Bjorg Lambrecht’s funeral to be held in his home village next week

The funeral of Bjorg Lambrecht will be held in his home village in Belgium next week.

Lotto-Soudal rider Lambrecht suffered a fatal collision on stage three of the Tour of Poland and was rushed to hospital where he died during surgery.

His team have confirmed that Lambrecht died from a liver laceration that caused an internal haemorrhage, then suffering a cardiac arrest.

>>> Obituary: Bjorg Lambrecht, 1997 – 2019

Lambrecht’s funeral will be held in the church of his home village, Knesselare in East Flanders at 11am on Tuesday (August 13), reports Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

Traffic will be banned from the centre of the Belgian village and a large screen will be installed in the square to allow the public to mourn the loss of the rising star.

Stage four of the Tour of Poland was run as a procession in memory of Lambrecht, who was riding his second season at WorldTour level.

Race organisers decided to neutralise stage four and hold a procession in memory of the rider, with the Lotto-Soudal squad leading the peloton in an emotional tribute that included a minute’s silence after 48km.

Lotto-Soudal team doctor, Maarten Meirhaeghe, said on Wednesday (August 7): “With such internal haemorrhages, Bjorg needed a miracle, a miracle he wasn’t given. The place and time did not influence the consequence.

“Even if he suffered the trauma inside a hospital, the chances of a bad outcome are high.”

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The Lotto team at the Tour of Poland – Sander Armée, Carl Fredrik Hagen, Tomasz Marczyński, Harm Vanhoucke, Jelle Wallays and Enzo Wouters – have all decided to continue the race, after the Belgian outfit gave them the choice to leave after stage four.

Lotto’s Carl Fredrik Hagen said: “Bjorg will be with me in my heart for the rest of my life and career.

“I’ll ride for him and aim for the victories we were supposed to capture together.”