He passed away last sunday... on the road, just like his friend and similar cycletourist Patrick Plaine. His name was Gérard Decrouy, hit by a large car near Vienna where he decided to live retreated, after a long professional and civil life in Switzerland.
Gérard was our nr 120, the 2nd swiss member ever subscribed, just after our wellknown Ard Oostra. He climbed 227 BIGs and is currently still in the top100 of our general classement with a 97th place.
Gérard was a real cycletourist. When I offered him the place of swiss manager, in a long mail, he answered me that he doesn't like really too much the cyclesport idea and that he preferred the travel without fighting spirit, but always with respect with the other practices and that in this way, he didn't wish to become a delegate, being a little away of the sport events.
In the same mail, he told me his fabulous discovery of the "Guidon du Bouquet" thank to the BIG and told me to follow the way of this organisation, useful for many people, but just a little far of his own real way to cycle. He also asked me to respect the names used for Switzerland according to the amount of people in each language : german, then french and finally Italian when we wrote Svizzera in a first place in our review.
Our sport is always somewhere dangerous, even more in the trafic of the cities. At the age of 66, Gérard met Patrick in the globe-trotters'saloon of the cycling paradise.
Helmuth will add him in the memorial page.
We'll have thoughts for you, very often Gérard.
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