Cyclist José Ricardo Viegas, aged 40, from Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo (Tavira), died this Saturday, after a collision with a van, in Alcoutim.
The accident happened when the Jopelor Cycling Academy athlete was training with teammates.
Correio da Manhã reports that it all happened when José Viegas «was going downhill in an area with tight curves and collided head-on with a goods transport vehicle».
The Alcoutim firefighters still tried to help, and the INEM helicopter was activated, but the death was eventually declared on the spot.
On its Facebook page, Academia de Ciclismo Jopelor expresses its «pain and sadness» over the death of Zé Ricardo Viegas, as he was known by his friends, who was «a cycling enthusiast», having ended up dying «while doing one of several things that united us, riding a bike».
Academy colleagues add that «it was an enormous pleasure and privilege to deprive and share a beautiful and true friendship with Zé Ricardo, genuine, polite and humble, the boy with an easy smile, a true friend, attentive, who always gave his best and never let us down."
The Santa Catarina Youth Association, of which the deceased cyclist was a member, also stressed that Saturday had become a sad day «for our village, for our association, for all the people who knew him or who for some reason had already would have come across him".
«Zé Ricardo left us without prior notice. A young man with an easy smile, well-spoken, with the right words, polite and with a contagious joy», adds the Association.
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