page_title: 2016 Gent–Wevelgem
section_title: Reaction to Demoitié's death
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Gent–Wevelgem / Post-race analysis / Reaction to Demoitié's death
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Reportage réalisé le dimanche 23 août à l'occasion du départ et de l'arrivée du Grand Prix Jef Scherens 2015 à Louvain, Belgique. Nederlands: Vertrek en aankomst, zondag 23 augustus 2015, Grote Prijs Jef Scherens 2015, Leuven, België.
context_page_description: The 2016 Gent–Wevelgem, was a one-day cycling classic that took place on 27 March 2016. It was the 78th edition of the Gent–Wevelgem race and the seventh event of the 2016 UCI World Tour. The race followed a 243-kilometre course that started in Deinze and ended in Wevelgem in Belgium, with a portion of the race spent in northern France. The race included ten climbs, several of them cobbled, which provided the principal difficulty in the race. The last and most difficult climb was the Kemmelberg. The favourites for the race included Alexander Kristoff, Fabian Cancellara and Peter Sagan.
  The race was won by Sagan, who escaped with Cancellara and Sep Vanmarcke on the Kemmelberg after a series of splits had occurred in the first half of the race. They were joined by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov, who had been in the day's early breakaway, and the four-man group came to the finish together. Sagan won the sprint, with Vanmarcke second and Kuznetsov third.
  During the French portion of the race, the Belgian rider Antoine Demoitié crashed and was then hit by a race motorbike. He died that evening.
context_section_description: There was widespread sadness among those involved in professional cycling following Demoitié's death, especially after a second young Belgian cyclist, Roubaix–Métropole Européenne de Lille's Daan Myngheer, died after suffering a heart attack at the Critérium International. Sep Vanmarcke tweeted "Suddenly a 2nd place no longer important after this terrible news." Other riders, especially those in Demoitié's Wanty–Groupe Gobert team, also expressed their sadness. The team's directeur sportif, Hilaire Van der Schueren, paid tribute to his rider, saying that he was "happy because he was a cyclist". Demoitié had made his first appearance at a World Tour race at E3 Harelbeke two days previously and had been in the day's main breakaway. Following his strong performance, he had asked to be allowed to stay in the main peloton in search of a good finish in Wevelgem. The team withdrew from the Three Days of De Panne the following week.
  As well as the tributes to Demoitié, many riders also called for improved safety for professional bike races. Many riders had been involved with crashes with race motorbikes in the previous few years, including Peter Sagan, Taylor Phinney, Greg Van Avermaet, Sérgio Paulinho, Jakob Fuglsang, Jesse Sergent, Sylvain Chavanel and Stig Broeckx. Alberto Contador tweeted "Regulations on motos in races are needed NOW", while other riders called for clear rules, speed limits and exams for race motorbike riders. Marcel Kittel described rider safety as an issue that needed the same priority as anti-doping. Wanty–Groupe Gobert's press officer said that the motorbike rider was experienced and was not to blame for the accident. The president of cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), said that there would be an emergency meeting of its Road Commission to discuss the incident; he also said that they needed to wait for the result of the police enquiry and that it was important to make sure that the "right decisions" were made.
caption: Antoine Demoitié (Wanty–Groupe Gobert) (photographed in 2015)
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