Twenty-year-old Italian rider Andrea Raccani Noviero offered an emotional “apology” to Muriel Farrar and her family following her tragic death at the World Championships in Zurich and called on his peers to speak up for better safety.

Lacani Noviero revealed Monday that he will run for the Sourdal Quick Step World Tour team after two seasons with the Belgian development team. He is currently the Italian under-23 time trial champion, having placed 13th in the under-23 time trial in Zurich.

He posted a touching message on Instagram a week after Fuller's death. Fuller suffered a serious head injury after a fall in a junior women's road race on September 26.

Local authorities and the UCI wished to withhold details of the crash as Swiss police were investigating, and the 18-year-old's death was announced the following day.

Local media reported that the first Swiss Air Rescue helicopter mission in the Zurich area on Thursday left at 12:52 p.m., more than an hour after the finish of the junior women's road race. Although not confirmed, Füller is believed to have crashed near Cusnacht with more than 30 km of the race remaining. No explanation has been given as to why Füller was not found at the time of the fall.

Riders who publicly endorsed Lacani Novillero's post on Instagram include Australians Luke Plapp, Letizia Borghesi, Ariane Fidanza, Rachel Neylan, and the Soudal Quickstep team.

The news of Füller's passing came as a shock to many in the sport, including the riders. Lacani Noviero made a courageous statement one week after her death.

“This post may not be as helpful as I would like, but at least it gives me the possibility to apologize to Muriel and her family,” he wrote.

“Because, as I said, this is my responsibility as well as the responsibility of the other riders who did not speak up in the face of clear safety issues.

“It's also our responsibility. The reason this is happening now is because we didn't even try to change things.”

Lacani Noviero spoke about the risks and dangers he faced on the descent to Lake Zurich during the World Championships time trial.

“All the athletes who ran the same time trial as me were risking their lives going down the descent.

“We are already in a very dangerous sport and the moment we decide to take part in a race we know what risks we are taking. It's just that the people making the decision don't care about our safety at all and have zero respect for our lives [Indeed, we express our deepest condolences to Muriel's family and apologize at the same time. [because, like all 18 year olds, you deserved to live your life to the fullest and you lost it like that. I hope you will join me in apologizing to all athletes who have experienced situations that were too dangerous and did not speak up about them.

“We must do something to change this situation.

“So my hope is that as many people as possible (or people in the cycling community) will repost this so we can raise our voices as loudly as possible to make the sport we love as safe as possible. I'm sure we'll come up with some ideas, but we have to start somewhere.