R.I.P. Muriel Furrer

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/c5y0l0v6y2do

Life is fragile. RIP.

Poor little scrap, so much life in front of her. RIP.

A really sad death. Way too young for this talented young lady.

Oooft, so young.

18 is no age. So sad.

Poor lass, awfully sad.

That’s awful.

Bloody hell what a tragedy. RIP

Seems no one knew she was no longer in the race! How?

Edit It took 150 minutes to find her!!

This fabulous young woman crashed her bike at 90kmh during a World Championship race last weekend in Switzerland, organised by the #UCI. They didn't notice she wasn't in the race anymore (How?!? A time trial race where each rider leaves 60s apart and their times are tracked at multiple checkpoints

— Tricky Dicky (@trickydickybe.bsky.social) 2024-10-03T09:40:11.726Z

Think that tweet is wide of the mark, she crashed during the junior road race, not the time trial. I don’t know any other details of the crash though, but seems like something has gone wrong not to find her.

Terrible loss of life.

No idea, but it wasn’t a TT.

If the timeline described in this video is accurate it seems horrific.  1 hour 45 minutes lying alone before she was found.

My auntie who lives in Switzerland told me about this dreadful accident (it was on their news).

What an absolute tragedy. So young, talented and with a whole life ahead of her

R.I.P

That ‘Cycling Highlights’ You Tube channel seems to be solely about sensationalism, especially if it concerns being critical of the UCI if any of their other videos are anything to go by. I don’t claim to know the precise timelines, or whether anything it suggests is accurate or not, but I don’t think I’d be relying on it for unbiased reporting either.

What Nickc said. It felt like it was sensationalising a tragic event to get a dig in at David Lapartient/UCI. Some of the criticism may be valid but it felt like he was clinging shit against the wall to see what would stick.

No radios is how the World Champs are set up,  it they go hard at that point. If no one saw what happened then no one could have radioed anything in anyway. We have no information on whether Muriels injuries were such that it would have helped or not.

In the absence of any reporting I’ll take what I can get.

How much time passed between her crash and being found seems like a fairly easy question to answer.  Even if it’s just to say, ‘around 20 minutes’.  Doesn’t have to be to the second.

It seems to have taken a lot longer than 20 minutes.  If it was almost 2 hours then I think heads need to roll.

They won’t though.  Time will pass, people will move on, and David Lappartient will continue to blame the riders for the crashes that seriously injure and kill them.

https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/analysis-the-uci-proved-to-be-a-mafia-at-a-world-championship-haunted-by-the-death-of-muriel-furrer

According to known figures, between 1971 and 1980, 4 cyclists died during races in which they took part, 5 between 1981 and 1990, 6 between 1991 and 2000. From 2001 to 2010, 9 cyclists died in competition, while in the last decade, between 2011 and 2020, 21 cyclists died. In 2023 and 2024, 4 cyclists died on the road while competing. This is a clearly incomplete list that doesn’t take into account the many tragedies that have occurred in women’s competitions and at youth level.

Here’s a crazy idea.  If the UCI don’t want youtube channels saying mean things about them maybe they could try not behaving like **** all the **** time.

Here’s a crazy idea.  If the UCI don’t want youtube channels saying mean things about them..

One of things the channel criticises the UCI for is not making a statement regarding the crash until some time after the event. Other reporting has pointed out that the UCI have to co-ordinate press statements with the wishes of the family, the emergency services and the police and that take’s time. It is, in all honesty, probably not callousness.

Sadly I suspect the UCI are keeping quiet because they screwed up and don’t want to admit liability or incriminate themselves in possible criminal proceedings…

Sadly I suspect the UCI are keeping quiet because they screwed up and don’t want to admit liability or incriminate themselves in possible criminal proceedings…

I can understand the UCI keeping as quiet as possible.  What I can’t understand is the cycling press seem to be happy to help them do so.

If she genuinely was alone and injured for 1.5 hours then I’m sorry but every cycling publication should be screaming and demanding answers on their front pages every day.

It seems everyone is happy to say, ‘ongoing investigation’ and hope that things have blown over by the time the details are released.  The UCI obviously have a fair amount of clout in Switzerland so how the results are released will be interesting.

So yes, I’m reduced to posting videos from channels with an axe to grind as they are the only people talking about this.  People can then turn around and say, ‘That video is biased, nothing to see here.’

The silence around this whole thing is deafening.

I suspect they’re keeping quiet as it’s not in the families interest, or the need to ensure an effective review of the incident (legal or otherwise), for them to be releasing information until the full position is known and any implications of that have been determined. Speculation can be upsetting and harmful.

There will be a number of parties with potential liabilities (UCI, race organisation, Swiss team, etc) that means that it is entirely reasonable that statements are limited.

The silence around this whole thing is deafening.

That’s not entirely true

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/key-questions-left-unanswered-by-uci-and-david-lappartient-after-muriel-furrers-death-at-zurich-worlds/

More details, more questions about death of Muriel Furrer

I can understand the UCI keeping as quiet as possible.  What I can’t understand is the cycling press seem to be happy to help them do so. If she genuinely was alone and injured for 1.5 hours then I’m sorry but every cycling publication should be screaming and demanding answers on their front pages every day.

….

The silence around this whole thing is deafening.

It’s far more likely that no cycling publication is willing to post speculative stuff about a tragedy that is still under investigation. Newspapers have been burnt by that sort of stuff many times in the past and found themselves in contempt of court or causing needless distress to friends / relatives at an already very upsetting time.

Screaming and demanding answers is thoroughly unhelpful, the answers don’t come any quicker if you create a scene.

Never mind the UCI, have the police/coroner released any statements relating to any ongoing investigation?

The Nicola Bulley case pretty neatly sums up the effect of on-line speculation.

It’s at best; creepy and weird, and at worst; actively harmful to relatives and friends

We’re not talking about a mystery with lots of scope for conspiracy theories. We’re talking about a fairly straight forward question. How much much time passed between the crash and Muriel being found.

If the answer turns out to be 1 – 2 hours then I find that horrific and mind-boggling. So far I’ve yet to see anyone anywhere suggest this wasn’t the case.

At this point in time, the only people with any right to the full facts are the family, the organisers and whichever legal investigations are underway.

Frankly, until they are happy to release the true findings, everyone else should show some respect and keep their noses out.

I think if you spend any time browsing the chat forum you’ll find there are plenty of threads about accidental deaths, murders, unexplained disappearances, ongoing court cases etc and on very few of  those threads are there so many people looking to shame others into shutting up.

I think people who feel the need to put down those of us who are pointing out that if she wasn’t found for 2 hours then that is absolutely batshit **** insane.

The same people who were in charge of safety in this race are still going to be in charge over the winter and probably into next spring, summer, autumn…

If no one makes some noise now and more young people die are you really going to be happy that your part in this was to tell people they were wrong for wanting to talk about it?

Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that Swiss Air-Rescue (REGA) confirmed that its first helicopter mission in the Zurich area on Thursday had departed at 12:52 pm, more than an hour after the finish of the junior women’s road race. It is believed – though it has not been confirmed – that Furrer crashed near Küsnacht with more than 30km left to race.

From @IHN linked item above, an hour before anyone got into looking mode with the cyclist being 30km from the finish. What were the commissaires up to? Did no one think we’re missing a rider, where has she got to before then?

The UCI president doesn’t come out of the situation in a good light.

From @IHN linked item above, an hour before anyone got into looking mode with the cyclist being 30km from the finish. What were the commissaires up to? Did no one think we’re missing a rider, where has she got to before then?

Having worked on many races including both Harrogate and Glasgow Worlds, no-one would ever think that. It’s perfectly normal for riders to be dropped, ride around a bit, stop and spectate, get into the team cars, go off to the team bus…

I have no idea in this instance how long the rider was “missing” but there’ll have been dozens of riders dropped from that bunch – many of them before it even left the neutralised zone – and probably riders scattered all over the course, some still “racing”, some just cruising through to the feed zone where they can retire.

I think people who feel the need to put down those of us who are pointing out that if she wasn’t found for 2 hours then that is absolutely batshit **** insane.

That’s a very big IF. No-one knows, least of all a bunch of folk on a cycling forum. Let the investigation happen, and IF it’s true that she wasn’t found for 2 hrs, well then there can be some fallout. On the other hand, IF she was found in 20 seconds, we can all go back to back to being experts in some other field.

I read that they were already on with the next race before they even looked for her. There was a time overlap with the races though. Sad case.

https://www.blick.ch/sport/rad/muriel-furrer-18-protokoll-der-tragoedie-neue-details-zum-tod-des-schweizer-rad-talents-id20185859.html

Having worked on many races including both Harrogate and Glasgow Worlds, no-one would ever think that. It’s perfectly normal for riders to be dropped, ride around a bit, stop and spectate, get into the team cars, go off to the team bus…

See, the way I read that is that, even if it’s not what happened here, a rider crashing and not being noticed for hours is something that was always going to happen at some point.

If there is that little control of where racers are then someone crashing and no one seeing them was always going to happen at some point.

If it turns out to be what had happened here then I’d imagine there will be some changes (depending on how successful the UCI are at keeping it under wraps). If it’s not then they can continue doing nothing until it actually happens.

Because even if it didn’t happen this time, it will happen in the future.

And the organisers knew it was going to happen and did nothing. Except say 50% of crashes are riders fault.

Hate to tell you, but any competitor will quite happily risk their lives for the slightest advantage. It’s the organisers job to account for this. Anyone who doesn’t understand that should be nowhere near a governing body.

I had read some reports about the timings and had hoped they were horrible rumours, but they seem to be gaining momentum and credibility. Makes a sad event even worse. They can surely only improve the safety going forward

Many many years ago, I raced* XC MTB events but was hopeless and had many more DNFs than finishers (usually in the lowest 5% of the field).

At no point did I ever “report to” the organizer that I’d dropped out of the race. Frankly, I’m not sure how practical it would be to do such reporting back then.

Now, of course, electronics allow better tracking but such technology costs. Obviously, at the very highest level, it’s easier to mandate use of technology or have sufficient human resources to be able to monitor riders safety. So, on the face of it, that would be a relatively “easy win” for the UCI to implement at the very highest level though it’s probably too onerous to mandate for smaller events.

And, of course, similar concerns apply to other event types (long distance off road running events and/or open water swimming, or sailing, or motorsports)

* trundled around at the very back of the field

Getting away from this specific incident for a minute, here’s what I would like a cycling publication to ask the UCI.

When you were performing a risk assessment for the rules for running an event, what mitigating factors did you put in place for the risk of a rider crashing and being badly injured but no one knowing?

What procedures do you have in place to ensure organisers are following the mitigation set out in your risk assessment?

It is simply not possible no one has thought of this as a possible scenario before. The question is, did they just ignore the risk or did the organisers of this event ignore the mitigation.

I know everyone hates the UCI but I’m not sure you could “risk assess” such an eventuality out of existence.

I assume doctors and paramedics were on standby but it isn’t practical to remove all/the majority of the risk for events of this nature so, for instance, it isn’t possible to put up crash netting on every corner of every descent (wrt Gino Mader).

If this ‘2hr’ delay in “officials” action is correct, I’d be interested to know who first realized that Muriel was missing and when, and what they actually did at that point. (Presumably her DS/Team Manager or team mates would be the first to realise something was wrong, followed by her family or friends who were waiting for her at the finish line…)

Hopefully, they raised their concerns with the organizer very quickly and the organizers actually did something productive though with head injuries (speculation?), that may not have been fast enough but this is all for the police/coroner to investigate, not us…

It is simply not possible no one has thought of this as a possible scenario before. The question is, did they just ignore the risk or did the organisers of this event ignore the mitigation.

It’s highly likely that no-one has thought of that scenario. There are dozens of motorbike marshals, police bikes, static marshals, TV bikes plus the team cars and the Commissaire vehicles plus people like the Moto Regulators (basically they control the movement of all vehicles within the race bubble), Blackboard Moto, medics, media cars and at least 2 helicopters. Plus the thousands of spectators although I accept this one was a very wet day and probably far fewer than would have been expected. The idea that a rider is “out of sight” of EVERYONE, I’m willing to believe has never been considered.

Every “peloton” of riders has at least 2 motos with it, one front one back. Often at least 4 motos. OK in the heat of action, multiple attacks and so on, it can be 15-20 seconds before a moto can get into any gaps but even then riders are visible in wing & rear view mirrors or up the road.

Even riders who are out the back have sweeper motos, the broom wagon and a rear of race Commissaire, taking the numbers of those who are no longer racing.
Rider 49, dropped, continuing to feed zone.
Rider 74, mechanical, getting into the broom.
Rider 12, crashed, getting into team car.
That info comes over radio all the time. The riders might not have radio but there’ll be at least 6 race channels, often up to 12. Commissaire, Radio Tour, the moto marshals, static marshals, police band, TV channel….

I’m quite willing to believe that no-one has ever considered the idea that a rider could “disappear”. Much the same way as no-one believed a plane could just vanish until MH370 managed exactly that.

If no one makes some noise now and more young people die are you really going to be happy that your part in this was to tell people they were wrong for wanting to talk about it?

If you talking about it would make any difference, you crack on.

The people who need to be talking about it are the relevant authorities and the UCI, establishing the facts so that it doesn’t happen again. And that’s assuming that finding her quickly would have changed the awful outcome.

I marshall and ride club events, much lower level than crazy legs, but yeah, riders go awol quite often. It’s a pain in the arse. Easy to track them down on a 5 mile TT loop, less easy on a 200k audax.

And that’s assuming that finding her quickly would have changed the awful outcome.

There’s a thing called the “Golden Hour” in emergency medecine. I’m sure emergency medics would state that Ms Ferrur’s odds of survival would be better if she were found in this period.

It would appear that event safety at all levels of cycling needs a radical overhaul with officials ensuring all competitors are accounted for and competitors/teams sanctioned for failing to check-in after finishing/abandoning.