Belgian cyclist Michael Goolaerts died in hospital on Sunday at the age of 23, hours after suffering heart failure during the gruelling Paris-Roubaix one-day classic race in France. "It is with unimaginable sadness that we have to communicate the passing of our rider and friend Michael Goolaerts," the rider's Veranda's Willems team said in a statement on Twitter.
They revealed he died late Sunday in a hospital in the northern French city of Lille, surrounded by his family. "He died of cardiac arrest, all medical assistance was to no avail," the team said.
The Belgian - competing in the one-day classic for the first time - had been airlifted to hospital after being found unconscious and not breathing by race doctors at the side of the road on one of the race's famed cobbled sectors, about 100 kilometres into the 257km course. Television images showed Goolaerts on the ground, his arms crossed, with no other rider beside him.