List of racing cyclists and pacemakers with a cycling-related death

A lineup of men on bicycles
Parc des Princes Velodrome,
site of Breton's 1902 death
(c. 1900 postcard)
A cyclist/pacemaker team circa 1903
The cyclist Paul Dangla and his pacemaker teammate Marius Thé in the Vélodrome d'Hiver (c. 1903)


The first documented deaths of competitive cyclists during competition or training date to the 1890s and early 1900s when the recently-invented safety bicycle made cycling more popular, both as a sport and as a mode of transport.[1] The athletes listed here were either professional cyclists, professional pacemakers or well-known competitive amateurs who had a cycling-related death, mostly during a race or during training. Pacemakers are motorcyclists utilized in motor-paced racing, riding motorcycles in front of their cycling teammates to provide additional speed to those cyclists via the resulting slipstream.[2]

Safety has been a concern since cycling's early days. By 1929, at least 47 people had died while racing at velodromes – 33 cyclists and 14 pacemakers.[3][Note 1] Motor-paced cycling still exists in the modern era as keirin racing and derny racing. A number of professionals and competitive amateurs have been killed in crashes with motorized vehicles while training on public roads plus there is a growing number of cyclists who have died of heart attacks while cycling in a race or while training.[6] Some of these deaths affect cycle racing afterwards – the death of Andrey Kivilev in a crash during the 2003 Paris–Nice race caused the Union Cycliste Internationale to institute a mandatory helmet rule.

The dangers of the various sporting forms of cycling continue to be an issue,[7] including training on public roadways.[8] A survey of 2008 Olympics teams, however, indicated that cycling was not even in the top six most injury-prone sports during competition that year.[9] Racing cyclists who have died during a race or during training are remembered by cycling aficionados and the cycling press. Their personal effects are exhibited in museums,[10] their cemetery markers and tombstones are visited by fans, and as one commentator wrote: "Plaques, statues and shrines to cycling's fallen heroes are scattered all over Europe's mountain roads, turning any ride into a pilgrimage."[11]

  1. ^ Herlihy, David V. (2004). Bicycle: The History. Yale University Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-300-12047-9. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  2. ^ Opinion of Mr Advocate General Warner delivered on 24 October 1974. # B.N.O. Walrave and L.J.N. Koch v Association Union cycliste internationale, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Wielren Unie and Federación Española Ciclismo. # Reference for a preliminary ruling: Arrondissementsrechtbank Utrecht – Netherlands. # Case 36–74. Walrave and Koch. Publications Office of the European Union. 2004. p. 3. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2019. On the one hand one can describe such a race as one between teams each consisting of a man on a motorcycle, known as a 'pacemaker' or 'pacer', followed by one on a bicycle, known as the 'stayer'
  3. ^ Mangan, J.A., ed. (2002). Reformers, sport, modernizers: middle-class revolutionaries. European Sports History Review. Vol. 4. Psychology Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-7146-5244-3. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  4. ^ Mangan, J.A., ed. (2002). Reformers, sport, modernizers: middle-class revolutionaries. European Sports History Review. Vol. 4. Psychology Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-7146-5244-3.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Black Sunday was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Weber, Joscha (October 4, 2018). "Michael Goolaerts' death raises question as to why so many cyclists suffer heart attacks". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  7. ^ Austen, Ian (September 24, 2011). "Sport Grows, and Grows More Perilous". The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  8. ^ "Froome crash: How dangerous is cycling on the roads?". BBC. May 10, 2017. Archived from the original on April 3, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2020.
  9. ^ Astrid Junge (September 25, 2009). "Sports Injuries During the Summer Olympic Games 2008". American Journal of Sports Medicine. 37 (11): 2165–2172. doi:10.1177/0363546509339357. hdl:11250/170557. PMID 19783812. S2CID 23657747.
  10. ^ Barnes, Julian (August 13, 2000). "The Hardest Test". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
  11. ^ Ward, Trevor (September 15, 2017). "In praise of memorials". Cyclist. Dennis Publishing. Retrieved September 10, 2019.


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