl race today.

The 201.9-kilometre race was won by Lotto-Soudal’s Tim Wellens following a late attack, the rider pointing skywards as he crossed the line in tribute to his compatriot.

Meanwhile, the Cambrai state prosecutor in France has confirmed that the initial results of a post mortem show that the 23-year-old's cardiac arrest preceded his crash.

Remi Schwartz, quoted on BBC Sport,  said: "He suffered an attack while racing. His heart stopped, and that's why he crashed."

Toxicology and pathological tests will now be carried out to try and establish what caused the cardiac arrest, although Schwartz said it may be some weeks before the results are known

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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kil0ran | 6 years ago
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Terribly sad. Appropriate that Wellens won as I guess he would have ridden with him last year.

Are young riders scanned for heart problems? I know all youth football players are once per year by UEFA, as potential susceptibility to sudden cardiac death can be detected and addressed with an ICD.

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