Muriel Furrer and her father Reto all the time had the similar custom. At the startline of every race, they’d to find every alternative in the course of the population, store ill their center 3 palms, and outstretch their thumbs and pinkies.
“Hang loose”, they known as it, their week of calmness prior to the peloton’s chaos. On the identical moment, Muriel knew her mom, Christine, can be praying for her security.
Reto and Christine had adopted their 18-year-old daughter’s biking occupation throughout Europe. A part of the Swiss Biking Below-19 workforce, she gained a street nationwide youthful name in 2022, and a medal on this yr’s Mountain Cycling Eu Championships in Romania.
The public clocked up hundreds of miles between races, amassing tales alongside the best way. The moment Muriel’s instructions ended in their campervan turning into wedged in a Verona sidestreet. Prising clear a lodge window with motorcycle equipment. Card video games each night.
However the Furrers didn’t want their campervan for September’s International Championships, when the planet’s largest riders would flock to Zurich, simply 20 mins from Muriel’s house within the village of Egg. The 74km youthful ladies’s street race route started in Uster, only one the city over, winding over tarmac she had ridden loads of occasions prior to. It was once to be the largest race of her fledgling occupation.
“Muriel always dreamt of these Worlds,” says Christine. “It was a big goal for her. She’d post on Instagram, she’d always talk about it with me, with Reto, with family and friends.”
On her wall, Muriel made a collage of ambitions — the International Championships, the Olympics, but additionally one of these individual she sought after to grow to be. “Gratitude is my superpower” is underlined.
The collage in Muriel’s room (Credit score: Jacob Whitehead)
After to it’s any other quote, an exhausted however ecstatic athlete at the end form. “One day I won’t be able to do this,” it reads. “So I have to enjoy it while I can.”
At the hour of the race, Reto and Christine stood ready in central Zurich, protecting their home made cardboard indicators. “Hopp Muriel.” “Go Muriel.” They started to fret when she didn’t move them on the finish of the route’s first lap. They contacted Swiss Biking’s workforce automobile, however no one may inform them any information.
Muriel by no means completed the International Championships.
She had crashed, on a descent important against Kusnacht, a suburb at the shores of Pond Zurich, with 45km residue. The department is closely wooded, and having left the street, she disappeared from view.
It was once simplest then the race ended {that a} monitor marshal discovered Muriel subconscious within the timbers.
At one of the most global’s largest biking races, only a 10-minute power from her entrance door, she have been mendacity rejected and injured for roughly an future and a part.
Muriel was once airlifted to a Zurich medical institution with a disturbing mind shock. She died the later hour.
The indicators made via Muriel’s public for the International Championships (Credit score: Jacob Whitehead)
“How are we supposed to live without you?” Christine requested in her eulogy. “Without your beautiful cards with Bible verses for birthdays and Christmas? Without your loving signs in every corner? Why did you have to die so early? Why wasn’t I allowed to go?
“Why didn’t I alert the police when you didn’t show up? Why didn’t God reduce the pressure in your brain despite the best possible therapy? Why didn’t the prayer that you would cross the finish line in one piece help?”
Her demise has left elite biking’s tight-knit family shaken, and asking critical questions of each native organisers and biking’s governing frame, the UCI. Juan Ayuso, a high-profile ability within the peloton, described the prolong as “disgraceful”.
Within the weeks following the devastating incident, The Athletic travelled to Zurich to talk to Muriel’s public and coaches, discuss with the International Championships route, and put issues to each race organisers and the UCI.
That is the tale of Muriel Furrer — how she lived and the way she died, her ability and what was once taken away.
“I really hope that in the future, they make changes,” says Reto. “The details are sometimes too difficult, and don’t help bring back Muriel. But we have to be sure this won’t happen again.”
Of their kitchen in Egg, Christine is making tea and occasional.
“Muriel was a brilliant baker,” she explains. “She made waffles here, and cookies, and muffins. It smelled wonderful in this house. That’s something I miss.”
As a child, Christine impaired to place Muriel at the again of her motorcycle as she finished her errands. It rubbed off on their youngest kid.
“She tried ballet, and did it for one or two years, but we were happy she stopped because she liked to move in nature,” says Christine.
Muriel racing on her mountain motorcycle (Credit score: Furrer public)
“It began because she had a long way to school,” provides Reto. “You could take the bus, but she wanted to go by bike. She just rode every day, four times a day, and she really loved it.”
One hour, her mom noticed a flyer for the native membership, and that was once it. “She was always the most little girl compared to the others, and it was hard for her to win,” Christine says. “And for the first year she had a very old bike. But you could see she had a fire for this sport. It was in her eyes.”
Muriel started coming into native races, with Reto, a prepared Ironman player, transitioning to grow to be her tutor and mechanic. Briefly, her oldsters realised they’d a ability on their arms. She was once round 13 when she was too speedy for them.
Popularity got here with the Swiss nationwide workforce, which she made as a 14-year-old. Driving throughout mountain cycling, cyclo-cross, and the street, 2024 was once the primary yr she had certified for the youthful International Championships in all 3 farmlands.
“She was very strong on hills,” says Reto. “And she really liked technical stuff. But she really wanted races with elevation, not flat ones — although she was getting pretty good on those too. She was a fighter.”
Reto and Christine Furrer at house in Egg (Credit score: Jacob Whitehead)
“Road racing was not always easy, because she came from mountain biking,” says Kathrin Stirnemann, who coached Muriel each privately and for the nationwide workforce.
“She had to learn to become a better rider at positioning and tactics. She was a little afraid of road cycling sometimes, like riding in the bunch in hectic races on narrow roads — but she always wanted to learn, and she always took on the challenge.
“‘What can I do better? Where did I go wrong there? Can I do another jumping session? Can we work on these skills?’ She was so motivated.”
The Swiss youthful workforce was once a tight-knit staff. Muriel was once particularly alike to Lara Liehner, who lived close by and was once a classmate — when Lara beat her to gold on the Swiss Championships street moment trial, Furrer straight away put her unhappiness to 1 facet to celebrate her buddy.
“She was the most social girl, she took care of everyone,” says Stirnemann. “She hated when someone was outside the group, so if any girls were a bit detached, she was the connection. She was always laughing. She was the sunshine in that group.”
At a memorial in early November, one team-mate, who had struggled with the distant lack of considered one of their pals, described how Muriel was once all the time there to concentrate all the way through coaching camps.
“The night before the race, she would ask her friends: ‘Who wants to pray with me?’,” says Christine. “They always said yes.”
As they describe their daughter’s day, the Furrers contact at the difficulties {of professional} game. Every now and then, Muriel struggled with consuming, power, and homesickness.
“Most of the good racers are really lightweight, and it’s a big thing for the girls when they’re that age,” says Reto. “She wasn’t the only one. She struggled, a kind of sickness for one year — it wasn’t bulimia, but it was mental. If she gained one kilogram, she thought it was a big problem.”
However with skilled backup, and likewise running intently with Stirnemann, Muriel started to go back to manage mode. Regardless that she had begun a part-time placement at an insurance coverage company as a part of her college schooling, the function was once to show skilled.
“Muriel had a straight idea of what the future would look like,” says Christine.
“She had the talent, and for sure the mindset to go professional,” provides Stirnemann. “So why not?”
Muriel then finishing a race for the Swiss nationwide workforce (Credit score: Furrer public)
An extended-term function — the 2032 Brisbane Olympics — was once written on her bed room wall in sparkly silver pen.
This was once an actual chance — with Zurich, the season’s ultimate race, a key waymark. Residing nearly at the race direction, she incessantly rode the route, each rejected and with Lara. When she skilled rejected, she fitted a tracker on her motorcycle so her public would know the place she was once.
The descent to Kusnacht was once a street she’d ridden dozens of occasions prior to, important against her favorite mountain, the Uetliberg, at the alternative facet of Zurich.
“She knew every metre, every curve,” says Reto.
“That’s why it’s so unbelievable that it could unfold like this,” provides Christine.
The morning of the street race on September 26 introduced raindrops, statuses that made descending way more treacherous. On the other hand, the Swiss workforce had each rainy tires and the precise equipment — the statuses weren’t open as too unhealthy to race.
“It was a little more slippery, but you know they’re almost professionals,” says Reto. “They know how to handle it.”
Stirnemann was once with the workforce prior to the beginning. “Muriel was always super nervous, but she always had a plan. She wrote down steps and times of what she had to do before the race. She always had that little book and it helped her a lot.
“She actually fell out of the campervan that morning, it was wet and she slipped down the stairs, but it didn’t hurt. It was a funny moment, it put the team at ease. She did her warm-up as normal and went to the startline.”
There, Muriel noticed her father. “Hang loose.” Christine mentioned a calm devotion.
“You know that I didn’t always have your UCI points and rankings exactly in my head,” she would next say at Muriel’s funeral. “I repeatedly asked you questions about cycling, which you patiently answered, but I should have been aware of them. Your ranking wasn’t important to me. I was happy when you crossed the finish line in one piece.”
This was once the hour Muriel had dreamed of, her house International Championships. Each sat on their motorcycles, she grew to become to Lara, and informed her, “I’m ready”.
Youthful biking races are chaotic.
“I remember after just 1km, some girls who really shouldn’t have been in the race were already being dropped,” says Stirnemann, who was once within the Swiss workforce automobile. “Because of that, the cars had to be really far back. At one point, we were maybe 4km behind the leaders. It was really difficult to get an oversight of the race.”
Nearest a lap of the Greifensee, a pool between Uster and Egg, riders ascended a ridge that bordered Pond Zurich, the foremost climb of the race. The direction upcoming dropped them into Kusnacht, from which they’d race into central Zurich, prior to repeating a 2d lap up the climb and again into the town to the end.
Nearest visible Muriel in Uster, the Furrer public travelled to a climb in central Zurich — their plan was once to peer the riders start the second one lap, and upcoming proceed ill the hill to the end. The indicators they made now take a seat at the flooring in their daughter’s room.
“We thought it might be a good place, because they’ll be coming slowly up the hill,” says Christine. “But she didn’t come on the first lap. There was no Muriel.”
“Sometimes in mountain biking you have technical problems — a flat tyre, health issues, a crash,” provides Reto. “But in Zurich on the street races, it’s not usual. So I was a little bit nervous.”
Furrer was once now not within the important staff up the climb, however was once located round fiftieth of 120 riders. She was once now not captured via the race broadcast all the way through the steep, wooded descent against Kusnacht. Organisers say that despite the fact that they altered portions of the route right through the making plans duration as a part of the standard security procedure, negative issues have been raised about this division via both directors or riders.
Muriel signing in prior to the race (Credit score: Furrer public)
“Of course, it’s a descent, it’s in the forest,” says Olivier Senn, carrying director of the Zurich 2024 establishing committee, a distant frame to the UCI, which was once liable for the day by day making plans of the development.
“We were aware as organisers that it’s not a Formula 1 racecourse, there are safety gaps on the side, but where we thought it was risky, we had protection mats, we put marshals, and then on that specific day, because we knew it was bad weather, we put additional marshals there.
“In hindsight, it’s always easy to look at the specific situation, but in general the descent was not very dangerous. I think we did the safety measures that we could foresee for such a race.”
Regardless that Furrer’s descent was once now not stuck via tv cameras, The Athletic has open pictures of the peloton descending the climb, taken roughly 350m prior to the strike web site.
Instead than being rejected, as have been to start with idea, Furrer was once 2d wheel in a four-strong staff of riders. They’d achieve the strike web site round 15 seconds next, a left-hander that, off-camber and underneath slippery statuses, have been known via organisers as a tough nook.
It isn’t identified precisely why Furrer left the street, although two alternative minor crashes had already passed off in different places. 3 months then the hit, Swiss government are nonetheless investigating.
The view uphill against the bend the place Muriel crashed (Credit score: Jacob Whitehead)
Nearest Furrer’s staff passes, the foursome can also be open within the distance navigating any other left hander, the penultimate bend prior to the strike web site. Having been in single-file up to now, one rider — too a ways away to definitively determine — strikes off the racing form on the apex of the nook, showing to overhaul. The sort of manoeuvre in rainy statuses would have additional sophisticated the descent for all of the riders in Muriel’s staff.
The Athletic isn’t naming the riders within the staff given the delicate nature of what spread out however has been informed that negative rider obviously noticed Furrer’s strike. It isn’t regarded as the accountability of riders to spot crashes and with out race radios, they’d have had negative approach to tell race officers finally.
The race persevered. In Zurich, Furrer’s public watched all of the ground whole the primary lap, with out their daughter, prior to calling Stirnemann. It was once upcoming that the Swiss workforce realised she was once lacking.
“During the race, we saw her once from far back when the bunch was together, and we also knew from the live stream that Muriel was not in the leading group,” says Stirnemann. “And then, when we passed her parents, it was clear: ‘OK, we didn’t pass her, she must be somewhere.’”
“Muriel’s dad called me because he knew I was in the car. He said: ‘Hey, do you know where Muriel is?’ And I said: ‘No, we are actually looking for her.’ We were calling around. I called the feed zone. Did she pass there? I called the doctor who was at the finish. And we couldn’t find her. At one point, the race was finished and we still didn’t know where she was.”
Furrer’s public had walked to the Swiss workforce caravan in central Zurich, however no one may handover them with updates.
“We waited there,” recalls Christine. “We waited. A difficult wait, many minutes. Her team-mates finished their races and came back, and everybody was upset, really scared.”
The strike passed off at roughly 11.03am, with video pictures demonstrating it was once a minimum of 17 mins prior to the workforce automobile handed Reto and Christine, and the Swiss workforce automobile knew she was once lacking. The leaders handed the strike web site for a 2d moment 40 mins then the hit — with TV protection appearing negative indicators of situation reaction.
Superior Britain’s Cat Ferguson gained the race at 11.58am, with the general Swiss rider completing 5 mins next. By way of 12.36pm, Reto had nonetheless heard negative information of Muriel, and attempted her cell phone, in case she was once sitting someplace at the route, disenchanted with how her race had long gone.
It was once simplest afterwards that Furrer’s public say they had been approached via a UCI legit, who informed them a tracker on Muriel’s motorcycle was once desk bound alike Kusnacht. She was once due to this fact discovered via a monitor marshal — this was once roughly 90 mins then crashing.
Tributes at the bend the place Muriel crashed (Credit score: Jacob Whitehead)
Photos from the next males’s Para-cycling race, taken at 12.45pm, due to this fact presentations ambulances on the web site of Muriel’s hit, along Swiss workforce physios. A rescue helicopter from close by Dubendorf landed simply prior to 1pm. It will speed round half-hour to arrange her for shipping, owing to the inaccessibility of the site and the severity of her situation.
When Muriel arrived in medical institution, the level of her accidents had been unclouded. A part of her cranium had already been got rid of to alleviate power at the mind.
“The doctors did all they could,” says Christine. “The whole manpower went in, but it didn’t help. Treatment was unsuccessful, and we have to manage with this reality. After surgery, the pressure didn’t go down, and in the evening they told us she was hardly surviving. That was the moment we called our families.”
Muriel (honest) along with her siblings Michelle and Eric (Credit score: Furrer public)
Christine stayed in a single day with Muriel within the medical institution, praying, and stroking her head. Someway, she defied medical doctors’ expectancies to live on into the later afternoon. Sooner than starting her tale, Christine passes over a eulogy she wrote for Muriel’s funeral. It reads:
“Muriel, you as soon as mentioned to me, ‘Our life on earth is precious, but the greatest gift is life after death’. You received the greatest gift after your last competition. I was allowed to be with you on the darkest night of your death in the intensive care unit. You, I, and our God, enveloped by the Holy Spirit, by his light, survived the night.
“Unfortunately, another miracle failed to materialise. You have gone before us, dear Muriel. I am eternally grateful for 18 years together on this earth. I promised you on your deathbed that I would continue in faith in your spirit. So I am sure that we will meet again.”
A memorial ride was held one day after she died. The family gave their blessing for the World Championships to continue racing.
“I’ve been concerned within the organisation of a few races, I do know it is a choice you need to assemble very early,” says Reto.
“Life goes on,” explains Christine. “The show must go on. But as well, all the athletes who came from worldwide, arriving for the championships, we felt it was important they can show their fire. They must go further. They should do what they love.”
A tender Muriel with the public’s cat, Micky (Credit score: Furrer public)
Coming to phrases with the tragedy is a hard procedure. The ones concerned had been asking why — now not near to the strike itself, however how this type of critical hit, at one of the most game’s largest races, can loose a rider rejected for goodbye?
An investigation led via the native police and the Zurich family prosecutor is ongoing, charged with figuring out whether or not there may be any evidence of legal misconduct across the strike. Some portions of Muriel’s hit — particularly, the precise chain of conversation between government all the way through the quest — can’t be totally mentioned via eyewitnesses.
Contacted in early December, a spokesperson mentioned that “to date, no criminal proceedings have been initiated”. They added that it could now not be imaginable to expect when the investigation can be whole, with government nonetheless expecting forensic scientific studies.
It’s dense whether or not a faster reaction would have stored Muriel, although the public be expecting this to be lined via the investigation. They level to the instance of Gino Mader, any other Swiss rider, who suffered a disturbing mind shock all the way through a descent at endmost yr’s Excursion de Suisse. Mader died, elderly 26, in spite of receiving nearly instant scientific remedy.
Muriel’s shock would possibly had been miserable without reference to the reaction moment — however what is sure is that the prolong simplest had the possible to irritate her situation.
Reto and Christine don’t wish to criticise the governing our bodies and organisers prior to the overall investigation is exempted, however imagine it can be crucial that any obvious failings are known, making sure negative alternative public is going thru what they have got.
Specifically, two key problems want clarifying. Race pictures of the leaders passing the strike web site at the first loop, mins prior to the incident, presentations 3 marshals underneath the nook, every of whom seems to have a unclouded form of eye. The nearest marshal was once simply 60m away.
3 marshals downhill of the bend the place Muriel crashed (Credit score: Eurosport)
In keeping with Senn, race marshals have other roles — the 3 then the bend had been ‘crowd control marshals’, who’re contributors of the Swiss Civil Coverage. Their number one function was once to forbid witnesses from crossing the street at the intersecting jungle trails. They’re additionally intended to seem out for athletes, if in place.
Two marshals may also be open at the right-hander straight away prior to the strike web site — although with out a right away view of the place Muriel went off the street.
Senn showed to The Athletic they had been positioned there on account of the rainy climate, and defined they had been skilled ‘race marshals’, who exit across the route on motorbikes to warn riders drawing near unhealthy positions. Nearest the race, it was once any such marshals who ultimately discovered Muriel.
Two marshals on the bend prior to the strike web site (Credit score: Eurosport)
With a minimum of 5 marshals within the instant neighborhood, together with 3 reputedly with a right away view, it has now not been defined how Muriel’s strike was once now not to start with open, or, afterwards, as soon as government had been knowledgeable she was once lacking, how she may now not had been discovered extra temporarily.
Requested to handover an evidence, the native organisers mentioned, “It is our understanding, that no marshal (on motorbikes) or civil protection member saw the crash site from their position”. They added they had been not able to touch upon why she was once now not discovered extra temporarily as a result of the continued investigation.
The second one factor is monitoring. This isn’t a untouched era, however in lieu person who has grow to be usual factor throughout each motorcycle computer systems and Strava. There could also be a gigantic array of kit, together with watches, computer systems, and helmets, which is able to sense a strike and ship an alert to pre-selected contacts.
In UCI races, biking’s governing frame is in keep watch over of what era sits at the motorcycle. For Muriel’s race, riders had a transponder — recording when riders move thru checkpoints — which additionally contained a rudimental tracker, supplied via Swiss Timing.
On the other hand, this era was once restricted — supposed in order that tv motorbikes may determine the riders on-screen, in lieu than as any mode of security or race visualisation constituent.
“We had transmitters on the motorbikes and not on helicopters,” a spokesperson for Swiss Timing informed The Athletic. “This means you need bikes nearby to ensure constant tracking of the riders. It is always at the discretion of the UCI and the organisers as to which system they want to deploy.”
As a result of this was once neither a security device nor publicly handy, and with riders now not allowed to fix their very own monitoring era to their motorcycle, it intended Swiss Biking had negative method of checking her location temporarily.
Muriel’s public, coaches, or even the native organisers imagine it’s unclouded the utility of monitoring era wishes to switch. Public common with the subject have informed The Athletic that the era was once consulted as a part of the seek for Muriel, however stakeholders had been resistant to speak about the main points amid the investigation.
“For me, personally, it was too long before she was found,” says Reto. “Thirty minutes after the crash happened, I was already sure it was something bad. It’s difficult — you don’t always know with a rider in the race whether they might have decided to stop, to ride home because they’re disappointed. You don’t know. But if you have a tracker, you have to use this tracker — and check. They had a kind of tracker, not the best one, but they had one.”
“If there is a crash, the tracker has to set off an alarm and someone has to be in charge and looking for these trackers,” argues Stirnemann. “If no one checks this, no one knows. They already have this in the Garmin (a popular bike computer). And for sure, it would be perfect if helmets have a big hit alarm.”
Senn, in control of the carrying arm of the native establishing committee, is the organiser of alternative home races together with the Excursion de Suisse. He tells The Athletic that he’ll be making sure {that a} safety-focused monitoring device will probably be presented at his races in the future. It’ll now not be publicly handy, simply to be had to groups and organisers, to steer clear of complicated knowledge negotiations.
“(Trackers) could have certainly reduced the time between the crash and Muriel being found a lot,” says Senn. “If we have responsibility for 100, 150, 200 athletes on our roads, it’s also a responsibility to know where they are and what they do, and that’s where GPS tracking comes into play, because it’s impossible to oversee them all the time without such devices.”
The Athletic has been informed of 2 distant events which introduced native organisers and the UCI utility of publicly-accessible monitoring programs forward of the race. Neither of those had been taken up.
Such a was once from Christian Sailer, an educational who labored for Esri, an analytics and spatial mapping corporate. With the International Championships coming to Zurich, the town the place he lived, he introduced native organisers utility of Esri era for detached as a exhibit.
Organisers swamped with Sailer, and the events swapped emails over a six-month duration. On the other hand, their ultimate touch was once on June 24, 3 months prior to the championships — Sailer gained negative additional conversation till then the race.
“I was asking myself if I should have done more,” Sailer tells The Athletic. “Should I have pushed them? I felt sad, because I knew that with my system, the outcome, theoretically, could have been different.”
When Sailer made this level to the establishing committee in October, he gained a answer which mentioned: “It seems undisputed that technical solutions such as GPS trackers would probably have helped in this unfortunate situation.
“The authority to introduce and use such means lies with the UCI. For Zurich 2024, in addition to the short time available, there were too many other aspects that were open for implementation and integration into existing technical systems (e.g. timekeeping) to have been possible. That is regrettable, but unfortunately there was nothing that could be done about it.”
Andreas Herren, communications director of the establishing committee, next showed to The Athletic that in addition to the UCI, Swiss Timing would even have had to handover benevolence. “It wasn’t a viable solution under the circumstances that could be implemented on that day,” he mentioned.
Sailer’s means got here 9 months prior to the International Championships — however any other staff had already been lobbying the UCI for years.
Velon, a business corporate arrange via biking’s manage groups, showed to The Athletic over electronic mail it had up to now spoken to the UCI about adopting their monitoring device. Regardless that it’s supposed essentially for fan engagement, the crowd say its spouse groups utility it for security — pointing to Remco Evenepoel’s terrifying strike at Il Lombardia in 2020, the place a Velon tracker straight away notified his workforce of the autumn.
“When we first launched the system we worked closely with the UCI on its deployment, jointly creating the rules of governance and exploring ways the system might be used for more than our commercial activities,” mentioned Graham Bartlett, the corporate’s CEO. “Sadly that was not the case in recent years. The UCI’s approach has been to try to develop their own separate system. We remain open to collaborate and use what we’ve developed.”
According to questions asking why various monitoring knowledge collaborations had been grew to become ill, the UCI mentioned: “In light of the recent tragedy at the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships in Zurich and the subsequent loss of the young Swiss rider, Muriel Furrer, our thoughts and deepest condolences remain with her family, friends, and the Swiss Cycling community.
“Due to the fact that the police investigation into the circumstances of the accident is still ongoing, led by Swiss authorities, we are not in a position to discuss its details at this time. We appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience as we await further developments.
“Regarding the use of trackers, we can confirm that in our role as race organiser of the UCI Road World Championships, the trackers used are those provided by our service provider for timing and data, Swiss Timing. Whereas trackers using 5G transmission and enabling transmission of localisation data at all times do exist, they are, to date, only used in a very small number of events on the international calendar.
“The UCI, in its role as governing body, is currently exploring potential software and hardware developments that would enable the broadest number of event organisers and teams to access localisation data live and at all times as well as ensuring that in-race devices also serve for safety whenever possible.”
Nonetheless, the UCI’s failure to achieve an oath, nor manufacture their very own supplementary, intended that on the International Championships, Muriel’s bicycle didn’t include a tracker optimised for security functions.
Muriel’s grave in Egg (Credit score: Jacob Whitehead)
Nearest her demise, various riders publicly expressed their outrage at what they noticed as a security failing.
“We see the response time with Muriel’s death, and it’s just not good enough,” Australian rider Chloe Hosking tells The Athletic. “And as more information came out, I got angrier and angrier. It made me very sad to think of a young girl with so much potential left alone. And it’s just heartbreaking, honestly. There’s a time for silence, and there’s a time when you’re meant to be angry. You’re meant to say things need to be better.”
Possibly probably the most emotional publish got here from 20-year-old Italian Andrea Raccagni, any other competitor on the International Championships. It was once preferred and reshared via dozens of cyclists.
“I wanted to make a nice post with some photos of my experience at the World Championship, but right from the start I thought it wasn’t right,” he wrote on Instagram. “A week has passed and (except for a few articles) no one is talking about it anymore.
“We are just accepting it, but is that what we want? Certainly not Muriel’s family, to whom I send my deepest condolences, and at the same time I apologise, because I had the opportunity to speak out and I didn’t do it sooner.
“And I want to apologise to you, Muriel, because like every other 18-year-old person, you deserved to live your life to the fullest and not waste it like this, and I feel guilty about that. I would like every athlete who has been in situations that were too dangerous and who has never said it out loud, to join me in apologising to them.
“Some ideas will come, but we have to start somewhere.”
To which the UCI added, chatting with The Athletic: “Safety remains our top priority, and this tragic event underscores the critical importance of our ongoing efforts to enhance rider safety. The recent creation of SafeR, an entity dedicated to safety in professional road cycling, with the constant implication of all stakeholders of cycling, shall be pivotal for the common objective of improved safety to be attained through responsive and preventative actions.
“Further to the recent SafeR Supervisory Board Meeting, Professional Cycling Council (PCC) meeting and the UCI Women’s WorldTour and UCI WorldTour Seminar, the collective commitment was once again confirmed with endorsement of several safety-related measures. A comprehensive update on these safety measures shall be presented during an online press conference with SafeR stakeholders in January.”
Muriel’s teammates have begun coaching once more. Many nonetheless to find it tough. On the nationwide workforce’s camp, they spoke overtly concerning the loss.
“I’ve never seen so many rainbows than after she died,” says Stirnemann. “I saw them on the day itself, I saw them from my balcony. My brother was married in Tuscany the next week, I saw them there too. When something happens, that’s a sign.”
The sign-in board for the International Championships (Credit score: Jacob Whitehead)
Muriel’s motorcycles stay within the public’s storage, covered up and able to race. At the back of them is the sign-in board from the startline, proficient to the public via the city of Uster. Muriel’s title is within the centre.
She impaired to jot down Bible verses on her frames, and her favorite, Isaiah 40:31, is repeated on most of the dozens of floral tributes. It’s apt for a skilled bike owner.
“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
At her grave, a trim experience downhill from the public house, there are flecks of raindrops on a little bicycle; they rotate across the wheels within the December air.
(Lead symbol: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic, graphics John Bradford, picture credit score: Furrer public)
