It is a testament to the top riders' immense skill that the sport of cycling doesn't endure more tragedies such as the one that claimed the life of Wouter Weylandt during stage three of the Giro d'Italia on Monday.

When you see the mountain roads they ride, and the way they cling so precariously to the sides of sheer drops, and corkscrew down, plunging riders into tree-covered shadows, or the absolute darkness of tunnels, then back into eye-splitting sunshine, it is astonishing that serious crashes - let alone fatalities - are relatively rare.

A minute silence is held for Wouter Weylandt

That is why the cycling world has reacted as it has to Weylandt's death: with shock and sadness.

But the riders of the Giro have also responded with great dignity and maturity. Professional athletes - especially young male ones - are often dismissed and derided, for sins ranging from vanity to greed, but the riders of the Giro have offered an alternative perspective, and demonstrated their qualities as people - as grown-ups.

It's a great shame, of course, that it takes such a tragedy for them to show that they can rise so admirably to a challenge that young sportsmen should never have to face. How to honour a 26-year old colleague who has died doing his - and your - job?

One of the American commentators put it well as the peloton paid their tribute to Weylandt on Tuesday.

"You'd be hard pressed to find any other sport that can do it like this, and it feels right," he said of the steady, sombre procession from Quarto dei Mille to Livorno, which culminated in a scene that most would be hard-pressed not to witness through damp eyes, as Weylandt's Leopard Trek teammates, and his closest friend, Tyler Farrar, fanned across the road at the front.

The peloton, marshalled from the front by the race leader, David Millar, eased up, allowing a gap to open. And as the line of eight Leopard riders, plus Farrar, eased towards the line, each offering touching gestures of support to the riders flanking him on either side, the words of the commentator came back to mind. It felt right.

Everything David Millar did and said felt right, too. The Scot had ridden superbly on Monday to take the maglia rosa of race leader from Mark Cavendish, though nobody cared - least of all Millar - as news of Weylandt's death filtered back from the Passo del Bocco, where the Belgian had crashed on the descent, to the finish in Rapallo.

As race leader, Millar found himself in the role of spokesman, or patron. It is a position he often fulfils given his status as a high profile ex-offender-turned-anti-doping campaigner, and he is good at it. But this required different qualities; he had to speak to - and for - all the other teams and riders, especially those of Leopard Trek.

Tuesday's stage, from the solitary bugle at the start, to the Italian fans turning out in their usual large numbers and clapping respectfully the length of the route, to the organised cortège of the peloton, with each team taking a 10km turn at setting the pace, turned into a day-long tribute to Weylandt.

There wouldn't have been much talking in the peloton, with conversations restricted to remembering Weylandt. But there'd have been lots of time for reflection. As Peter Kennaugh, the Team Sky rider, put it later on Twitter: "6 hrs in the saddle at the giro today gives you enough time to realise how lucky you are and how much to appreciate life."

Coming from a 21-year old, that seemed especially poignant - and true.

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