The diminutive Bjorg Lambrecht thread *** R.I.P.***

[Escarabajo]

RIP Bjorg

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

The accident occurred on a pretty straight road

What a strange, unassuming place for an accident like this to take place.

Makes it even more tragic somehow. Heartbreaking.

Cycling is one of the last remaining genuinely dangerous sports; should give all of us some thought when riders complain about dangerous situations instead of dismissing their concerns in an egoistic way.

It's a difficult one. Like motorsport, you are never going to be able to fully remove danger from the sport; at the end of the day road cycling requires roads, which are used by traffic every day; traffic calming measures that are important to the everyday safety of drivers and pedestrians can become incredibly hazardous in the context of a bike race - e.g. Andrei Kivilev hitting the concrete bollard or the multitudes of road furniture crashes - as can safety measures like road drainage - e.g. Lambrecht hitting the concrete drain cover and van Vleuten's Rio crash in the guttering. The vast majority of these pass without incident, or at least without lasting damage, but they can't ever hope to make the entire course safe, only safer. I followed motorsports for many years, and in some formats (mostly endurance formats) still do, and sometimes you just know when an incident happens - Jeff Krosnoff, Greg Moore, Dan Wheldon - but other times drivers can be incredibly fortunate and emerge unscathed from horrific wrecks - Katherine Legge, Mark Webber, Peter Dumbreck. Other times, a crash looks comparatively innocuous but has the worst of consequences - Ashley Cooper is one I always remember, but Allan Simonsen to an extent too. Sometimes the most innocuous stretches of road can prove the most dangerous.

Now, there are some instances where the safety becomes paramount that the race needs to be altered. The landslides in the Tour are a perfectly reasonable example of this. And unlike some I don't hold the Monte Crostis cancellation in 2011 against the race. Sure, some misleading camera angles made the descent look far more dangerous than it actually was, but it was still a very sketchy route that was a risk that was not worth taking at the time; the péloton would be a more nervous place than usual in light of what had happened. Clearly the danger in the case of Lambrecht's fatal accident was not in the road, and if he wasn't in the péloton at the time of the crash then the péloton dynamic can't have been the cause either (and that's also for the better, as I don't want anybody bearing that guilt either, remembering the sad tale of Isaac Gálvez and Dmitri de Fauw). If a stretch of road like that is dangerous enough to kill somebody, then so can any road anywhere, unless they were riding from left to right and there's a pothole out of shot that could have caused it, but given the condition of the road otherwise that seems unlikely. It's hard to legislate against an accident like that on such an innocuous stretch of road, in a flat stage and not in the péloton; it just seems it was one of those completely unexpected and unpredictable things; nobody could have predicted that these obstacles would have needed covering for safety reasons, it's not like the disaster in País Vasco a few years ago when the posts in the road were left in on the finishing straight where the bunch would be going all out. Just makes it all the more difficult to make sense of and come to terms with.

 

[TomekA]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDsCNTAEYWI moment of crash recorded by spectator (not much can be seen but still)

 

[Midnightfright]

Re:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDsCNTAEYWI moment of crash recorded by spectator (not much can be seen but still)

I'm not sure anyone needs to see this regardless of how much is visible. Might be worth just removing

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDsCNTAEYWI moment of crash recorded by spectator (not much can be seen but still)

I'm not sure anyone needs to see this regardless of how much is visible. Might be worth just removing

Why? Each individual can decide for themselves whether or not they want to click on the link. In any case, you can't see Bjorg or much of anything really. I was just hoping to get an idea of how it might have occurred.

 

[postmanhat]

Just so horrendously sad

 

[search]

you can see that it does not fit with what was reported earlier on though. There are still riders coming past, so he did not drop from the peloton before crashing.

 

[spalco]

Re: Re:

[Snip]

I agree, very thoughtful comment, thanks.

I just think tragic events like this should be used as an opportunity for fans to reflect on what we want from this sport. We want hard racing, yes, and action, but there can be a price to pay sometimes.

It doesn't directly relate to Lambrecht's death, because it seems this was really impossible to predict, but i think it should be considered anyway. The athletes aren't always the best judges of danger, especially in a sport that requires such a high degree of self-exploitation; so i think it's also up to us not to push them beyond the limits they are comfortable with.

And i also think spreading that video is in very bad taste. Anyone who saw Weylandt die never wants to see something like that again.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

The video doesn't show anything except people signaling something has happened, while there are still plenty riders passing by. So like Search said two posts above, he definitely wasn't dropped.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

[Snip]

I agree, very thoughtful comment, thanks.

I just think tragic events like this should be used as an opportunity for fans to reflect on what we want from this sport. We want hard racing, yes, and action, but there can be a price to pay sometimes.

It doesn't directly relate to Lambrecht's death, because it seems this was really impossible to predict, but i think it should be considered anyway. The athletes aren't always the best judges of danger, especially in a sport that requires such a high degree of self-exploitation; so i think it's also up to us not to push them beyond the limits they are comfortable with.

And i also think spreading that video is in very bad taste. Anyone who saw Weylandt die never wants to see something like that again.

Don't worry, you can't see anything even remotely graphic or sensitive in that video.

 

[Carols]

I couldn't watch the clip...to horrible to contemplate.

RIP young Bjorg. You have left us much to early

 

[johnymax]

Horrible. Tragic. No words

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Where it happened. https://i.imgur.com/7Fzcodz.png
(though it's nothing graphic, i'm not posting it as an image).

 

[Velolover2]

This makes me really sick.

A huge, huge loss for cycling. He would have been the king of murito climbs.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Very sad news. I wish the best for his family, friends, teammates, and anyone else who will miss him. I hope it wasn't a painful passing for him.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Race doctor said it wasn't specifically his head that was hit, but his entire torso. They had to open up his chest in order to get his heart going. He couldn't be moved by helicopter due to the severity of his injuries. He also said somebody supposedly hit him or his handlebar which made him crash.

https://www.hln.be/sport/wielrennen/herbekijk-hier-het-extra-vtm-nieuws-over-het-overlijden-van-bjorg-lambrecht~af2f5a75/


Ironically, around the time of his passing, Tour de l'Avenir unknowingly posted a compilation / highlight video on their facebook, with some of the best moments of the past few years. Among these fragments, is the sprint between Egan Bernal and Bjorg Lambrecht, in a 2017 MTF sprint for victory.

 

[Wvv]

I just got home, after the fourth night of a ten days music festival in my home town. Needed it to take my mind of things, but it didn't really work. Watching and reading some news and there they are, tears in my eyes. I genuinely liked Bjorg. Such a nice guy, such a big prospect for Belgian and international cycling. It feels so utterly unfair and I'm fed up with these kinds of accidents. They happen too often in this otherwise brilliant sport, and for a Belgian they occur too often closeby.

Thoughts go out to his family, friends, colleagues, supporters and cycling fans in general.
We'll miss you, Bjorg. Rest in peace.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Re: Re:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDsCNTAEYWI moment of crash recorded by spectator (not much can be seen but still)

I'm not sure anyone needs to see this regardless of how much is visible. Might be worth just removing

I think it really depends on from which angle you view it.

A. If you're looking for some gore porn - this is most definitely not the place for you!

B. If you're medical/healthcare - you want to see if there was anything else that could have potentially been done in order to save him.

C. If you're a fellow rider you most definitely want to see if there were any mechanicals or road issues that could have been avoided or could have been broached differently, for future reference.

I have no issues with neither B nor C, but I would certainly have issues with choice A.

Btw., probably, and thankfully, for the rest of you there was very little to see in this vid, but for those of us who fall into group B we have very little to work with. I'm sure the medical people over in Poland did the best they could, though.

RIP, Bjorg. I'm sure all of us will always be left wondering what could have been.

 

[Salvarani]

Nooooo

Just woke up today and saw this. Worked yesterday all day and didnt check anything in the evening.

This is heartbreaking. So sad about this.

Rip Bjorg

 

[PeterB]

Oh why does the sport which we love have to be so cruel? You will be missed Bjorg on all the startlists of all those races where you could have shown your talent and result of your hard work, although that's really irrelevant compared to how much you will be missed in the lives of your close ones...

 

[Kazistuta]

Sometimes things just don't really make sense. Such a meaningless loss. Yu Gonplei Ste Odon

 

[Arked]

Re:

I've read rumours that it might have been a heart failure and that caused the accident.

Apparently something similar to what happened to Goolaarts during the 2018 PR

It is quite worrying to see that there have been 5 riders who died for heart failure in the last 5 years and they have all been either Dutch or from Belgium.

If that's the case, yes. I've brought that up in the past, that this can not be a coincidence, regardless of it being true in this case or not.

EDIT: i just read an article on Sporza, that suggests he died of his injuries. He rode into the ditch (i assume the one in the photo) and hit his head against the concrete part. Maybe he did get a stroke of some sort, but with this bad weather, and considering he only weighs 55 kg, maybe the wind played its part? (This is pure speculation on my part).

He hit the concrete block with his whole upper body and had massive internal organs damage (spleen, liver, lungs). It wasn't only head. Doctor says he was beyond saving. That was horrible and very unfortunate accident. It is still unknown why he lost control and fell into the ditch. I would abstain from any wild speculations due to respect to the deceased.

 

[Salvarani]

I dont really wanna speculate, but I really hope it wasnt someone that bumped into him or something. Because that would be even more heartbreaking and extremely hard to deal with for that person. Even if it obviously wouldnt have been on purpose.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Spceulation is useless but what I gather he was still in the peloton and probably collided with somebody or something causing him to go off road, at the most unfortunate part. Complete freak accident

 

[Flamin]

Shocking news I still can't believe it. Happens way too often.

This guy could have totally made it big. Even next year already he might have been one of the top favourites in the Ardennes.