Keagan Girdlestone on his way to 4th place in the junior TT at the World Road Championships in the US last September.
The family of a promising young South African pro rider were coming to terms with the fact he crashed in a pro race on Sunday and was left in critical condition.
But under enough pressure as it was with their son, Keagan Girdlestone of Dimension Data’s feeder team, was badly injured; the family was forced to take to social media to correct reports he had died.
Twitter and Facebook were filled with posts stating the 19-year-old had died in a crash at the Coppa della Pace U23 race in Italy when in fact he had been taken to hospital, albeit gravely ill.
A family member took to Facebook saying:
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“Keagan has been in an accident and is currently in theatre in a critical but stable condition.
“Your prayers for his strength and for him to continue fighting would be appreciated. What is on social media is not factual so please keep him in your prayers as he is a fighter. Thanks, Helen.”
And later the same poster, believed to be the rider’s mother, added an update on his condition.
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“Short update, Keagan is out of theatre and in recovery but still in a critical condition. Please keep the prayers going for Keagan and family. Thanks, Helen.”
The teenager was riding for his Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka Continental level team in the UCI 2.2 ranked event when he hit the back of his team car on a descent.
He was travelling at considerable speed at the time in attempting to regain contact with the group just ahead, having just fallen.
His high-speed chase went badly wrong and he crashed again, this time into his team car.
The race was cancelled as a result and Girdlestone was taken to hospital in Rimini where hopefully he will recover.
"The accident occurred when there were four laps to go,” race director Raffaele Babini told Tuttobiciweb.
“We had covered 105km of racing. The boy had fallen into a downhill section and was a strong recovery to return to the group.
“Apparently, after the first time, which was in the vicinity of a hill, a team car has slowed sharply and the guy, who was at full speed, crashed violently against the car.
"He broke through the rear window of the car, getting serious facial injuries. I cannot say more because it is still under investigation.”
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