of French and Italian supporters crystallized into passionate smaller gangs extolling the praises of one or another particular rider, matching T-shirts imploring Tony Gallopin or Warren Barguil or Gianni Moscon or Sonny Colbrelli to deliver them a rainbow jersey.
I’d got used to wearing that jersey myself over the past 24 months and realized that I was now without the life and energy that it brings to a rider. I was another cyclist in unfamiliar national colors in the middle of a big pack as it surged past, neither Peter Sagan nor the UCI World Champion, just another feather in the eagle’s flapping wings. I didn’t hear the “Peter!” or “Sagan!” shouts that the rainbow stripes bring, especially being this far from the head of the race. It suited me to be anonymous, but if I thought that perception of anonymity stretched from the crowd to my rivals, then I was kidding myself. They knew I was still there and not warming my toes in the pits or in a nice hot bath at the hotel.
Two climbs of Salmon Hill remained. As we hit it for the penultimate time, the Netherlands injected an acceleration in the race as Tom Dumoulin smashed it up the road in true long-levered Dutch time-trialist style. The bunch was suddenly in a long line and halved in size. That was the last bus stop on the route for many, and they coasted in, their races run. But I was still there against all my expectations. With a lap to go. That guy started clanging that bell to tell us what we already knew. I’m wearing No. 1, but my last half hour as world champion was at hand.
Before the race, a lot of people had been talking about Julian Alaphilippe. This young French guy had already made a big mark on the sport with some daring attacks—precociously confident race-changing efforts—and had quickly obtained the respect of his more-garlanded and experienced Quick-Step teammates. His breakthrough season was 2015, when he was second to me at the Tour of California and also second at both La Flèche Wallonne and (most eyebrow-raising) Liège–Bastogne–Liège. For somebody to come so close to winning a Monument as long and as difficult as the world’s oldest bike race at the age of 22 is incredible. His career looked a bit like mine at first glance, but a proper look would show that he was a more accomplished climber than me with a lightning-quick uphill jump in his locker.
It was Alaphilippe who showed us a clean pair of carbon-fiber-soled shoes on the slopes of Salmon Hill the last time. The French were going mad. I was about 20 wheels back, trying to figure out what was going on. I could see a couple of favorites, maybe Philippe Gilbert or Niki Terpstra, trying to bridge, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know if we’d caught all the breakaways either. Confusion reigned, and there were just 10 kilometers left.
I can’t tell you how difficult it is to react to changes of pace after 250 kilometers compared to 150 kilometers, which is closer to the distance of, say, your average Grand Tour sprinters’ stage. It’s like a different sport. I looked around, still flabbergasted that I wasn’t one of those hopping off the bus, and saw plenty of fast guys left in with me. Matteo Trentin, Fernando Gaviria, Michael Matthews, Alexander Kristoff, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Ben Swift . . . these were all genuine bunch gallopers. That wasn’t good. At this stage of a long, hard race, I’d be really desperate for a breakaway group to be caught as I’d expect to be one of the fastest left. But I couldn’t guarantee an edge over these guys at my best, let alone when I’d been crouched over the hotel toilet a few hours earlier. Sure, I felt surprisingly OK now, but I had zero idea what would happen when I tried to sprint.
I tested my legs by showing my face at the front of the bunch for the first time since the start line six hours ago. The conventional wisdom with cornering on a bike is that you brake first, cut across the apex, then accelerate out. Trial and error—quite a few errors—have taught me that if you take it wide, you don’t need to brake, you get a sort of slingshot effect and come out quicker than the others. With Ben Swift trying to close the gap to however many riders were up the road, I used the technique to get up to him and try to affect the chase. Instantly, I remembered what it was like to be Peter Sagan as the race rode up to my wheel . . . and stayed there. Didn’t they want to catch these guys? There were about 4 kilometers to go now. Five minutes left as world champion.
I reckon there must have been about 15 guys left in my group. Later, we discovered that the TV coverage dropped out at this point, causing confusion and desperation at the finish and leading to fingernail destruction on an epic scale among the crowds and support staff.
With no visual evidence, I could probably spin you a yarn at this point about how I moved up alongside the bunch pulling a one-handed wheelie and launched a devastating attack that left everybody miles behind. I stopped on the penultimate corner to drink a beer and let them all catch up as I felt so bad at ruining everybody’s day.
The truth was that there was almost as much confusion in the bunch as there was in front of the blank television screen. As the finish sucked us nearer, we passed Vasil Kiryienka and my BORA-hansgrohe teammate Lukas Pöstlberger, representing Austria. Was that it? No. I hadn’t seen Alaphilippe. And I’m sure that I’d seen at least one Colombian farther up the road, either Rigoberto Urán or Fernando Gaviria or even both of them. Oh! Who’s that Danish guy? Who is actually leading this race? And will we catch them?
Just bury it, Peter, I told myself. You sprint for the line and worry about the position after. We were rocketing along the harbor now, and there was a left-hander then a right-hander, then a straight shot of about 300 meters to the finish line. My heart was in my mouth, I could taste blood. You’re this close, Peter. Don’t die wondering.
Alberto Bettiol was flat out on the front, and it was clear that this was the beginning of the sprint. Nothing cagey here. Everybody was on their own personal limit after six and a half hours, it still wasn’t clear if anybody was left out in front, and the earpiece that linked me to Ján Valach in the Slovakia team car behind us wasn’t helping as the dropout in live coverage had left the support caravan just as confused as those of us racing. There was no possibility of slowing down to look at my rivals. Bettiol was doing an amazing job for his fastest remaining Italian teammate, Matteo Trentin, but it was working for all of us who wanted to sprint. Shit, I don’t think I’ve ever been traveling so fast on a bike after 267 kilometers. I’ve hardly ever ridden 267 kilometers in my life, let alone felt like sprinting at the end of it.
I couldn’t hear myself think. The noise was insane. Prime reason was the man I’d positioned myself directly behind: Alexander Kristoff. This could be a career-defining moment for the local guy. He was seriously fast, especially when he could wind his powerful sprint up from a distance, and he had a great knack of holding his top speed. I’d looked at him, Trentin, Matthews, and all the others and decided that if I’d been betting on the winner, it would be Kristoff all the way. Really, he had been my favorite ever since the venue was announced years ago—I wasn’t going to change my mind with 500 meters to go.
We swung left. The way the yelling went up a notch, the way all those Viking screams spilled onto the circuit as Kristoff began his long acceleration, left me in no doubt that all the breakaways and attacks had come to nothing. We were sprinting for the right to wear that UCI rainbow jersey for a whole year to come. My UCI rainbow jersey. I like you, Alexander, you’re one of the good guys, but that is my jersey.
He judged the last 90-degree right-hander perfectly, already sprinting flat out. Bettiol was spent. My slingshot cornering technique was negated by Kristoff’s speed, but behind me I could sense a gap opening to Matthews, Trentin, and the others. They’d expected the sprint to open after the corner, and Kristoff’s clever acceleration had caught everybody out. It was me and him now. I just had to get past this big Norwegian guy. I’d done it before. But he’d done me before, too.
Three hundred meters is a hell of a long way to ride flat out. If it had been Mark Cavendish leading, I would have been confident of winning if only I could hold his wheel through his initial explosive acceleration. If there had been 20 of us fighting for space, I might have
