Remco Evenepoel is European champion. A two-man sprint against Giulio Ciccone, and it took the photo finish to separate them. Ciccone launched from far out, Remco was distanced at first, then came back at the end. Same time for both: 4:16:37, according to the unofficial classification. Christian Scaroni third, at 59 seconds.
A two-up sprint that starts from far out, I know that. Every Sunday, on the ride that leaves at twenty past nine, there is the Lasne sign on the way home. Nobody mentions it at the start, nobody prepares for it, and at eight hundred metres there is always Jean-Marc going. Too early. I let him go, I am distanced, I come back. Or I do not, it depends on the wind, which I get as a headwind both ways.
The difference is the photo finish. We do not have one. We have Jean-Marc, who says he won, and me, who says we can talk about it. We talk until the café, then at the café, then in the car park. Three weeks ago we tried with a colleague’s phone propped on the wall. We saw a hedge and half a front wheel. Whose wheel, nobody knows.
One thing I take from Sunday: there is a race where two men finish in the same time and somebody still makes the call. It is the last title Remco was missing, the European road championship. Tenth gold medal in an international championship, Games included. Me, I am still missing the Lasne sign, and I will not get it until the wall has a camera.
A phone on a wall is not a finish system. I note.
Take off Jean-Marc going too early, take off the hedge, take off the wind: then we can talk. At the café, we looked at the photo from Slovenia six times. Jean-Marc says it proves you have to go from far out.
It’s true, we checked: 7sur7.
