Pro Cyclist Dies After Suffering A Heart Attack During Race (UPDATE)

During Stage 2 of the Criterium International, 22-year-old Belgian cyclist Daan Myngheer of Roubaix-Lille Métropole suffered a heart attack towards the end of the race. Reports from Corsica are somewhat scant and not in English, but Het Nieuwsblad and spoke to a teammate of Myngheer’s, who gave some details, including (translated from Dutch):

The rider was unwell in the final stage of the competition. 25 kilometers from the end, Myngheer got a bit behind the pack. Immediately it became clear that it was serious and he was ventilated on the spot. “He was not good,” said teammate Louis Verhelst, who was present during the course and got off because of a knee injury. “It was a cardiac arrest, he was resuscitated and is currently in hospital.”

Sporza reported that Myngheer was in a coma:

French media report which Myngheer helicopter is flown from a local hospital to Ajaccio. “At the moment he is in a coma,” said Verhelst, who had yet to make a statement to the police. “This is apparently standard procedure after such an incident. Hopefully we will soon know more about Daan.”

L’Equipe is reporting that Myngheer is stable, per ASO director Christian Prudhomme:

At the hospital of Ajaccio, he gave some signs of revival. “His condition is stable, it is less worrying than this morning, but prudence,” said Christian Prudhomme, the director of cycling at Amaury Sport Organisation, organizer of the Criterium International .

We’ll update this post when more information becomes available.

Update (3/29/16): Myngheer died yesterday in the hospital on Corsica.