Just two weeks after the tragic loss of Leopard-Trek’s Wouter Weylandt in an accident at the Giro D’Italia the cycling world is mourning once more with news that Xavier Tondo of Team Movistar has been killed in a freak accident at his home close to the Spanish city of Granada. At 10am today (May 23) Tondo was reportedly crushed and killed by an automatic door on his garage as he was leaving with team-mate Beñat Inxtausti for a training session.
Although he didn’t win a single stage the 32 year old Spaniard was overall winner at this year’s Vuelta a Castilla y Leon and had previously won stages at races as prestigious as the Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya; where he also finished sixth overall. He will also be remembered as a strenuous anti-doping campaigner, having been a whistle-blower earlier this year after being contacted with the proposition of acquiring illegal performance-enhancers.
In an official statement Movistar have confirmed that his team-mates at the Giro d’Italia will continue to race there.