A 58-year-old cyclist from Attleboro died in a crash on Monday in Rehoboth — a crash that may have been caused by a defect with his bike, according to police.

A 58-year-old cyclist from Attleboro died in a crash on Monday in Rehoboth — a crash that may have been caused by a defect with his bike, according to police.



Gary Lanoue was riding a Cervelo Soloist bicycle when the fatal crash took place on Homestead Avenue near Allens Lane, Rehoboth police said. Lanoue was found by an off-duty Rehoboth police officer who was on his way to work around 5:30 p.m. on Monday.



Rehoboth police suspect the bicycle had a structural weakness in the fork — the part of the frame that holds the front wheel — leading to a sudden crash.



Susan Lanoue, the victim’s wife, said her husband was an avid cyclist who was training for a 150-mile charity bike ride organized by the Rhode Island chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, set to take place in June. She said that it was going to be his 15th year participating.



“He is actually one of the founding members of his team,” Susan Lanoue said. “He had a very full life. We’re going to miss him terribly. There is a big hole in the universe.”



Lanoue’s wife said that he was a senior systems analyst at State Street Bank in Boston, who had numerous hobbies, including brewing beer and making wine, golfing and riding a motorcycle.



She said Lanoue had several different routes he took the bicycle on, but liked Rehoboth because “he could really work up a nice loop on all the nice back roads.” Susan Lanoue said she is grateful the police officer found him “because it could have been so much worse.”



Rehoboth Police Sgt. Norman Todd said that while it appears that a “mechanical failure” involving the bike’s fork led to the crash, an investigation is continuing into the cause. According to initial investigation, Todd said that the fork became detached from the bicycle.



“We are focusing on that,” Todd said.



Lanoue was wearing a helmet when he was found in the roadway suffering from head trauma, Todd said, but a cause of death has not yet been determined by medical examiners.



Todd said at this time it does not appear another vehicle was involved.



The Cervelo company, based in Toronto, did not respond to a request for comment made on Wednesday through the bicycle company’s website.



However, a press release on the website said that the Wolf SL, a fork unit that was used on its Soloist model bikes, was the subject of a recall. The statement said the fork component is designed and manufactured by True Temper Sports of Memphis, Tenn., using a blade shape supplied by Cervelo, a company that manufactures only the bicycle frames.



The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission originally announced in August 2008 that the Wolf SL fork was the subject of a recall (but the commission said the manufacturer of the fork was True Temper Composite Material Products Co., of Guangzhou, China). The agency said that about 5,800 Cervelo bikes were sold with the Wolf SL.



“Cervelo has identified a potential safety issue involving the Wolf SL fork,” the Cervelo statement said. “Under certain conditions, the fork steerer can crack and eventually break during normal use, which may cause the rider to lose control, fall and suffer potentially serious injuries.”



The statement said that “to date, there have been reports of injuries in the field resulting in minor abrasions and one broken wrist.”



The Cervelo statement on the recall added that the fork passes U.S. and international standards, and that “this particular problem was not uncovered during those standard tests and the fork only showed this weakness in the field, typically after being damaged.”



Joe Travis, the owner of Taunton’s Travis Cycle, which does not sell Cervelo bicycles, said, “It’s distressing because there is a certain amount of camaraderie in the cycling community.”



“Cervelo makes a very nice bike, but there has been a rash of these fork recalls,” Travis said.

Travis said that the crash, because it was fatal, by nature must have been a "sudden, catastrophic failure" in the front end of the bike. Travis also suspected that the victim was going in excess of 25 miles per hour, which is normal for serious cyclists who are training. Police have not determined whether Lanoue had his bicycle serviced since the recall. Susan Lanoue said she wasn't aware of any problems with the bike parts. Travis said that bicycle stores need to make sure they are informing their customers about recalls for bikes that are sold to them. He said his store is extremely vigilant about gathering notifications about recalls, and then immediately informing anyone who bought a recalled model "You can't take a chance," Travis said.

The fatal bike crash is being investigated by Sgt. Todd and Rehoboth Police Detective Brian Ramos, along with a Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis Unit.

Lanoue had three children — Bethany, 30; Jonathan, 27; and Zak, 19 — along with an 18-month-old granddaughter, Abigail.



“My dad was everything to everyone,” said Zak Lanoue, a freshman at Johnson and Wales University. “He really was. He was nice and funny. If you needed a smile put on your face, he was the one who could do it.”