Very sad day for women's cycling...

[julbee]

Thanks for the post, Techno...
It is sad... and seems so senseless.
My heart goes out...

I'm with Road Raven on this one... this is very angering!
I was out on my first "official" road ride this past Sunday... and we were clearly within the "confines" of the "bikepath" lane...when a truck, with a trailer in tow, came along, speeding and swerving over the line into our lane! We could have tapped the windows on his vehicle... or worse!

What's it going to take to get motorists to acknowledge the presence of bikers and to observe their right to be "safe" on a bike path lane? We were quite upset at the time.

~Inner Peace~

[MightyMitre]

This is such sad news about Amy Gillet.

I also can't even start to imagin how the friends and family of the team must be feeling with their love ones so far away from home at such a critical and desperate time.

My thoughts go out to all those involved.

[PinkRacer]

This too awful... you see motorist everyday who don't obey the laws and use the bike lane etc...

Some peace the other day I witnesses a drive get a ticket for making a right hand turn using the bike lane as a turn lane….

This is so sad...

[RoadRaven]

Here is a picture from the Sydney Morning Herald of how it happened... I felt sick for the coach who saw it all unfold in front of his car!

http://www.smh.com.au/media/2005/07/...538976011.html

[bikerchick68]

this is truly sickening... it will change ALL of their lives forever... including that young drivers... she too, will have to live with the permanence of her actions...

so very, very sad for all involved...

[Lynne]

I was really hoping that the men's austrialian team member would have been able to take the stage (I forgot his name) in yesterday's Tour. I guess moving up to 7th place overall was a good memorandum, right? I'm sure he was very sad-from listening to the announcers, the male team is likely very close to the female national team.

I guess I'm a softie, but I also feel very badly for the young driver. Too inexperienced, too fast and it looks like she hit a defect in the road.

[Technotart]

I was hoping yesterday that he would win too - it would have been for them...it still was, but If I had been hanging out in front of him, well, I don't know that I would have fought him for it when he went to sprint past....

[Pedal Wench]

I've been haunted by this story all day. It could have happened to any one of us. I'll be riding with a black ribbon on my bike this weekend to remember those women, and to remind myself to ride safe and strong - life is short.

[RoadRaven]

Ah... still feeling dreadful about this

Snowmouse, thanks for posting their pics here - I was coming to do that today...

Here's the latest from the Sydney Morning Herald...

Three cyclists on mend, two critical
July 22, 2005


Amy Gillett sped to the front of the pack only seconds before the car that killed her hit her.

Her Australian teammates say she was inspiring them to ride faster when the car swerved across the road and skidded sideways into the group.

It hit her then collected her five cycling teammates before flipping over and into a ditch by the side of the straight road near Zeulenroda, Germany.

These recollections of Katie Brown, 22, Kate Nichols, 20, and Lorian Graham, 27, offer the first glimpse into the moments before the accident.

Gillett's husband, Simon, arrived in Germany yesterday to collect the body of the woman he married only a year ago.

Her teammates, in hospital, have told Greg Boorer, a mechanic for the national women's cycling squad, that the 29-year-old had been forcing the pace as the group practised the first stage of the six-day Thüringen Rundfahrt on Monday.

She sped past the group at more than 70kmh and was only a few metres ahead when the car struck the team.

They recall seeing the car come "tearing up the hill" and swerve violently across to the wrong side of the road before turning sideways and "skittling the girls like a tenpin bowling set", Mr Boorer said. Married to the former Commonwealth Games cyclist Margaret Hemsley, he has visited the cyclists in hospital with the national coach Warren McDonald, who was driving behind the team at the time of the accident.

"They're really brave. They have a lot of injuries but they can see they're going to improve and get better," Mr Boorer said on Wednesday.

Three of the cyclists are starting to talk and move again, while their two teammates remain in a critical condition.

Nichols, from Sydney, could be released from hospital as early as next week after suffering only multiple cuts and bruises in the collision.

She and Brown, also from Sydney, and Graham, of Queensland, have a "very good chance" of returning to competitive cycling, according to doctors at Jena University Clinic, south of Leipzig.

Brown, who is sharing a ward with Nichols, underwent a second successful operation on her left knee and right leg on Wednesday. She is expected to be discharged from hospital in two to three weeks.

"They were very happy when the two Kates met on the ICU [intensive care unit]. It was a very heartbreaking moment. I think it is very important that they stay together," said Dr Gernot Marx, acting head of the intensive care unit.

Alexis Rhodes, 20, of South Australia, and Louise Yaxley, 23, of Tasmania, are unconscious and still face "a life-threatening situation". However, Peter Fricker, the Australian Institute of Sport director, who arrived at the hospital on Wednesday, said both women "are very fit and strong and we have reason to be optimistic about their recovery".

He said the parents of the five cyclists "want everyone to know they are optimistic about their daughters' recovery".

Yaxley and Rhodes are still on ventilators, and are expected to remain in hospital for four to six weeks.

Graham was moved to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon from a nearby clinic. Her parents and boyfriend arrived in Germany yesterday.

Parents of all five cyclists have now arrived.

The 18-year-old driver remains in an unidentified hospital. Her injuries were not major, said Dr Raik Schafer of the Jena University Clinic, who arrived at the scene in a rescue helicopter 10 minutes after the accident.

Police are waiting to speak to the driver and other witnesses. They have not yet laid charges, which could include involuntary manslaughter. It appears unlikely, however, that the driver will receive a prison term.