Xavier Tondo Dead: Movistar Cyclist Dies in Freak Accident

by NowPublic Staff | May 23, 2011 at 08:16 am

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Cyclist Xavier Tondo died in a freak accident on Monday, May 23 2011.

Xavier Tondo, who was a member of the Spanish Movistar team, reportedly died in an accident involving a garage door as he was going to train in Granada, a city in southern Spain.

The Spanish Movistar team said in a statement: "The 32-year-old Catalan rider was in his car on the way to training when he suffered the incident with the door of the garage."

Xavier Tondo was coming off a solid 2010 season, having finished sixth in the Tour of Spain. He also won the 2011 Tour of Castilla and Leon.

Xavier Tondo was referred to as an "anti-doping hero" after he recently went to authorities when he was offered banned substances.

Movistar said their team will not withdraw from competition at the 2011 Giro d'Italia, which continues on May 24.

Team manager Eusebio Unzue said in a release: "We decided the best thing to do would be to honor Xavi on the bike. The rest of the team will be with his relatives at the funeral but we're convinced Xavi would have liked us to keep on racing."

As a tribute to the late cyclist, here is some Xavier Tondo video