Ran Timor experienced the worst possible nightmare. Five weeks ago, in the morning, just a few hundred meters from his home in southern Israel, the app on his phone alerted him that something had happened to Guy, his youngest son (21), who had left a few minutes earlier for a training ride.
He began a frantic series of phone calls to Guy, but there was no answer. “So I decided to go there myself. A few meters past the intersection, I saw Guy’s helmet, his cycling shoes, and the wrecked bicycle. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw the plastic bag. No one needed to tell me. I knew he was there.”
“Your son?”
Ran Timor: “My dear son. The police asked me to identify him. I will never forget the face of my child. Apart from a drop of blood on his forehead, he was whole and peaceful. Light shone from his face. He looked calm and serene. I saw the shadow of a smile. My child had gone to sleep. Forever.”
The father recalls the image of his son in his eternal rest here at the Tour de France in France, while he completes a different, distant, and unique circle: minutes before Israel – Premier Tech riders’ training on the Tour’s rest day begins. Yes, led by the father, wearing the team’s uniform and over it, the black T-shirt with the image of his smiling, confident son. Guy was one of the best young riders in Israel whose dream was cut short by a reckless driver who ended his life with a speeding car. “Guy dreamed of coming here, to the Tour de France, to be a professional like you,” said the bereaved father to the riders. “This was his aspiration and belief. And he would have made it if a murderous driver hadn’t taken away his dream and his life.”
The riders nodded sadly, but Ran Timor wanted them to know he was not there to share his personal grief but to engage them in what has become one of his life’s missions: to amplify the senseless “murder” of his son – as he defines it – not just to commemorate his son’s memory but to raise awareness of the vulnerability of cyclists at the hands of irresponsible drivers who see them as invisible.
His cry falls on attentive ears. The deadly price cyclists often pay at the hands of negligent/reckless drivers has left scars on the team and its riders. The young Australian rider of the team, Jason Lowndes, was killed seven years ago during training by a driver distracted by a cellphone conversation. The Canadian rider of the team, Hugo Houle, lost his brother Pierrick, in a hit and run near his home in Montreal. “I completely understand the magnitude of Guy’s father’s pain,” Houle said. “The disaster struck a huge blow to the whole family and took a long time to recover from. I am glad we can do even a little to help him in memory of his son, and more importantly, to call on drivers to be aware of us, keep their distance, and understand how vulnerable we are.”
Derek Gee, the team’s leading rider on the tour, added: “There’s hardly a training ride I go on without feeling fear. The tragedy that struck Guy Timor is a problem for all of us.”
It seems that Timor’s case is one of the most extreme. The 20-year-old driver committed almost every possible offense: he violated a house arrest order from a previous case where he was caught driving without a license, recklessly drove on the road, drove under the influence of alcohol and drugs, ran a red light, and fled the scene after hitting Timor, who was riding deep in the shoulder. The driver was charged with murder with indifference, and Guy Timor’s parents, Ran and Einav, demand that he be prosecuted to the fullest extent: life imprisonment. “The murderous driver broke every law; my dream child’s life had no chance. We demand a life sentence, also to send a message to drivers in Israel and worldwide that there is no forgiveness. Respect cyclists. This fight is now my son’s legacy, who in his life only cared for others: he would say to the young people around him, ‘Be good people above all.’ That was the core of his life attitude.”
Sylvan Adams, the owner of team IPT who knew Guy Timor personally, a member of Israel’s road and track cycling team, and invited Ran Timor to be the team’s guest on the Tour, addressed the riders: “This concerns all of us. We face safety dangers as cyclists every day. Guy had a bright future. We ride in his memory today and call on the world: Our lives depend on drivers. Be considerate and protect our lives.”
Timor admitted that the meeting with the team was a mix of pride in the sense of mission that drives him, but also piercing pain: “My son dreamed of coming here as a professional rider. It breaks my heart to be here without him.”
