The UCI and the native organising committee on the Road World Championships in Zurich have mentioned they’re unable to offer any info on the circumstances of Muriel Furrer’s deadly crash on the junior girls’s street race on account of an ongoing police investigation.
Furrer was airlifted by helicopter to Zurich University Hospital after sustaining a critical head harm in a crash throughout Thursday’s race. The Swiss rider, who raced at worldwide degree in street, cyclocross and mountain bike, died on Friday on the age of 18.
In a brief press convention in Zurich’s Kongresshaus on Friday afternoon, UCI sport supervisor Peter Van den Abeele and Olivier Senn of the organising committee confirmed that the remaining World Championships races would go forward this weekend on the request of the Furrer household.
Van den Abeele and Senn have been unwilling to reply questions on the circumstances of Furrer’s crash and the timeliness with which she had obtained therapy for her accidents.
Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung has reported that Swiss Air-Rescue (REGA) had confirmed that its first helicopter mission within the Zurich space on Thursday had departed at 12:52 pm, greater than an hour after the end of the junior girls’s street race.
“As Peter acknowledged, there may be an investigation occurring by the general public prosecutor and the police. We haven’t any safe info in the intervening time, and subsequently we won’t touch upon this,” Senn mentioned.
“There is not any safe info, and meaning every thing that’s out there may be hearsay. I want to ask you to additionally respect the household. Please use wherever potential details and never rumours.”
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Reports in Swiss media have urged the crash occurred within the forestry above Küsnacht on the World Championships ending circuit, although the UCI and the organising committee have been unable to substantiate the exact location.
“Not but,” mentioned Senn, who added that extra security checks had taken place on that part of the course forward of Friday’s under-23 males’s street race.
“We have clearly seemed on the scenario which occurred there yesterday. We have barely amended the employees on-site, particularly as a result of within the afternoon when it began raining once more, not understanding if that had any influence on the accident.
“As all the time, we consider we do all the time the utmost on the security and safety of the riders. The downhill was checked out once more simply at present with the rain on web site.”
Asked if the timing chip in Furrer’s bike had been used to find her after the crash, Van den Abeele mentioned, “The investigation continues to be occurring, however certainly the examination of the trackers shall be utilized by the authorities.”
The under-23 males’s street race was already underway when Furrer’s demise was introduced on Friday afternoon. The podium ceremony afterwards passed off with out music or the enjoying of the nationwide anthem, and Saturday’s UCI Gala has been cancelled, however Van den Abeele confirmed that the rest of the racing programme, together with the elite street races, would go forward this weekend.
“The UCI is respecting the needs of the household by persevering with to carry the World Championships,” he mentioned.
Furrer’s demise is the second such tragedy in Swiss biking in a little bit over a 12 months, following Gino Mäder’s deadly crash on the 2023 Tour de Suisse. Senn is the director of the Tour de Suisse in addition to the deputy basic supervisor of the Zurich 2024 organising committee.
“Obviously, it is one other tragic demise. It has a whole lot of similarities and comparable emotions,” Senn mentioned. “But at present shouldn’t be about Gino. Today is about Muriel, and my ideas are along with her household.”