When the vibe you’re going for is Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond on Alpe d’Huez, but you wind up looking just like Julian Alaphilippe at Liège-Bastogne-Liège…
Unfortunately, that was the cruel fate suffered by amateur duo Rémi Arsac and Charly Merle at a race in France’s Rhône department yesterday, as the teammates gleefully showboated towards the finish, arm in arm – only to be pipped right at the last by the battling, plucky Simon Ruet.
Of course, premature celebrations are a proud tradition in bike racing (just ask Erik Zabel), one carried on most dramatically in recent times by the show boater supreme Alaphillipe, whose dream finish line photo in the rainbow jersey at the 2020 edition of Liège was abruptly snatched from him by Primož Roglič’s last-ditch bike throw.
Cases of mistaken exaltation are also a common occurrence at the highest level, with Luka Pibernik and Eloy Teruel’s respective ‘There’s another lap left?’ shenanigans, as well as Annemiek van Vleuten’s communication breakdown at the 2021 Olympic road race, being prime examples.
> Liege-Bastogne-Liege: Roglic snatches win as Alaphilippe celebrates too early – and then gets relegated to fifth
However, all that won’t prove much comfort for poor Rémi and Charly, who thought they were on the brink of a dominant team victory at yesterday’s Critérium de Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise, a historic French amateur race first won by British rider Alan Ramsbottom in 1962, which also boasts future Tour de France champion Bernard Thévenet among its list of winners.
The duo, who ride for the EC Saint-Étienne Loire club, had easily dispatched the rest of the field (the fourth placed rider was over four minutes back), and looked set to enjoy a prolonged, triumphant arm in arm celebration across the line.
But they hadn’t accounted for Simon Ruet, the 19-year-old VC Villefranche Beaujolais rider sprinting up the left of the unsuspecting teammates – despite the ever-increasing warnings from the spectators at the finish – to take a spectacular surprise win and underline the importance in cycling of never giving in and riding to the line.
Frosty...
The defeated Arsac and Merle – whose pained, shocked expressions to each other at the finish added even more dark humour to the situation – may have looked suitably grumpy on the podium, but hey, it’s not every day that you can say you’ve emulated Julian Alaphilippe…
Link to the Frankenbike doesn't appear to work (not without a VPN to make it think you're in Japan, anyway).
Well - in the UK at least - the choices at currently "everyone drives" (and nobody cycles because it's not pleasant cycling, and equally everyone...
No - it has a section of the verge that's been worn away by people parking/driving on it....
Good advice. Or when someone simply declares themselves right. 🫅
It is the level of the fixed penalty fines that I was alluding to. The priciple is a different issue. Fines should be reasonable and proportionate...
Whilst not condoning the poor driving standards, the left pillar of the vehicle created a blind spot which means the driver should move their head...
From The Guardian
but he wasn't at the roadside, they had moved him, and then buried him in a pit that was used for disposing of animal carcasses so no dog would...
I didn't read that as a partisan bash at a party, more of a bashing of a serving government member racking up a five figure bill in roaming charges...
Maybe 'Gil MacLeod' is just his nom d'internet.