Bahrain Victorious have pulled out of the remaining two stages of the Tour de Suisse following the death of their rider Gino Mäder.
The team is among several to withdraw from the race on Saturday following the neutralised and shortened stage 6 ridden in tribute to the Swiss rider. Tudor Pro Cycling and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty have also announced that they will not continue in the race.
Bahrain Victorious led the peloton home on the emotional ride for the final 20km of Friday's stage, though the squad have understandably decided against continuing this weekend.
"Following the tragic loss of Gino Mäder, Team Bahrain Victorious has taken the decision to withdraw from the Tour de Suisse," the team announced early on Saturday morning.
Race organisers announced on Friday that the race would continue to a conclusion on Saturday and Sunday following consultation with Mäder's family as well as with riders, teams and race staff. The Tour de Suisse Women, which starts on Saturday, will also go ahead as planned.
On Saturday morning, Swiss ProTeam Tudor also announced that they wouldn't be competing in the final two days of the race, with Intermarché-Circus-Wanty coming to the same decision.
"After careful consideration and talking to both riders and staff, the team decided not to continue racing this year's Tour de Suisse. Under these difficult circumstances, we feel it is the human way to respect the feelings of our riders and pay respect to Gino," read a statement issued by Tudor.
"Following the tragic accident of Gino Mäder, and after discussing with our riders and staff, team Intermarché-Circus-Wanty has decided to withdraw from Tour de Suisse. Our priority is to respect our riders’ well-being. All our thoughts go to Gino’s family, friends and teammates," wrote Intermarché-Circus-Wanty.
Q36.5, meanwhile, announced that they had taken the decision to race on in honour of Mäder.
"We are devastated by the loss of Gino Mäder. He was an exceptional human being who we were fortunate to know. He will be sorely missed," said team general manager Douglas Ryder. "As a Swiss team, we have collectively made the decision to continue racing in his memory. Gino loved cycling and loved Switzerland and we want to honour him and his home race."
Several other teams announced that they would let their riders decide whether to continue in the race. 17 further riders wouldn't take the start of the stage – Stefan Küng, Miles Scotson, Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Julius van den Berg, Tom Scully (EF Education-EasyPost), Michael Schär (AG2R Citroën), Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma), Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Matis Louvel, Dan McLay (Arkéa-Samsic), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Mauro Schmid (Soudal-QuickStep), Daryl Impey, Krists Neilands, Nicholas Schultz (Israel-Premier Tech), Lennert Van Eetvelt, Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto-Dstny).
The withdrawals mean that 37 riders will not start stage 7's 183.5km race from Tübach to Weinfelden, though more teams could yet decide to withdraw before the stage kicks off at 12:15 local time.
The stage is set to be raced as normal, though the general classification times will be taken at 25km from the finish. The race for the stage victory will then be contested as usual, as will Sunday's closing time trial to Abtwil.
🇨🇭 #Tourdesuisse Following the tragic loss of Gino Mäder, Team Bahrain Victorious has taken the decision to withdraw from Tour de Suisse @tds 📸 @SprintCycling pic.twitter.com/J7dQ8fzK5aJune 17, 2023
After careful consideration and talking to both riders and staff, the team decided not to continue racing this year‘s Tour de Suisse. Under these difficult circumstances we feel it is the human way to respect the feelings of our riders and pay respect to Gino. pic.twitter.com/44uALB65fAJune 17, 2023
Following the tragic accident of Gino Mäder, and after discussing with our riders and staff, team Intermarché-Circus-Wanty has decided to withdraw from #TourdeSuisse. Our priority is to respect our riders’ wellbeing. All our thoughts go to Gino’s family, friends and teammates.June 17, 2023
