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Belgian team confirms young cyclist's death

Frederick Nolf discovered dead at the Tour of Qatar

It has been confirmed that 21-year-old Belgian cyclist, Frederiek Nolf, died in his sleep on Wednesday night. Nolf was at the Tour of Qatar riding for his team, Topsport Vlaanderen Mercator. According to team officials he was found dead in his hotel bed.

The cause of death is not yet known. Nolf joined the team two years ago and the Tour of Qatar was his first race of the season. Speaking to the Associated Press, team manager Christophe Sercu was adamant that the rider was drug free – pointing out that every rider on the team was tested every four months for doping.

Nolf had no apparent health problems and his team will be grimly aware that his death in such circumstances will for many be a sad echo of the early days of EPO usage when a number of professional cyclists died in their sleep due to mistakes over the correct dosage. 

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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