Tour de Suisse to honour Gino Mäder with KoM prize and memorial ride fundraiser

A year on from the death of Gino Mäder at the 2023 Tour de Suisse, this year's edition will pay tribute to the late Bahrain Victorious rider with a mountain prize and a memorial ride in his name.

The Swiss rider was 26 when he crashed at high speed in stage 5 of last year's race and died a day later in Kantonsspital Graubünden.

At the time, his Bahrain Victorious teammates withdrew from the race, as did Intermarché-Wanty, Tudor Pro Cycling and other members of the peloton, with stage 7 winner Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) dedicating his victory to the late Mäder.

It was announced on Wednesday that this year's Tour de Suisse will honour the Swiss cyclist with the first rider passing the highest peak of the race awarded the #rideforGino mountain prize. According to the roadbook, this will be the Nufenen Pass on stage 6, which falls midway through the stage and will take the riders up to 2,422m.

"One of Gino's strengths was the high mountain range, and so together with Gino's family we decided to dedicate the highest point of the race to him," explained race director Olivier Senn to Het Nieuwsblad.

"Starting this year, the high point of the race will be called the #rideforGino mountain prize, where a special prize will be won. Gino will thus forever remain connected to the Tour de Suisse."

Read more: Pello Bilbao dedicates Tour de France stage win to Gino Mäder

Alongside the mountain prize, the Tour de Suisse will retire Mäder's race number (44) and the hashtag #rideforGino will adorn all of the race's leaders' jerseys. In addition, a memorial ride in his memory will take place on the final day of the race.

Ride for Gino memorial ride raises money for foundation

The memorial ride for Mäder will take place exactly a year after his death and take place over the route of the final stage, which takes the form of a 15.6km individual time trial between Aigle and Villars-sur-Ollon. The final 10km features a tough but picturesque climb which averages 7.6%, providing a fitting backdrop for the mass-participation event.

Costing 75 Swiss Francs, equivalent to £65 or €76, participants will all be given a special #rideforGino jersey made by Q36.5, whilst #rideforGino socks will also be on sale, with all proceeds going to the #rideforGino foundation that was established in Mäder's name.

The #rideforGino foundation supports organisations and projects in environmental protection, with the Swiss rider a keen environmentalist during his life and a rider who often raised money for charity. In the weeks after his death, fans flooded the Justdiggit organisation with donations, with the environmental group a cause that Mäder had personally championed.

Almost a year on, Justdiggit announced that with the €30,000 they had raised in honour of Mäder, they had begun the process of rehabilitating 53 hectares of land in Kenya's Rift Valley. As of the last update in March, the organisation had dug over 4,000 'bunds' in the Lenkobei area of Magadi, which are designed to trap rainwater and re-green an area that has been devastated by the effects of global warming and climate change.

Click here to discover more about Justdiggit's project in Kenya's South Rift.

The #rideforGino event will bring the curtain down on what promises to be an emotional eight days of racing, as the Tour de Suisse returns for the first time since Mäder's death last year. The 2024 edition begins in Liechtenstein on 9 June and will take in eight stages before the finish in Villars-sur-Ollon on 16 June.

To find out more about the Ride for Gino memorial ride and sign up to participate, visit the Tour de Suisse website here.

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