The Tour de Suisse organisation, riders and teams held a ceremony this morning before the stage 5 start in honour of a new memorial to Gino Mäder, who died after a crash in the same race two years ago.
The ceremony took place next to the memorial close to the top of the Albulapass, where Mäder was descending when he crashed on stage 5 of the 2023 race. He was 26.
Born in Flawil, Switzerland on January 4, 1997, Mäder was a talented rider from a young age, winning the Swiss junior national time trial title in 2015 as well as stages at the Tour du Pays Vaud. A stage win at the Tour de l'Avenir and fourth in the under-23 road race at the 2018 Road World Championships then followed. After turning pro in 2019, he won stages in the Giro d'Italia and Tour de Suisse as well as taking fifth in the 2021 Vuelta a España.
Thursday's stage 5 start was in the town of La Punt, close to the Albulapass. It was the same town that hosted the finish on the day of Mäder's accident.
In a short but moving post on X, the Tour de Suisse organisation wrote under an image of the ceremony, "We still miss you Gino. But now we have a place to always come by and remember you as an inspiring person."
Two days ago Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) dedicated his stage 3 win to Mäder, pointing his right arm skywards in his memory as he crossed the finish line, and Mäder's teammate Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) made it into the early breakaway on stage 5.
During stage 5, Mäder will be honoured once again, with a special #RideForGino intermediate sprint at the top of the cat. 1 San Bernardino Pass.
