French YouTuber Killed in a Collision with a Car at a Gravel Race

French gravel cyclist and YouTuber Stéphane Goyard was struck and killed by a car during a gravel race in western France. Goyard ran the successful French-speaking YouTube channel called “Gravel & Bike” that covers a wide range of gravel-related topics.

Goyard, 54, was riding at the Défi200 gravel race, which was a part of the two-day Nature is Bike festival near Angers on Saturday, May 30. Accounts of the collision state that the incident occurred at an intersection on a downhill slope.

It remains unclear what the legal right of way was at this time, although police have opened an investigation. Additionally, the driver of the car was admitted to the hospital due to the shock of the incident. Goyard was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

“My little brother, I who passed on my passion for cycling to you, today it is he who has taken you from us,” Hervé Goyard, Stéphane’s brother, said in a comment under his last video in French. “Since this morning, I have been crying my heart out. My grief is immense.

“I am thinking of your three children, your wife, and our elderly parents, for whom life will never be the same again .”

Despite opening the investigation, the Saumur prosecutor’s office, which is the authority over the matter, has already come out with a statement regarding the crash.

“It’s a tragic accident,” Marine Labarthe, the Deputy Public Prosecutor for Saumur, told Ouest-France. “The driver could not have done anything to avoid the cyclist who came barreling down the road without slowing down.”

In the United States and the United Kingdom, it is unusual for authorities to use the word accident to describe a crash or collision, since it implies responsibility before the investigation is completed. In France, the standard is different, and the assumption does not reflect the outcome, although the statement around the potential fault does show what the preliminary assessment was from the local authorities.

Goyard was survived by his wife and three children.