Tragedy and scandal: The biggest shocks of the 2016 cycling season

Slipstreaming last week's blog exploring the unluckiest riders of 2016 comes this offering on the most cataclysmic shocks of the season: things that got us up from our seats and elicited the gamut of emotions – anger, sadness, surprise, contempt.

Commentators, riders and fans had all been saying that the deluge of risk-taking drivers of cars and motorcycles in races was an accident waiting to happen. And when Belgium's Antoine Demoitié, 25, was killed following a crash and subsequent collision with a motorcycle during Gent-Wevelgem, the sport's worst fears were realised.

Sadly, Demoitié's death was no turning point: less than two months later, another Belgian rider – Stig Broeckx of Lotto-Soudal – was in a coma following a horrific crash involving two race motorbikes during the Baloise Belgium Tour.

In a vegetative stage with severe brain damage until the summer, the 26-year-old was moved into a rehabilitation centre in September. He has since shown signs of improvement, being able to blink and move his fingers. But the road to recovery is still a long one for Broeckx.

If 2016 taught us anything it is that the perils facing the peloton – and in particular with regards to race vehicles – cannot be over-exaggerated. Something has to be done.

Just one day after Demoitié's death sent shockwaves through the sport, Belgian cycling was left reeling by another tragic loss after youngster Dan Myngheer passed away in hospital two days after suffering a heart attack during the opening stage of the Criterium International.

Myngheer, a former junior national road race champion, had reportedly suffered a heart problem in an amateur race two years previously but was given the all-clear after subsequent tests revealed no anomalies. The harsh truth is that people die of heart defects all the time – but it seems far more pronounced and unfathomable when the victim is a seemingly fit and healthy sportsman.

Coming over the Easter weekend and so soon after his compatriot Demoitié's demise, Myngheer's death served as another reminder of the fragility and precariousness of life – whether in the saddle or out. The two incidents were a cruel blow for cycling – but a far bigger tragedy for the families, friends and team-mates of those concerned.

The head-on crash with an elderly British woman driving on the wrong side of the road near Calpe in Spain in January could easily have resulted in fatalities for any of the six riders involved. If John Degenkolb, Warren Barguil, Chad Haga, Max Walscheid, Ramon Sinkeldam and Frederik Ludvigsson were lucky to escape alive, that hardly tells even a fraction of the story.

His index finger almost severed, Degenkolb would miss the entire classics campaign and has yet to hit the heights of his stellar 2015 season. In his absence, Peter Sagan has come of age while the likes of Mat Hayman and Arnaud Demare have also won maiden monuments. Time will tell if Degenkolb – whose rehabilitation from the incident has involved a move to Trek-Segafredo – will ever be the same rider as before.

As mentioned above, Australian veteran Hayman made the most of the absence of defending champion Degenkolb by winning Paris-Roubaix at the 15th time of asking. Having broken his arm just five weeks previously, the 37-year-old's preparation involved turbo training and Zwift in his garage – so, yes, it was a bit of a shock when Hayman not only got in the break, but soloed clear, got caught, then still had enough to out-sprint pre-race favourite Tom Boonen in the velodrome.

Despite the American public collectively voting for the contrary, there's no place in society for bullying, sexist men in power with an alleged penchant for casual racism. When telling a female rider under your guidance that she "needs to lose some timber" and referring to para-cyclists as "gimps" were at the mild end of the spectrum of his outbursts, then it's clear that British cycling had no option but show their Aussie technical director Shane Sutton the door this spring.

That this was not the deepest trough for British Cycling in a year that nevertheless proved rather fruitful at the Olympics just goes to show how turbulent 2016 proved to be.

With three days remaining and Steven Kruijswijk looking rather pretty in pink, no-one expected the 2013 Giro d'Italia champion Vincenzo Nibali to turn things round in such spectacular fashion. Sure, it took a major gaffe from the Dutchman to provide his rival with the spring-board from which to rise from the ashes – but Nibali did just that, turning a near five-minute deficit around, first by deposing Kruijswijk and then by leapfrogging Colombia's Esteban Chaves in the final mountain stage. Talk about leaving it late.

Having collided into his Dimension Data team car on a descent during the Coppa della Pace race in June, South African Keagan Girdlestone suffered terrible blood loss due to lacerations to his carotid artery and remained in a coma for several days. Indeed, it was even reported on social media that the 19-year-old had lost his battle for survival. Thankfully, Girdlestone pulled through – and earlier this month he even took to his bike for the first time since the accident.

Adam Yates had good reason to feel deflated after stage seven of the Tour de France. Riding off the front of the peloton in pursuit of some extra seconds, the British rider was floored by the flamme rouge after a spectator's belt snagged on the cable powering the generator that held up the inflatable banner...

While a shell-shocked Yates – who eventually finished the Tour in fourth place while winning the white jersey – was lucky to emerge with a gashed chin, the incident was a reminder of the difficulty facing the Tour organisers. Indeed, if a mistake involving a fan and his belt could have brought the stage to a standstill, then God forbid what could happen should a terrorist of the kind that wreaked havoc on the Nice seafront just one week later intentionally target the race.

Nibali, Sergio Henao, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte all saw their Olympic dreams go up in smoke when crashing on the perilous Vista Chinesa course in the men's road race in Rio. One day later, Holland's Annemiek van Vleuten crashed quite terrifyingly into the kerb and was thrown over hear handlebars and into hospital (via a long stint bloodied and motionless beside the road) it was yet another confirmation that the organisers in Rio had not really taken rider safety seriously.

Let's be clear: an exposed 20cm deep gutter with sharp concrete edges on a steep and narrow descent that's both in the shade and very slippery – this is not the kind of terrain that's acceptable for any bike race, let alone the Olympics. Likewise, an exposed metal bollard at the business end of a stage – just ask Steven Kruijswijk. Take note Vuelta a Espana organisers...

Meanwhile, one month after the Olympic road race, and on the nearby Grumari circuit, Iran's Bahman Golbarnezhad became the first Paralympic athlete to die in competition after losing control on a descent to horrific ends. While it clearly was a tragic accident, the warning signs were there. Let's hope that Tokyo's 20-20 vision is clearer.

The were supposedly too many climbs on the Olympic road race circuit to give any of the sprinters a sniff at gold – which is why Peter Sagan switched to a mountain bike for Rio. Watching his Belgian rival Greg van Avermaet gallop to victory, then, must have been a difficult pill to swallow for the world champion. Still, Sagan picked himself up, dusted himself off, and went and won the rainbow bands for a second time in Doha – talk about a fitting riposte.

Following the fallout from the Fancy Bears hacking scandal, the cycling world was mildly shocked to learn that Team Sky's famous 'no needles' policy excluded their use and abuse of corticosteroid TUEs.

Perhaps equally shocking was that Sir Bradley Wiggins, a lifelong asthmatic who didn't once mention his lifelong respiratory problems to his own biographer, was allowed to be interviewed by political reporter Andrew Marr about his lifelong condition in close proximity to a bunch of lilies.

We're not sure what was more shocking: the fact that Thomas Dekker ended years of speculation by admitting the he was "Luigi Clasicomano" – the codename of one of Doctor Fuentes's clients in Operacion Puerto – or the ruse that the retired Dekker (who has a book coming out so is no doubt actively courting publicity in a bid to whet the appetite and boost sales) could ever be realistically described as a "classics man" when his best result in 12 monuments was sixth in Il Lombardia...

And on that bombshell... we bid you farewell until next week's blog, which looks at the biggest surprises of the 2016 season. Or the biggest breakthroughs. Or biggest let-downs. We haven't decided yet. But one of those. Or the biggest gaffes or unsung heroes. See you next week!