Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Belgian Cyclist Nolf Found Dead in Hotel During Tour of Qatar
Share:
by optic | February 5, 2009 at 08:29 am
543 views | 12 Recommendations | 2 comments
Photos
Videos
Frederiek Nolf was found dead of an apparent heart attack in his hotel room in Doha just 5 days before his 22nd birthday.
DOHA, Qatar - Belgian cyclist Frederiek Nolf was found dead in his Doha hotel room Thursday, hours before the start of the fifth stage of the Tour of Qatar.
Belgian cycling team Topsport Vlaanderen Mercator said the 21-year-old rider died in his sleep Wednesday night. The cause of death wasn't immediately known.
[...] Nolf was found dead in his bed by his roommate Kristof Gooddaert on Thursday morning, the team said.
Even when things seem to be going well in cycling, they go badly. After a month which offered a small resurgence in interest for pro cycling: led mainly by the return of Lance, but also due to optimism about the biological passport program and a perceived reduction in doping in the pro peloton, another reminder of the stress to which riders, and all athletes, submit their bodies. course with a tragedy like cycling first question is bound to include suspicions of doping, and in this case there seems to be little suspicion of that from within the peloton.
"We are totally shocked with this news," team manager Christophe Sercu told Belgium's VRT television from Qatar.
He said Nolf had no apparent health problems and appeared fine when he went to bed at 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
"There was nothing wrong on Wednesday," Sercu said.
Sercu said each rider on the team is tested every four months for doping and Nolf was drug free.
According to Heyderrickx, Nolf had four medical checkups last year and was in his prime.
Topsport Vlaanderen Mercator is one of the 17 teams taking part in the six-day Tour of Qatar, which ends on Friday.
"We feel very sorry for the team and the teammates of Frederick," said Magid Al Naimi, secretary general of the Qatar Cycling Federation. "It is bad news . . . Death can come suddenly and it happened today."
Nolf made his professional debut with the Topsport team last year and described himself as an all-round rider.
The riders of the Tour of Qatar rode a symbolic 30km from Al Kharaib to Doha, as the 5th stage of the race was neutralized.
The Tour of Qatar continued Thursday despite the sudden death of Belgian Frederiek Nolf the night before at the official race hotel. The riders rode a shortened, neutralised stage of 30 kilometres from Al Kharaib to Doha. They took 55 minutes in memory of the 21-year-old of Team Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator, who died of a suspected heart attack in his sleep.
"The riders were not in shape to compete today, above all the Belgians. I think that to stop the race all together would have been bad. When [Fabio] Casartelli died they did not stop the stage [Tour de France stage 15, July 18, 1995 - ed.], they kept going," said cycling legend and race official Eddy Merckx.
The stage started at 14:05 after the 131 riders observed one minute of silence in honour of Nolf. Teams Katusha and Doha led the riders from the start at the camel racetrack.
This marks the second death of apparent cardiac arrest in a young athlete in recent memory, coming only months after Russian hockey hopeful Alexei Cherapanov passed away during a hockey game in the Russian KHL.
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most Recommended Stories in Sports
Recommendations (12)
harringtola
Town-send, Massachusetts, United States
Karenke4
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 14:41 on February 5th, 2009
It is always shocking when a very young, fit athlete dies of heart failure. I can imagine how hard it must be for the rest of his teammates and the other cyclists.
at 16:37 on February 5th, 2009
I hope this was not as a result of performance enhancing measures of any kind.