More than just a bike race, Pello Bilbao’s win on Stage Ten of Le Tour was dedicated to his late teammate, Gino Mader, and the environmental causes he was supporting. Legacy is often an overused word. One which gets lost in its nuance, overused, and underappreciated.
The recent tragic death of Swiss cyclist Gino Mader, however, leaves an opportunity for his legacy to be continued by his former teammates and colleagues in the professional peloton. Pello Bilbao dedicated his stage ten victory to Gino, stating “I crossed the line and I just let out all the anger I had inside and remembered the reason for this victory [points to Mader sticker on jersey]. A special one for Gino”.
In the Vuelta a Espana of 2021, a keen environmentalist, Gino Mader donated 10 Euros for every rider he beat in the general classification, with additional Euros for every cyclist he beat at the end of each stage. By the end, he had amassed a total of 4529 Euros, which he duly donated to Just Diggit, which focuses on re-greening deserted areas in Africa.
In 2022, Gino went one step further by donating money to environmental charities for every rider he beats in the whole of the 2022 season. By the time the Vuelta a Espana rolled around, his total already reached 3000 Euros.
A rider with not just a mission to race with the best, race for wins, and race to put on a show – but a rider with a mission to support environmental charities with every pedal revolution. It is that legacy that Pello Bilbao followed coming into this Tour de France, pledging to donate to environmental charities based on the riders he beats throughout Le Tour.
On the rest day before Stage Ten started, Pello tweeted that he would double his donations for any stage win. It was therefore divine intervention that he would go on to take the breakaway sprint on that day.
If you’d like to follow Pello Bilbao in honouring Gino Mader please click this link.
