[

Death

Monument to Fabio Casartelli on the Col de Portet d'Aspet

On July 18 during the fifteenth stage of the 1995 Tour de France, Fabio Casartelli and a few other riders crashed on the descent of the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the Pyrenees. Casartelli's head struck the concrete blocks along the roadway, causing heavy facial and head injuries and loss of consciousness. While being flown to a local hospital by helicopter, he stopped breathing and after numerous resuscitation attempts was declared dead. Many have claimed if Casartelli had been wearing a modern bicycle helmet his life might have been saved.^[1] However, Gerard Porte, the Tour's senior doctor, claimed that protection was academic since the fatal blow was to an area of Casartelli's head that would not have been covered by a helmet.^[1]

His Motorola team continued the Tour de France, crossing the finish line of the next stage first, side by side. The peloton followed behind, riding slowly. The Société du Tour de France awarded the stage prizes as normal, and the riders donated all the money won that day to a fund established for his family. The Tour later matched that amount, and thousands of individuals contributed to the fund.

The Société du Tour de France and the Motorola team placed a memorial near where he crashed. The memorial is a sundial arranged so that the sun's shadow highlights three dates— his birth and death and the day he won his Olympic gold medal. The bicycle he was riding at the time of his fatal crash was placed in the chapel at the Madonna del Ghisallo, a church and museum to cyclists near his home.

[

References