Iranian paracyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad has died following a crash whilst competing at Rio, damage to his vertebrae.

A very sad end to an inspiring games.

🙁

That’s terrible. RIP.

That’s terrible.

Awful news. I just tried explaining it to my kids, that at least he died doing something he loved.

R5 now saying cardiac arrest on the way to hospital (with broken neck)

awful

Probably what I’d say to my kids if they were aware, and not criticising you at all, but Sarah Storey had it slightly differently:

I am absolutely devastated to hear of a colleague who hasn’t made it home from the Games. Everyone expects to come home from a Games and it’s no real consolation that he died doing something he loved. It’s just an horrendous thing. It couldn’t be any worse.

“Thoughts are with his family, his friends, the whole Iranian team. There are no words that can make it feel better.Everyone really, really feels for them.

“I wasn’t aware until I’d left the course and come back up towards the Media Centre. It started to break then and just as I was walking through the door here I heard that he hadn’t made it.

“I was sat opposite him in the pits this morning. I know who he is but I’ve never spoken to him. It still hits you really really hard.

Very, very sad.

Tough times

Very sad news. RIP

Edit – as per below

Different bit of road to where the crashes in the Olympics happened (it was on the earlier circuit which the Olympics also used), but similar edges to the road apparently. Though I thought this thread best kept clear of discussion of that, hence: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/2016-olympic-cycling-spoilers-likely/page/49#post-7965711

@aracer noted, agreed and edited

Aracer – I almost deleted my above post, as I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to say. I completely get that someone like Sarah Storey, much closer to the reality of the incident will have a very different perspective. My kids have loved the Paralympics – my daughter has watched all of Ellie Simmons races, and I was trying to put some perspective on a piece of terribly sad news.

RIP

If this really was an due to an incident on those horrendously dangerous road gutters, I really hope the RIO organisers and Brazil government are sued to hell and back, the safety of the cyclists should never have been compromised during the financial troubles Brazil faced in preparing for the games.

They even had chance to react after those nasty crashes we saw in the non-para Olympics, including that really scary fall by the Dutch(?) female rider, who was knocked out cold while leading the race.

Just very sad. One of those things you don’t expect to hear.