Former Cyclist Lieuwe Westra Dies: Is Depression Really the Cause of Death?

On Sunday, his biographer and Dutch media said that Lieuwe Westra, who was underdog to Bradley Wiggins in the 2012 Paris-Decent race, had died at age 40 after a deep rooted fight with sorrow. Westra was an individual from the Astana group in 2014, which assisted Vincenzo Nibali with winning the Visit de France.

He won stages in both the Visit through Catalonia and the Criterium du Dauphine that year. Westra was known as “the Monster” for the manner in which he rode his bicycle ceaselessly. On Saturday, his body was found at his business close to the city of Enkhuizen in the northwest of the Netherlands.

“Lieuwe Westra, 40, died on Saturday evening,” his biographer Thomas Sijtsma tweeted. “Throughout recent years the previous rider faced a conflict with himself and lost,” Sijtsma said, adding “Rest delicately, Monster”.

Westra was born in Friesland in 1982. In 2009, he went ace and joined the Vacansoleil group. The previous street specialist won the Visit de Picardie in his most memorable year, and it was felt that he could become one of the incomparable Dutch riders.

He won a phase of the 2012 Paris-Pleasant race, which was his most memorable World Visit win. He completed second generally speaking, behind Olympic gold medalist and Visit de France victor Bradley Wiggins. Westra additionally won the Visit through Denmark and the first of two public time-preliminary titles around the same time. He quit his place of employment as an expert cyclist out of nowhere in 2017.

“Westra gave individual explanations behind his choice. The past fall he conceded experiencing melancholy, part of the way because of a messed up relationship, while he likewise questioned his reality as an expert cyclist,” the ANP public news organization said. In a life story distributed in 2018, Westra likewise said that he had utilized the dubious medication cortisone during his profession.

“I infused it into my own body to have the option to cycle quicker, to win prizes and to get praises,” Westra said in his book. “You really want to look for the limits of what is satisfactory if you had any desire to rival the big young men,” Westra said.

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