Surprisingly, yesterday I managed to keep the tears in check until the riders reached the last km of the stage. I had resisted the terrible image of mrs. Weylandt kneeling down where her son died, I had resisted the sight of Ann-Sophie putting a red heart where her boyfriend abandoned this life, but that last km was too much for me to take. At that point, all of a sudden, I found myself crying like a baby together with Tyler Farrar, with Fabian Wegmann, with Davide Viganò, with the whole Leopard Trek and with the whole cycling family. Wouter's teammates looked so down that I would have liked to take a car and drive to Livorno just to give them a big hug. Farrar was a destroyed man, whereas the support of the tifosi really did move me.
My father decided not to watch yesterday race. He's as sensitive as me and at funerals we're always the first ones to burst into tears. I knew that watching yesterday stage would have caused me to cry, but I felt like I had to watch it. You can't watch cycling just when things are going well: you must watch it also on sad days like yesterday. It's on these occasions that cycling needs its big family to stay close and, being unable to watch the stage in person, all I could do was watching it on my telly. It was like watching a colourful, long funeral. 4 hours of procession, no coffins and the feeling that Wouter was there, together with the Leopard riders and with his friend Tyler. '108 presente', as thousands of people said during the parcours.
'Those who really die are those who remain in this life', Marco Pastonesi wrote on today Gazzetta. In my opinion, this is one of the big truths of human life. After all, what comes after death? Perhaps there's another life as a different human being; perhaps there's a Paradise where, I'm sure, Wouter has met his old friend Frederiek Nolf; or perhaps, and this is the most dreadful idea, after death there is nothing. Anyway I'm sure that, after a person dies, the people who suffer more are those who remain in this life. Those who'll have to go on without a son, a husband, a brother, a father or a friend.
'Those who die are those who remain'. Those who remain in this life and also those who remain still, blocked by shock and horror. It may sound insensitive but, in moments like this, the best thing to do would be to take the time to mourn the loss and then try to go back to normality as soon as you can. It's impossible to make it in a few months / years time, but it's the only way to keep on living.
This morning, Leopard Trek decided to leave the Giro. In this case there isn't a wrong decision: everything the riders would have chosen, it would have been right. Hopefully the boys will manage to find a bit of peace in their houses, with their loved ones near.
Also Sporza's commentator has decided to abandon the race, just like Tyler Farrar. Moreover, this was the last Giro for the race number '108'. In fact, the Giro organisers have decided to retire it as a sign of respect for WW Special.
If you want to do something concrete to help Wouter's family, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/leopard-trek-create-donation-account-to-help-weylandts-family there are some info about how you can make donations to Ann-Sophie and to the whole family of outer. They will have the toughest task in the future, especially because the surreal atmosphere of these days will soon be gone and they will finally be able to realise the gravity of their loss. May they have all the stength of this world, because they're really gonna need it.
As I said previously, the best thing to do in these cases is to try going back to normal life. Although I didn't know Wouter, the last two days have been pretty hard for me and, honestly, today I didn't feel like watching the Giro. But then I saw that the riders, although they were probably feeling much worse than me, were doing their best to honour the race, so I watched the last part of the stage. Here I'm writing some observations of mine about it.
First of all, it must be said that today stage was pretty dangerous. In fact the cyclists had to face some gravel roads and, as you all know, gravel can be very tricky (when I was little, I had some very epic crashes on the gravel road outside my house... ). Obviously safety is a very hot topic right now and some riders have complained for the difficulty of the parcours. However, I think it's too late to complain about the parcourses now: if the riders really didn't want to face the gravel roads, they should have said it before, when the Giro route was announced.
Anyway, I agree with Di Luca about the fact that road cyclists should race on roads, because they're not cyclocross riders and they're not mountain bike riders. If a rider wants to ride on gravel roads, he can go to Eroica. And the same goes for the Tour: if someone wants to race on cobblestones, he can go go to Roubaix. It should be up to the riders to decide whether they want to ride on gravel roads or cobblestones, it shouldn't be the GT organisers that force the guys to face such particular terrains!
Said that, we can go on.
On the gravel descents Nibali showed a lot of braveness, whereas Tankink clearly looked in troubles. Many riders crashed and the most unlucky guy was poor Tom Slagter. Surprisingly, his crash didn't occur on a gravel descent, but in an asphalt part of the stage.
As soon as I saw the Rabobank rider lying on the asphalt, I froze. 'Here we go again!', I thought. Saxo Bank and Euskaltel's mechanics were screaming and Tom wasn't moving and looked unconscious. Then, luckily, he started moving his legs and he started talking. He was immediately taken to the hospital, where he discovered he has broken his eye orbit bone and that he's suffered a concussion. Hopefully he'll feel better soon.
Some of the other riders who crashed were Cataldo, Kiryenka (he fell in a really stupid way), Millar and Vicioso. These last two riders touched wheels with one another and fell together. Not a very lucky Giro for them, since Millar has worn the Maglia Rosa on two of the saddest days in cycling history, whereas Vicioso has won the saddest stage ever. I don't want to imagine how he felt right after he had won, when his ds told him through the radio: 'I'm really sorry, Angel, but something very bad has happened...', making his joy disappear all of a sudden. The poor boy burst into tears as soon as he got to know about Wouter and no one will remember his stage win as a happy one.
However, the riders weren't the only ones who had problems on the gravel roads: Savoldelli's motorbike in fact got blocked in the middle of a gravel climb and he had to push it for a lot of meters. Before he had that problem, Paolo had mentioned a Vacansoleil rider who was 'cursing while riding' and another cyclist (Reda) who stopped at the side of the road in order to let the white dust provoked by the cars disappear. Reda didn't hop back on his bike as long as the white dust disappeared and I think this is a very funny anedocte.
Talking about the race, Martin Kohler broke clear of the peloton after 12 kms and he was caught with 11 kms to go: chapeau to him!
Niemiec was very good, Nibali was extremely brave, Tankink was very unlucky, Stetina showed he's a true cycling promise, Lovkvist said 'I'm here too!', Di Luca rode without saddle and John Gadret attacked very often. But in the end, the winner du jour was the skinny Pieter Weening from Rabobank, who won the stage and got the Maglia Rosa from Millar. He looked very enthusiastic after the finish-line and I'm very happy for him and for Tien & Marleen from Ride On! ;) 
Before closing this post, I have some quick communications for you all:
First of all, the girls at 'Bananas about Bikes' would like to create a little tribute post for Wouter Weylandt. Therefore, if you have pictures / supporter's stories regarding him, we'd be very happy to receive them and publish them in the next days. As you know, our e-mail address is bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com . Every contribution would be very much welcomed.
Still talking about the poor Wouter, I didn't answer the comments that some of you wrote about my last post because I think there's nothing to add to what we all have already said.
Third thing to say, in the next days I'll probably try to bring back some cheerfulness on this webpage: anyway, I want you to know that I'll always remember WW Special.
Pic 1 by Riccardo Scanferla; pic 2 by Bettini (Rabobank Orange + Giro Pink = No, not again!!!)
