Video: Rider in US state criterium championship celebrates too soon, gets beaten, crashes

A rider who prematurely raised his arms in triumph in the closing metres of the Grand Prix of Beverly in Massachussets last night was pipped to the win by a rival - and, to add insult to injury, then crashed to the ground immediately after crossing the line.  

The unfortunate rider was Sam Rosenholtz of CCB Velotooler, who seems to have come away with nothing more than some missing skin and a very bruised ego.

He was beaten in the sprint at last night's race, which doubled as the state criterium championship, by Jacob Keough of Team Skyline.

A photographer for local newspaper The Beverly Citizen snapped a spectacular shot of the moment another rider, Lucas Fortini of RaceCF, was sent flying over the prone Rosenholtz.

Check out these amazing shots from last night's Gran Prix! @granprixbeverly #BeverlyMAhttps://t.co/F46kw3SyzR

— Beverly Citizen (@BeverlyCitizen) July 27, 2017

Another picture in the gallery on the newspaper's website shows a rather sheepish looking Rosenholtz - the defending champion - on the second step of the podium afterwards.

Keough said afterwards: "It's kind of one of those things in cycling where sometimes you think you've got it, but you can't really see everything. I think that's what happened to Sam.

"I was to his right, and it's a tricky finish with the bend to it. I just lunged for the line; I knew I got by him, but I think he was kind of already going straight and we overlapped wheels. Hate to see that happen — but I had a really fast sprint there."

There was no report of Fortini's condition.

Earlier this year, Bahrain-Merida rider Luka Pibernik celebrated a full lap too early on Stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia in Messina - which probably helped answer the question that had been nagging away in his mind about why the peloton hadn't been chasing him down too hard, since there were still 7 kilometres to go.

> Video: Bahrain-Merida rider celebrates Giro d'Italia stage 'win' - a lap too early