108 T-shirts raise more than $20,000 for Wouter Weylandt's family ahead of funeral

T-shirts produced by American company Stomach of Anger in memory of Wouter Weylandt, killed last week following a crash during Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia, have already raised over $22,000 for his family, with more than 1,900 sold to date. The news comes as the city of Ghent prepares to bid farewell to the 26-year-old tomorrow, with his funeral being held tomorrow morning.

The T-shirts, which bear Weylandt’s Giro race number 108, with the zero based on the Leopard Trek logo, will be on sale until the end of the Giro d’Italia a week on Sunday.

After that which there will be just one production run, thereby maximising the money to be donated to the cyclist’s family, including Weylandt’s girlfriend who is expecting his child in September. For full details of the T-shirts including a link to order one, please see our earlier story.

Weylandt’s funeral in Ghent on Wednesday morning will be a private affair for his family and close friends including Tyler Farrar and Maarten Wynants, as well as Leopard Trek colleagues, although fans will be allowed into St Peter’s church between 8.00am and 9.45am to enable them to pay their respects.

A big screen has been erected outside the church to allow them to follow the service. Funeral director Jef Van Den Bosch told Het Nieuwsblaad: “The church is probably too small. People can therefore follow the service from outside, and Wouter himself would have wanted his fans to be able to see the ceremony.”

Meanwhile, tomorrow’s Stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia will be preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of Weylandt. There will then be a blessing by the parish priest of tomorrow’s stage start toen, Tortoreto Lido, Padre Gregorio Oczos.