Remco Evenepoel pays tribute to Gino Mader on Stage 7 of Tour of Switzerland

Remco Evenepoel pointed to the sky in tribute to Gino Mader as he won Stage 7 of the Tour of Switzerland.

Mader, 26, was involved in a crash towards the end of the stage, on the descent to La Punt following 197km of racing, which saw him fall into a ravine, where he was found unresponsive.

After being resuscitated at the scene, he was airlifted to hospital. However, his team confirmed on Friday that Mader had passed away as a result of his injuries.

Stage 7 took place as planned but the time for the general classification was taken at 25km out. There were no attacks before that point. Evenepoel launched with 17km to go before soloing to the stage win.

The world champion blew a kiss and pointed to the sky in tribute to Mader as he crossed the line. And after the race Evenepoel said that his solo win was his way of honouring Mader.

“It was clear for all of you as well that the race was kind of neutralised until 25km to go,” Evenepoel said after the race. “This is where the time was going to be taken, so everybody had the same time.

“Then everybody was free to race, and we had the plan for Tim Merlier to get over the climb and try to sprint. But the climb was very hard. Wout [van Aert] and his team went super hard on the climb.

“First, I wanted to help Tim and Bert [Van Lerberghe] to take them over the climb, but they quickly screamed at me that I had to go myself, that they saw I was looking very good. I’m not the kind of guy that quits the race even though the situation is very, very hard for everybody.

“In my opinion, this is the best way I could honour Gino.”

Bahrain Victorious – the team Mader rode for – were one of three teams that withdrew from the Tour of Switzerland ahead of Stage 7. Tudor Pro Cycling and Intermarche-Circus-Wanty were the other teams to withdraw.