Carly Hibberd

Carly Hibberd (11 May 1985 – 6 July 2011) was an Australian professional road racing cyclist who competed in Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)-sanctioned races. She won the 2008 Australian National Criterium Championships and was second in that year's Tour de Perth. Aged six, Hibberd took up BMX before moving onto mountain biking and then road cycling.through a talent identification scheme. She began riding competitive events in 2004 and went on to compete in several women's events organised by the UCI. Hibberd was hit while riding her bike by a driver while training in Northern Italy and died from her injuries. A memorial trophy and park in Toowoomba are named after her.

Biography Hibberd was born on 11 May 1985, in the Brisbane suburb of Sherwood, Queensland. She was the daughter of Mark and Roslyn Hibberd and has one brother. Aged six, Hibberd began racing BMX in Toowoomba, often with the future professional cyclist Jared Graves, before the family moved from Toowoomba to the Sunshine Coast around 1997. She took a second-place finish in the road race and third in the criterium events of the Women's National Grand Prix Series. Not long after Hibberd came third at the Grafton to Glen Innes Cycle Classic. An illness required her to sit out several events in 2007; With the MD Cycles Team she accumulated enough points in all six rounds of the 2008 Australian National Criterium Championships to win it overall with 768 points.

Hibberd received a wild card to qualify for the 2008 Geelong World Cup, Hibberd signed to the Cassina Rizzardi A Style Fionucci team in 2009 and moved to Italy to further her career; She competed in two events, the GP Liberazione and the GP Comune di Cornaredo.

Death

On 6 July 2011, she was with her training partner and fellow cyclist Diego Tamayo in fine weather conditions on a road between Appiano Gentile and Lurate Caccivio to the north of Milan when a friend driver struck her at around 10:45 local time. According to Tamayo, Hibberd was about behind when the female driver of the car steered left and hit her Hibberd. Her riding helmet had come off in the impact and she was killed instantly.

Legacy The organisers of the 2011 Giro d'Italia Femminile cancelled the podium ceremony for its sixth stage out of respect for Hibberd.

The Carly Hibberd Memorial Trophy was established by her first coach David Budden after Hibberd's father consented to the idea to honour "a tenacious female rider" in 2012. It is awarded after the Toowoomba BMX Club's open day by her parents who deem on the best rider who won the award on merit. On 20 January 2015, Toowoomba Regional Council voted unanimously to name a park in its "Cycling Estate" located on Nelson Street, Kearneys Spring after Hibberd following lobbying by Budden for additional memorialisation of the cyclist.