Tragedy For Australian Cycle Team

Teen's deadly crash

devastates cycling team
By Jacquelin Magnay and AAP
July 19, 2005 - 1:17PM Link

An Australian team cyclist has been killed and two others are in a critical condition after six cyclists were involved in a head-on crash with a teenage driver in Germany.

Amy Gillett, 29, a former Australian Olympic team rower, died when the young woman crossed the centre line on the stretch of road outside Leipzig and crashed into the cyclists about 5.30pm on Monday.

Warren McDonald, the team coach, said: "The woman driver just suddenly veered across the road and hit a bunch of girls."

The injured riders, all fellow members of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) women's road squad, were named as Katie Brown, 22, of Sydney, Lorian Graham, 27, of Brisbane, Kate Nichols, 20, of Sydney, Alexis Rhodes, 20, of Kersbrook, South Australia, and Louise Yaxley, 23, of Penguin, Tasmania.

Brown is the sister of Graham Brown, who won a team pursuit gold medal at the Athens Olympics, and Nichols is the daughter of Kevin Nichols, who won a gold medal in the same event in Los Angeles in 1984.

The two listed as critical are Rhodes who has severe internal injuries and underwent emergency surgery overnight and Brown who has serious leg injuries. It is understood doctors are considering amputating one of her legs.

Yaxley was also initially classified as being critically injured but her condition has stabilised and she has been upgraded to serious.

Nichols has had an operation to repair severely torn tendons.

Graham has two broken collarbones and is stable.

A spokesman for the Tasmanian Institute of Sport said Graham was still in the operating theatre but her injuries were not classed as life-threatening.

Graham's mother Lorna, from Rockhampton, told ABC Radio: "There were six [cyclists in] total. They were riding along and a car came over the white line and hit them head-on.

"I've been told Lorian is one of the better ones out of it it. One poor girl has been killed and I'm not sure what the other four people are like as I haven't heard as yet."

Queensland Academy of Sport's cycling head coach James Victor said Graham sustained two broken collarbones and a broken knee.

"Lorian's probably the best out of the six at the moment; she's actually come out of it the least injured," he said.

"It's taken out basically the

whole Australian team."

He said Graham had had a few broken bones in the past and her injuries would be the last thing on her mind.

"She's a pretty tough nut as far as some of the injuries she's had to deal with. I think she's more concerned about the group."

The injured were evacuated by helicopter to five hospitals around Leipzig.

The team had been familiarising themselves with the road about 80 kilometres south of Leipzig ahead of the opening time trial of the Thueringen Rundfahrt stage race, which was scheduled to start today but has now been cancelled so that a memorial service can be held.

Cyclingnews.com reported that a car driven by an 18-year woman entered from a slip road on the opposite side of the road.

It said the woman, who had passed her test just four weeks earlier, had lost control of the car and crossed into the lane where the team were riding, hitting all six riders.

Kevin Nichols told smh.com.au: "In Kate's case, she's been extremely lucky. I've been told there's no internal damage. Just multiple contusions and obviously the tendon damage to her hand, which they've operated on.

"The fact that it hit her right hand is very strange because she was on the right-hand side of the road, but obviously it was the rider at the front that copped it all."

Adelaide-born Gillett was a member of Ballarat Cycling Club, but had been based in Novellara, Italy, for the European summer.

She was a member of the Australian World Cup teams in 2002 and 2003 and was a contender for the Australian team at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March next year.

Ranked in the top 100 women road cyclists in the world, she has raced regularly in road time trials in Australia, New Zealand and Europe in the past three years.

She was married to her former rowing coach Simon and was a PhD student at the University of South Australia.

Cyclingnews.com listed her goals for 2005 as: "To master the art of time trialling, actually commence my PhD, and most importantly to give my husband plenty of loving."

---God Love You Australia. My deepest sympathies.---