Black Notebook: Death of Jonathan Cantwell

Three months after the suicide of Armand de Las Cuevas at the age of 50, the peloton is again in mourning. The Australian Federation has indeed announced this Wednesday the death of one of its representatives Jonathan Cantwell, left at the age of 36 years.

And there too, according to the tweet of Cycling Australia, accompanied by a telephone number for the prevention of the suicide, everything suggests that the former Australian runner has ended his days, even if the causes of his death are still officially unknown to date. Remained professional for six years (between 2008 and 2014), Cantwell had defended the colors of the team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff (in 2012 and 2013), where he had especially team-mate the Spanish leader of the team Alberto Contador, twice winners of the Tour de France.

Contador's teammate on the Tour de France

It was also as a lieutenant of Contador that Cantwell, who had also had the Polish Rafal Majka as a team-mate, had played in the Grand Loop 2012, which he finished in 173rd place. Earlier in his career, this sprinter, who then left for Drapac (in 2014), won two stages of the 2009 Herald Sun Tour and two stages of the 2012 Tour of Taiwan, where he finished first in the final standings (his four victories in his ). "We are deeply saddened by his pbading, and send our thoughts to his family and friends," writes the Federation of his country, not to mention that the rider who ended his career four years ago had revealed that he was suffering from testicular cancer. A disease for which he had to undergo chemotherapy. In parallel, he had started duathlon and triathlon.