Galvez Dead

The Gent 6-Day Race ended on night five with the death of world champion (Madison) Isaac Galvez. There's not a whole lot to say: Galvez and Dimitri De Fauw, collided (falls are a fact of life on the track -- Galvez had already gone down earlier in the evening). De Fauw fell to the bottom of the track; Galvez went up, crashing heavily into the metal piping that seperates the track from the fans. The hit crushed some ribs and forced them down onto his heart, where they dug in hampering his heart and lungs and causing substantial internal bleeding. Although briefly resuscitated at the track, Isaac succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital.

In the end, pro cycling is a sport practiced at high speeds in very close quarters with precious little room for error. There have been some serious prangs recently (Brandt, Krake and Gobbi spring immediately to mind) but, thankfully, in-competition deaths remain rare. The rarity of such events, however, is little comfort for family members, teammates and cycling fans who grieve this latest loss.